logo
Wildfire Forces Full Closure of Grand Canyon's North Rim for Summer 2025

Wildfire Forces Full Closure of Grand Canyon's North Rim for Summer 2025

Each year, nearly 5 million visitors are drawn to the staggering vistas of Grand Canyon National Park—many arriving during the heart of summer. But on July 13, the park's remote North Rim closed for the remainder of the summer 2025 season due to a wildfire that consumed Grand Canyon Lodge, the only in-park lodging on the North Rim, and several other structures.
The fire has also led to the closure of all the park's inner canyon corridor trails and campgrounds. Officials have not yet announced when access will be restored.
A July 13 news release from the National Park Service reported both the complete loss of the lodge and the closure of the North Rim, including popular inner-canyon trails like North Kaibab Trail, South Kaibab Trail, and Bright Angel Trail below Havasupai Gardens. Phantom Ranch, a historic lodge at the base of the canyon that many visitors hike to, is also closed until further notice.
The more visited South Rim part of the park remains open. According to the Grand Canyon National Park website, the North Rim is visited by only 10 percent of all park visitors.
The fire, called the Dragon Bravo Fire, began on July 4 as a result of a lightning strike within Grand Canyon National Park. It was originally well confined and contained, but on the evening of July 12, it progressed rapidly due to 20 m.p.h. winds and gusts reaching up to 40 m.p.h. According to reporting by the Associated Press, the fire grew by nearly eight times within a day and has currently consumed over 70 structures, including several historic cabins, employee housing, administrative offices, and visitor facilities.
The North Rim's only lodge, the now destroyed Grand Canyon Lodge, was originally built in 1928 before being burned down in 1932 and reconstructed in 1937.
A water treatment facility on the North Rim was also damaged, releasing chlorine gas the afternoon of July 12, according to Wildfire.gov, the U.S. government's wildland fire information portal. No injuries or loss of life have been reported and everyone has been evacuated.
'The fire is being managed with an aggressive full suppression strategy. Fire behavior is still very active, driven by hot temperatures, low relative humidity, and continued strong wind gusts,' stated the July 13 press release.
At the time of publication the fire has spread across 8,570 acres and is 0 percent contained, according to Wildfire.gov.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Trump's trip to Scotland as his new golf course opens blurs politics and the family's business
Trump's trip to Scotland as his new golf course opens blurs politics and the family's business

Fox Sports

time4 hours ago

  • Fox Sports

Trump's trip to Scotland as his new golf course opens blurs politics and the family's business

Associated Press EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — Lashed by cold winds and overlooking choppy, steel-gray North Sea waters, the breathtaking sand dunes of Scotland's northeastern coast rank among Donald Trump 's favorite spots on earth. 'At some point, maybe in my very old age, I'll go there and do the most beautiful thing you've ever seen," Trump said in 2023, during his New York civil fraud trial, talking about his plans for future developments on his property in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire. At 79 and back in the White House, Trump is making at least part of that pledge a reality, traveling to Scotland on Friday as his family's business prepares for the Aug. 13 opening of a new course it is billing as 'the greatest 36 holes in golf." While there, Trump will talk trade with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a meeting he's said will take place at 'probably one of my properties.' The Aberdeen area is already home to another of his courses, Trump International Scotland, and the president also plans to visit a Trump course near Turnberry, around 200 miles (320 kilometers) away on Scotland's southwest coast. Using this week's presidential overseas trip — with its sprawling entourage of advisers, White House and support staffers, Secret Service agents and reporters — to help show off Trump-brand golf destinations demonstrates how the president has become increasingly comfortable intermingling his governing pursuits with promoting his family's business interests. The White House has brushed off questions about potential conflicts of interest, arguing that Trump's business success before he entered politics was a key to his appeal with voters. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers called the Scotland swing a 'working trip." But she added that Trump 'has built the best and most beautiful world-class golf courses anywhere in the world, which is why they continue to be used for prestigious tournaments and by the most elite players in the sport.' Trump family's new golf course has tee times for sale Trump went to Scotland to play his Turnberry course during his first term in 2018 while en route to a meeting in Finland with Russian President Vladimir Putin. This time, his trip comes as the new golf course is about to debut and is already actively selling tee times. It's not cheap for the president to travel. The helicopters that operate as Marine One when the president is on board cost between $16,700 and nearly $20,000 per hour to operate, according to Pentagon data for fiscal year 2022. The modified Boeing 747s that serve as the iconic Air Force One cost about $200,000 per hour to fly. That's not to mention the military cargo aircraft that fly ahead of the president with his armored limousines and other official vehicles. 'We're at a point where the Trump administration is so intertwined with the Trump business that he doesn't seem to see much of a difference,' said Jordan Libowitz, vice president and spokesperson for the ethics watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. 'It's as if the White House were almost an arm of the Trump Organization.' During his first term, the Trump Organization signed an ethics pact barring deals with foreign companies. An ethics frameworks for Trump's second term allows them. Trump's assets are in a trust run by his children, who are also handling day-to-day operations of the Trump Organization while he's in the White House. The company has inked many recent, lucrative foreign agreements involving golf courses, including plans to build luxury developments in Qatar and Vietnam, even as the administration continues to negotiate tariff rates for those countries and around the globe. Trump's first Aberdeen course has sparked legal battles Trump's existing Aberdeenshire course, meanwhile, has a history nearly as rocky as the area's cliffs. It has struggled to turn a profit and was found by Scottish conservation authorities to have partially destroyed nearby sand dunes. Trump's company also was ordered to cover the Scottish government's legal costs after the course unsuccessfully sued over the construction of a nearby wind farm, arguing in part that it hurt golfers' views. And the development was part of the massive civil case, which accused Trump of inflating his wealth to secure loans and make business deals. Trump's company's initial plans for his first Aberdeen-area course called for a luxury hotel and nearby housing. His company received permission to build 500 houses, but Trump suggested he'd be allowed to build five times as many and borrowed against their values without actually building any homes, the lawsuit alleged. Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump liable last year and ordered his company to pay $355 million in fines — a judgment that has grown with interest to more than $510 million as Trump appeals. Golfers-in-chief Family financial interests aside, Trump isn't the first sitting U.S. president to golf in Scotland. That was Dwight D. Eisenhower, who played in Turnberry in 1959. George W. Bush visited the famed course at Gleneagles in 2005 but didn't play. Many historians trace golf back to Scotland in the Middle Ages. Among the earliest known references to game was a Scottish Parliament resolution in 1457 that tried to ban it, along with soccer, because of fears both were distracting men from practicing archery — then considered vital to national defense. The first U.S. president to golf regularly was William Howard Taft, who served from 1909 to 1913 and ignored warnings from his predecessor, Teddy Roosevelt, that playing too much would make it seem like he wasn't working hard enough. Woodrow Wilson played nearly every day but Sundays, and even had the Secret Service paint his golf balls red so he could practice in the snow, said Mike Trostel, director of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Warren G. Harding trained his dog Laddie Boy to fetch golf balls while he practiced. Lyndon B. Johnson's swing was sometimes described as looking like a man trying to kill a rattlesnake. Bill Clinton, who liked to joke that he was the only president whose game improved while in office, restored a putting green on the White House's South Lawn. It was originally installed by Eisenhower, who was such an avid user that he left cleat marks in the wooden floors of the Oval Office by the door leading out to it. Bush stopped golfing after the start of the Iraq war in 2003 because of the optics. Barack Obama had a golf simulator installed in the White House that Trump upgraded during his first term, Trostel said. John F. Kennedy largely hid his love of the game as president, but he played on Harvard's golf team and nearly made a hole-in-one at California's renowned Cypress Point Golf Club just before the 1960 Democratic National Convention. 'I'd say, between President Trump and President John F. Kennedy, those are two of the most skilled golfers we've had in the White House,' Trostel said. Trump, Trostel said, has a handicap index — how many strokes above par a golfer is likely to score — of a very strong 2.5, though he's not posted an official round with the U.S. Golf Association since 2021. That's better than Joe Biden's handicap of 6.7, which also might be outdated, and Obama, who once described his own handicap as an 'honest 13.' The White House described Trump as a championship-level golfer but said he plays with no handicap. ___ Associated Press writer Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report. in this topic

Are animals leaving Yellowstone National Park in ‘mass exodus'? NPS weighs in
Are animals leaving Yellowstone National Park in ‘mass exodus'? NPS weighs in

Miami Herald

time12 hours ago

  • Miami Herald

Are animals leaving Yellowstone National Park in ‘mass exodus'? NPS weighs in

After videos suggesting wildlife is fleeing Yellowstone National Park in a 'mass exodus' went viral on social media, the National Park Service is setting the record straight. The satirical videos started spreading in early July after a social media influencer and self-proclaimed 'animal expert' and 'everything expert' known as Scott Whitehead shared them to his accounts. The videos show mountain lions, grizzly bears and bison migrating out of the park in droves. Whitehead jokingly claims hundreds of the animals are 'heading south to Salt Lake City, Utah' and that the migrations are 'baffling the scienlific experts.' In another video showing dozens of what Whitehead calls 'grizzle bears' walking along roads, the internet troll claims park experts believe bison will be the next to migrate and that they've hired a 'Dr. Rimi Dimi' to crack the case. Some commented suggesting the animals 'sense something,' such as activity from a supervolcano underneath the park — or the 'last days of the Earth' as Whitehead suggests in some of the videos. Several people also commented on the satirical nature of the videos. 'Best trolling I've seen in a while,' someone commented under one of the videos. 'It's actually concerning to me how many people think this guy is being serious,' another person said in the comments. The National Park Service shared photos of bison in the park in a July 23 post on Instagram. 'Is there a mass exodus of animals going on in Yellowstone?' the agency said in the post. 'You may have seen videos or 'herd' online that the bison population in Yellowstone was leaving. That is false.' While bison certainly do live and travel in herds and 'migrate between different areas of Yellowstone throughout the year, they have not been exiting the park on any wild weekend getaways or relocating for work,' the park service said. And those migrations have been happening less this year, the agency said. 'With minimal bison-human interactions this year … frequent flier miles earned by bison meet and greets have been limited leading to more staycations,' officials said, adding that they hope the less frequent bison-human conflicts are the result of visitors 'respecting wildlife' because of the park service's 'ongoing 'don't pet that because it will hurt you' campaign.' 'In conclusion, as Abraham Lincoln once said, 'don't believe everything you see on tiktok,' the agency said. 'Something like that.'

Top travel destination wages weird war against so-called ‘indecent' swimwear — but it's not bikinis they're mad about
Top travel destination wages weird war against so-called ‘indecent' swimwear — but it's not bikinis they're mad about

New York Post

time2 days ago

  • New York Post

Top travel destination wages weird war against so-called ‘indecent' swimwear — but it's not bikinis they're mad about

Everybody out! A top Mediterranean beach destination is blowing the whistle on an 'indecent' form of swimwear — claiming that the allegedly revealing style favored by tourists 'disturbs the population.' But in the North African resort of Chetaïbi, Algeria, known for turquoise waters, rocky coves and forested hills, it's not women in skimpy bikinis that have local officials crying out for a cover-up. Advertisement 3 Chetaïbi is known for its turquoise waters, rocky coves and forested hills. Billal Bensalem/NurPhoto via Getty Images This time, it's the men who have been found guilty of inflaming the passions of the purportedly prudish populace — with their apparent affinity for Bermuda shorts. The town's mayor issued an order banning male beachgoers from wearing the tempting trunks — mandating a return to the longer, looser style said to be preferred by conservative beachgoers in this part of the world. Advertisement The municipality of 8,000 residents welcomes hordes of visitors every summer — tourism being an important part of the local economy. 'The mood is warm, welcoming, colorful, bustling — no hostility toward bathers, not in words, not in looks. People here have a tradition of hospitality,' Salah Edine Bey, a longtime resident, told the Associated Press. There was never much controversy — until earlier this month, when Mayor Layachi Allaoua had apparently, very literally, seen enough. 3 The town's mayor issued an order that bans beachgoers from wearing Bermuda shorts. AP Advertisement 'These summer outfits disturb the population, they go against our society's moral values and sense of decency,' the hot-and-bothered Hizzoner announced, per AP. 'The population can no longer tolerate seeing foreigners wandering the streets in indecent clothing,' he said. The proclamation immediately sparked considerable local backlash — including in the regional capital Annaba, where lawmakers urged a reversal of the decision. 3 Chetaïbi is on Algeria's Mediterranean coastline. Eric Lafforgue/Art in All of Us/Corbis via Getty Images Advertisement Within just two days, the mayor backtracked — taking to Facebook to insist that the decree was not driven by conservative pressure, but rather a hope to preserve 'peace and tranquility.' Algeria has struggled with Islamism for decades. The country endured a civil war that killed an estimated 200,000 people. In 1991, the army canceled elections that were going to be won by an Islamist party. 'Even though Islamists lost the war in the 1990s, they never gave up on their invasive and intrusive ideological project, which has gained ground in society,' sociologist Redouane Boudjemaâ told the AP. For some people, this order on men's swimwear reminded them of the times when Islamist-run municipalities tried to alter the public life in Algeria with its religious doctrine. While Islamist parties don't do well in elections, they still play a role in Algerian daily life. Said Boukhlifa, a former senior official at the Ministry of Tourism, warned against conservative creep — saying it could ultimately hurt the country's hopes to attract more vacationers to its shores.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store