Wildfire Burns Down Grand Canyon Lodge
A lightning-sparked wildfire along the canyon’s North Rim burned down the famous Grand Canyon Lodge on July 12.
A storm rolled into the area on the Fourth of July. Even though it rained, conditions on the ground remained dangerously dry. A lightning strike started the Dragon Bravo fire, with dry, windy conditions spreading the flames and making them UNPREDICTABLE.
The North Rim is breathtakingly beautiful but not visited as often as the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. With an average elevation of 8,000 feet, the North Rim stands 1,000 feet higher than the South Rim. While it attracts just 10 percent of the National Park’s visitors, that still adds up to 5 million North Rim visitors a year!
Fortunately, officials evacuated the area in time, including the Grand Canyon Lodge and its dozens of stand alone cabins. But firefighting crews were not able to defend the lodge and surrounding cabins. The lodge burned down along with 70–80 other structures. Smoke eerily filled parts of the canyon.
Surprisingly, this isn’t the first time the Grand Canyon Lodge burned down! In 1932, just four years after the lodge first opened, a kitchen fire destroyed the place. As of press time, more than 1,200 firefighters and support personnel are fighting the Dragon Bravo fire, which has burned more than 123,000 acres.
On July 9, lightning set off a second blaze 35 miles north of there. This wildfire is almost completely contained at 60,000 acres.
