South Rim mayor reminds tourists that Grand Canyon is open for business despite fires

PHOENIX — As a wildfire ravages the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, a local mayor wants to remind tourists that the South Rim is still open for business.

“We’re very mindful and sensitive to what’s going on in the North Rim, but we know how people from all over our country and all over the world, that their destination is the Grand Canyon,” Tusayan Mayor Clarinda Vail told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News on Tuesday. “And so we still want them to be able to come and see the Grand Canyon.”

The Dragon Bravo Fire has burned about 8,600 acres and destroyed more than 70 structures, including the historic Grand Canyon Lodge. No containment has been reported as of Tuesday morning.

Vail said her town is being impacted by confusion due to the fire closing the North Rim for the remainder of the 2025 visitor season.

“People don’t understand the difference between the North and the South Rim and those things to understand that the Grand Canyon National Park is still open at the South Rim,” Vail said.

The Grand Canyon National Park covers a total of 1,904 square miles in northern Arizona. The town of Tusayan sits just outside the south entrance of the park.

National Park Service employees who work on the North Rim have been evacuated due to the fire. Tusayan has taken them in, housing them in the Horace Albright Training Center. Vail said this is due to a kinship shared between everyone who lives in and around the Grand Canyon.

“So many people were directly connected,” Vail said. “There’s just one Grand Canyon National Park, a South Rim and a North Rim and we’re very connected.”

South Rim mayor responds to calls for investigation

After the Dragon Bravo Fire sparked on July 4, crews managed it using a “confine and contain strategy” to allow for fuel sources to be cleared. After the fire rapidly grew a week later, crews switched and began fighting it more aggressively.

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is now calling on the federal government to investigate the National Park Service’s initial response to the Dragon Bravo Fire.

Vail said it is too soon for her to have an opinion about a possible investigation, but the many correct decisions were still made.

“We’ve just seen it all,” Vail said. “It takes just the wrong wind or anything for something to happen, and I guess what I would say is with no loss of life, it is still all very tragic, but at least we’re not having a conversation that anyone lost their life. So, I think a lot of right decisions were made that everyone got out safely.”

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