Cutting our Christmas tree

The Forest Service sells tree-cutting permits for November 26th through December 12th in the Buffalo Creek Recreation Area, which is in the South Platte River Corridor, south of the town of Buffalo Creek. We bought our permit for the first day, the day after Thanksgiving, so we could have a picture with Smokey the Bear.


The day is beautiful with clear skies, lots of sun, and very light wind. Our neighbor, Mr. Jim, goes with us and tells us about the area. Driving south on Hwy 126 out of Buffalo Creek craggy peaks of burnt sienna rise above the tops of evergreen trees. The contrast of reddish brown Long Scraggy Peak and Little Scraggy against the carpet of dark green is beautiful. Then I see faces of hills bare except for large black toothpicks that look like heavy 5 o’clock stubble. The contrast of mountains covered in trees and mountains with only soil and burned trees is ugly.

The Buffalo Creek Burn of 1996 scorched almost 12,000 acres with high intensity heat. Two months later a 2.5-inch rain caused a flood when the damaged soil wasn’t able to absorb the moisture.

A few houses jut from the ground with a sparse sprinkling of trees left standing around their perimeter. Perhaps the owners wet down their property as the fire arrived. Perhaps the wind spared some areas at random.

Now, over fifteen years after the fire the wounds are still clearly visible. Most people living in this area had fire insurance, but not flood insurance so for many there was no way to recover their loss. House foundations dot the landscape.

We stop briefly at a park near our destination to pick up information so we can come back in the spring. We see mountain streams that trout fishermen visit. Leaving the park a large private ranch fills the valley and Mr. Jim says he believes that would be the perfect place to fish.

When we arrive at the park to find a tree our focus shifts. Cars line the sides of the road and people are out of their cars looking for trees, carrying trees, and setting up picnic tables and lawn chairs. I thought Black Friday would be slow as shoppers went into Denver, but people are here in mass, and don’t appear to be going anywhere soon.

A ranger asks if we’ve been before. We tell him this is our first time here, and first time to cut down a tree. His advice is to continue down the road 2 ½ to 3 miles until the traffic thins. Two miles down a pitted dirt road is a long way, everyone was well shaken when the line of parked cars ended.

Getting out of the car we figured 15 minutes and we’d have a tree bagged. An hour later we were still crisscrossing the hills looking. We’d find a tree that was ¾ great, the problem was that ¼ that would be a big gap. And if we found a tree that we thought might be it, we’d lose sight of it as we walked and called out to each other to get another opinion.

We finally decided to walk together .Two other families were looking in the same area. They pointed out directions they’d checked without luck. We decided to look for a taller tree that was well shaped, and we’d cut off the bottom. When we had it to two trees we walked between them 5 or 6 times then took made our choice. Tad, Mr. Jim, Grant and Justin all helped to hold and saw down the tree. Then we split up to carry the tree, the tree remains, and the equipment.

Getting the tree on the roof of the car was another adventure. The tree wasn’t heavy, but it needed to be wrapped in a tarp so it wouldn’t lose all of its branches, then it needed to be tied down so it wouldn’t fly off the car.


Riding home we saw a restaurant with a parking lot full of car, each with a Christmas tree tied to the top. Inside we waited patiently, first for our table and then for our food. By the time food arrived when each had a couple of glasses of water and sniffed as much aroma as possible from neighboring tables.

Getting home and untying the tree was like opening a package. We were surprised all over at how even it was—and to our surprise how tall. Tad cut off several feet and stripped the branches. I tied the branches into a circle and made my homemade wreath for the door. For our $10 permit we got an 8+ foot tree, a wreath, a day outside, and memories we can revisit whenever we want.