The viewing deck of the Grand Canyon Lodge in 2023. Photo by Wendel Withrow.
Aug. 22, 2025
Natural d isasters happen so fast.
Whether it’s a cool quiet Hill Country stream turning into a raging river or a random summer lightning strike at one of America’s great National Parks, July 2025 will be remembered for its tragedies, destruction and even heroism.
While the carnage from a catastrophic flood was still being uncovered in Texas, a small naturally started fire on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon drew little attention.
Natural fires happen a lot there. The Grand Canyon is the National Park with the second most fires, after the Everglades.
This particular fire was in a rugged area scheduled for a controlled burn anyway. The fire was burning in a little visited part of the park with deep ravines and heavy underbrush. The perfect place to grow into a nasty wildfire that would be hard to extinguish.
It started small and had an equally small number of firefighters watching and “containing” it. These unsung heroes protect thousands of acres with inadequate resources so you and I can hike and visit in comfort.
But then the wind rose from an unusual northwesterly direction and the small fire flared into an inferno, jumped the fire lines and headed directly over the ridge for the historic Grand Canyon Lodge. Over the decades, the Lodge, built in 1937, had became a destination for a tight community of employees and the faithful travelers to the North Rim, who visit year after year for its peacefulness and lack of crowds.
After this day, there will be no travelers or employees for many months and even years to the Lodge, which burned along with more than 100 buildings in the Dragon Bravo Fire, the seventh largest wildfire in Arizona history. As of press time, the fire is still ongoing.
By a stroke of good luck, a fire to the north, near the crossroads stop of Jacob Lake, had already caused the North Rim to be evacuated by the only road going from Jacob Lake to the North Rim. The road has been a regular path of huge uncontrollable wildfires. If no such evacuation had already been started, the employees, hikers and all others at the North Rim would have been trapped, pinned against the mile deep canyon. Their only hope of escape would have been into the canyon using the North Kaibab Trail. But the trailhead is more than a mile from the Lodge, its surrounding cabins and the employee housing. Reaching it would have been impossible.
REBUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME
Thankfully, unlike the Texas Hill Country, the North Rim was spared human fatalities. However, the fire destroyed a historic place many of us ‘canyoneers’ visited and revered. It was a place of solitude and awe-inspiring views that were the backdrop of an untold number of special family occasions or solo trips to escape the ‘real’ world outside. With its nurturing and spectacular vistas, the North Rim was a religious experience.
The good news is that the Lodge and cabins will eventually be rebuilt much the same as the Notre Dame Cathedral was rebuilt. It will probably have a better fire resistance system like Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone. We can hope for future days sitting on the rocking chairs or feasting in the magnificent dining room, peering into the heart of the Grand Canyon at sunset with friends and family.
But for now, we will love and cherish those memories on the North Rim and enjoy the Grand Canyon from the South Rim. The North Rim Lodge may be gone for a season, but the Colorado River and the Canyon will always be there for those intrepid souls lucky enough to peer into its abyss.
But always be wary… natural disasters happen so fast — especially in an environment already stressed by warming temperatures.