Wildfires have destroyed a historic hotel in the Grand Canyon

RadishRose

RadishRose

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Connecticut, USA
Historic lodge on Grand Canyon North Rim destroyed by wildfire

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Grand Canyon National Park officials said preliminary assessments indicated that "between 50 to 80 structures" have been lost, including park service administrative buildings and visitor facilities.

https://www.axios.com/2025/07/14/grand-canyon-wildfire-lodge-dragon-bravo-fire-north-rim
 

I liked visiting the Grand Canyon as a child, There are some lovely photos that my mother took at the time. One is of me standing at a little stone wall going down the canyon. We stayed at a lodge but not sure it was so fancy as this one.
 

Some federal authorities handling that wildfire should be fired for incompetence. Go skewer them governor. I don't know the details yet, however they were treating the lightning caused fire like a controlled burn for many days and then weather changed with a hot spell and wind arose. If all those many destroyed buildings were in danger, then they should have been protecting the infrastructure days ahead of when they caught fire, as they had all the time to prepare doing so. Instead, were surprised like morons and then just watched it all burn.
 
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Aunt Bea said:
I was reading that the lodge burned once before in 1932 and was rebuilt to the original floor plan.

I hope that they are able to rebuild it.

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/grand-canyon-lodge-history.htm
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The Grand Canyon gets nearly 4 million visitors a year, and takes in anywhere from $700m to a billion dollars in revenue. Hopefully, that money isn't squandered every year.

To be honest, I think they've built too much unnecessary high-dollar stuff around there. Like the glass walk - I don't remember what it's called. For a pretty hefty fee (imo), you can walk out over this one little part of the canyon and look down at it through a glass walkway, but it doesn't go out very far at all, looks like maybe 15ft, and the glass is always so dirty you can barely see through it.

I think it's better to keep it as natural as possible and still have conveniences for visitors. But mainly keep it clean and safe.
 
Murrmurr said:
The Grand Canyon gets nearly 4 million visitors a year, and takes in anywhere from $700m to a billion dollars in revenue. Hopefully, that money isn't squandered every year.

To be honest, I think they've built too much unnecessary high-dollar stuff around there. Like the glass walk - I don't remember what it's called. For a pretty hefty fee (imo), you can walk out over this one little part of the canyon and look down at it through a glass walkway, but it doesn't go out very far at all, looks like maybe 15ft, and the glass is always so dirty you can barely see through it.

I think it's better to keep it as natural as possible and still have conveniences for visitors. But mainly keep it clean and safe.
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By some estimates as much as 94% of the approximately 1,904 square miles (1,218,376 acres) are managed as forever wild with no or limited public access.

It’s hard to get exact numbers because there are some tribal lands, old mines, etc…

I don’t see any harm in rebuilding a hotel that has already existed for over 100 years.

I might agree with you if there was some sort of a plan to expand public access into other areas of the park.
 
@Murrmurr …I think you will find the sky walk is tribal owned and ran. There has been very very little new built in the park itself. The parks businesses are ran by concessions…these businesses compete for…then run these businesses sometimes for years. There are very strict guidelines for what they can and cannot do. Building new buildings usually not in the plan.
 
Inciweb: DB fire update 7/14/25

Acres: 5,716 Start Date: July 4, 2025

Location: Grand Canyon North Rim Cause: Lightning

Personnel: 295 Fuels: Mixed conifer, aspen regeneration and ponderosa pine

Containment: 0%

Latest Update: Fire activity on the Dragon Bravo Fire remains high-to-extreme with heavy fire activity occurring overnight. More than 70 structures on the North Rim, including the Grand Canyon Lodge, were lost during the weekend’s fire activity. Crews are working daytime and nighttime operational shifts. More resources are being directed toward the Dragon Bravo Fire, and heavy aerial resource use will continue as part of an aggressive full suppression strategy. Closures and evacuations remain in place.

Ongoing & Planned Operations: Southwest Area Complex Incident Management Team 4 assumed command of the fire at 6:00 a.m. Firefighter and public safety is the number one priority of the Dragon Bravo Fire. Firefighters are working to preserve remaining structures on the North Rim and protect cultural and natural resources within Grand Canyon National Park. A hazmat response is mitigating effects from Saturday’s chlorine gas leak at the water treatment facility.

Watch Duty: DB fire update

A chlorine leak from the local water treatment plant forced firefighters to be evacuated from the fire lines for their own safety, perhaps leading to the loss of the Lodge.
 
Muskrat said:
@Murrmurr …I think you will find the sky walk is tribal owned and ran. There has been very very little new built in the park itself. The parks businesses are ran by concessions…these businesses compete for…then run these businesses sometimes for years. There are very strict guidelines for what they can and cannot do. Building new buildings usually not in the plan.
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Yes, I'm aware of all that. My kids and I lived in Arizona and Colorado back in the 80s, and we visited the Grand Canyon (and Monument Valley, Hoover Dam and a few dinosaur digs) numerous times. It changed a lot when I took my grandkids there some 20 years later. To me, it felt commercialized, and that felt wrong.

You call it very very little, I call it unnecessary. Just a difference of opinion.
 

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