As the Dragon Bravo Fire climbed toward Grand Canyon Lodge, I tried to remember how many times I’d stood beside it. Was it five or six?
I visited the North Rim as a boy, took my kids there and returned after they moved away. The lodge was both way station and gateway to 277 miles of intricately exposed rock.
I felt impossibly small beside it.
I hugged my wife and children there in 2001 before running down to the Colorado River and lumbering back up.
I took solace from the pandemic there in 2020 before hiking rim-to-rim.
Most visitors to the North Rim went no further than the lodge. They never set foot on Bright Angel Trail or North Kaibab.
They didn’t have to. For better or worse, Grand Canyon Lodge democratized Arizona’s northern wilderness. The very young and the very old took part. I’m certain the lodge is featured in millions of family photo albums.
To learn more about its history, I invited author Tom Zoellner to write a eulogy of sorts. A former staff writer at The Republic, Zoellner wrote “Rim to River: Looking into the Heart of Arizona,” a remarkable literary exploration of the Grand Canyon State.
“While I’d had some significant conversations in the Sun Room and some nice suppers in the dining room, I didn’t really get to know the lodge until I walked southbound on the Arizona Trail in 2019,” Zoellner told me. “I spent the evening of my 51st birthday camping just to the west of the lodge in preparation for a hike through the Canyon, and woke up to one of the finest views in the whole of the American West after a four-day slog down from Buckskin Mountain on the Utah border.”
Remembering the lodge: Fire destroys North Rim Lodge, but not its singular place in the Grand Canyon’s story
Fire is no stranger to Grand Canyon
I’ve felt the same rush of blood and emotion waking up at the bottom of the Canyon.
“Though the settlement on the North Rim is sparse, it looked as dense and inviting as Hong Kong after even a short time spent alone in the pine and aspen woods,” Zoellner said. “It was easy to see why so many experienced Canyon travelers vastly preferred it to the South Rim.”
Since a lightning strike on July 4 ignited Dragon Bravo, Republic journalists have chronicled efforts to direct its course and limit its damage. We’ve mined National Park Service records and data to publish interactive illustrations and a series of insightful stories from The Republic’s talented climate and environment desk.
Some of the first onsite reporting of the lodge’s burned-out shell was done by reporter Stacey Barchenger and photographer Joe Rondone on a tour with Gov. Katie Hobbs and federal and state fire officials.
Readers have responded in extraordinary ways, sharing memories and photos with photo editor Michael Meister and associate news director Steve Kilar. With help from readers, we’ve published outtakes from nearly 100 years of family visits to the North Rim. All of the coverage can be found at azcentral.com.
Fire is no stranger to this sacred space. One of my favorite videos of the Dragon Bravo Fire’s progress was captured by photographer Michael Chow. With contributions from reporters Perry Vandell and Rey Covarrubias Jr., breaking news editor Michelle Cruz gave readers a look behind the lens in a story about Chow’s painstaking preparation.
Fire is nature’s reordering. We’re watching it take place in real time. Thanks to Tom Zoellner, we can reflect on the Canyon lodge’s past before learning more about its future.
Greg Burton is the executive editor of The Arizona Republic.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Dragon Bravo Fire burned the Grand Canyon Lodge, but not its legacy