Hundreds of tourists meander around Mather Point on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, snapping selfies, shooting videos and taking in one of the most awe-inspiring views in the world.
The excitement of seeing the canyon is palpable and people "ooo" and "ahh" in a mix of international languages. It seems like a typical day in July, which is peak tourist season at the Grand Canyon. But on the other side the canyon, looms a 25,000-foot pyrocumulus cloud created by the Dragon Bravo Fire.
"Driving on up I saw the plumage, didn't think much, hadn't put it together with the fire yet but I thought, 'That looks like fire,'" says David Brombaugh.
He and his wife, Joyce Brombaugh, are from the Seattle area and are visiting the canyon for the first time.
"I didn't expect it was as big of a wildfire," says Joyce. "I thought it was just a small thing, but it sounds like a big deal."
"And it looks like a big deal," says David. "It's actually pretty amazing to see it."
Others along the rim seem oblivious to the wildfire, which has reached more than 105,000 acres. But Lisa Jennings, a spokesperson for the Southwest Area Incident Management Team that is battling the wildfire, still gets lots of questions from passersby.
"You can't come to the Grand Canyon right now without looking at the Dragon Bravo Fire," she says. "There's a lot of concerns, you know? We talk to a lot of kids who say, 'Is this fire going to burn over here?' And, you know, it won't."
The best firebreak in the world
The wildfire—one the few to burn more than 100,000 acres this summer—is burning on the more remote North Rim 11 miles away. At 8,000 feet in elevation, the area is more of an alpine environment than the more famous South Rim and receives only a fraction of the park's visitors.
And in between is what Jennings calls the "best firebreak in the world": the rugged, mile-deep Grand Canyon itself. But even though the wildfire poses little danger to the most populated areas of the park, it has grown by tens of thousands of acres every day as winds pummel dry forest fuels and humidity has reached record lows for weeks.
"The tactics and strategies that we would typically use to fight fire just aren't as effective when you get these 150-foot, 200-foot flame lengths and sparks shooting out a mile," says Jennings.
Those hot, dry and windy conditions that caused the Dragon Bravo Fire to grow so rapidly are forecast to continue at least into next week.
Controversial from the start
Lightning ignited the wildfire on July 4th and officials initially allowed it to burn for forest health—a common practice in the West's fire-adapted ecosystems.
But a week later it exploded in size, burning the iconic Grand Canyon Lodge and displacing hundreds of park employees and others. Eventually it destroyed up to 80 structures, including worker housing, and it has now become one of the largest wildfires in recorded state history.
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and U.S. Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego have called for an independent investigation into why managers did not immediately extinguish the fire during the region's hottest and driest months.
For its part, the National Park Service has defended its management decisions and has said they were based on the best available science at the time.
"With the fire still actively burning, our focus is on putting the Dragon Bravo Fire out effectively while keeping people and park resources safe," said the agency in an emailed statement. "The Dragon Bravo Fire remains an extremely active and dynamic situation."
Park Service policy requires every wildland fire on its lands to undergo some form of internal review.
"Right now, we are documenting all of the decision-making and, really, we support the firefighters who are out there and actually doing the work on the ground," says Joelle Baird, public affairs officer for Grand Canyon National Park.
Regardless of what scrutiny is to come, there is little doubt that parts of the North Rim's landscape will be forever changed by the Dragon Bravo Fire.
"In the high forests there we've had species isolated for a long time that have become their own unique form like the Kaibab squirrel," says Taylor McKinnon, Southwest director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "It's also got a lot of old growth up there, especially the ponderosa pine old growth."
McKinnon says the North Rim contains some of the last-standing ancient forest in the region after most of the Arizona's old-growth ponderosa was wiped out by logging in the 1900s.
He is also worried that the fire could decimate a population of Apache trout, Arizona's state fish. But McKinnon says Dragon Bravo could also benefit some parts of this landscape that likely have not burned in more than 100 years.
"I think there's some cause for cautious optimism in some cases with regard to the forest," says McKinnon. "And there are some cases where I think we need to get ready for some significant changes from what we're used to seeing up there."
Copyright 2025 NPR