Trail reports

Everyone is watching the Dome Fire, so two ordinary closures are going unnoticed. The trail between the wilderness center and Lembert Dome is shut for construction, with an alternate available. And a trail along the Merced River is closed on weekdays through December for bridge work, which means a midweek trip and a weekend trip are different trips. Both are on the park's conditions page, below the fire notice where nobody is reading.

The Timber Fire started on August 9 and has reached 25,443 acres at 59 percent containment, with 704 personnel still assigned as of mapping done this morning. The Plaskett Fire started August 26, reached 29,993 acres and is 97 percent contained. Both are on the Los Padres National Forest.

Between them that is roughly 55,000 acres, against the Dome Fire's 3,795. The Dome Fire has had national coverage since the day it started, because it is inside Yosemite and visible from a road that tourists drive. The Los Padres fires are in country that people from Los Angeles and the Central Coast actually use, and they have been burning for six and seven weeks with a fraction of the attention.

That imbalance is worth naming because it has a practical cost. If you are planning anything on the Los Padres this autumn — Big Sur backcountry, the Ventana, the coastal ranges — the closures and the burn damage from these two are far more likely to affect you than anything in Yosemite.

Fire in this country leaves problems behind for years rather than weeks. Burned slopes above trails shed rock, root-burned trees fall without warning in the first winter storms, and drainages that carried a trickle can move debris after the first serious rain. A containment figure is not a reopening, and a reopening is not a return to how it was.

Check the forest's own alert page before committing to a route. Both fires are logged on the interagency incident system with daily updates, which is more current than anything a news site will carry once a fire stops being novel.

The closure order the Yosemite superintendent issued last week runs until 11:59pm on Wednesday, September 23 — tonight — unless otherwise extended by a subsequent order. That conditional wording has been there from the start, and with the fire still growing it should be read as a minimum rather than a reopening date. Check the park's closures page before you plan around it.

Interagency mapping done this morning puts the fire at 3,795 acres with containment holding at 15 percent and 840 personnel assigned, up from 784 yesterday. Cal Fire's Tuesday evening figure was 3,683 acres. The fire has grown every day since it started on September 15 and has not lost containment while doing it.

The behaviour has changed for the better. The incident team describes the fire spreading north toward the 2017 Empire Fire footprint at a low to moderate rate, creeping and smouldering rather than making runs. Handlines on the western side are holding, and crews have made progress in the Turner Ridge and Empire Meadows area, which is where the spot fires were.

The weather is about to work against that. The cloud that brought cooler conditions and a chance of thunderstorms earlier in the week is moving out, with higher temperatures and drying conditions forecast. Fires in cured fuel respond to that quickly.

The closed area remains Chilnualna Falls, the routes from the top of the falls toward Buena Vista and Crescent lakes, the Ostrander Lake Trail and everything south of it, and the ground east of the Wawona Road between Wawona and Chinquapin. Both lakes are still reachable from the east, every road is open, and there have been no evacuation orders at any point.

One planning note that applies well beyond this fire: a confirmed room, campsite or entrance reservation does not confirm that the hike you booked it for is possible. Check the route, the overnight arrangements and the smoke forecast together.

A procession of first responders accompanied the two pilots killed on Sunday from Mariposa Airport to Modesto on Monday. Firefighters, law enforcement officers and other first responders from across the country stood along the route. Greg King, 56, and Ryan Cutter were doing bucket work on the Dome Fire when their Type 1 helicopter went down southeast of Ostrander Lake. The FAA and NTSB are investigating and have released no cause. The incident team has ordered critical incident stress management support for crews still working the fire.

A Type 1 helicopter doing bucket work on the Dome Fire crashed on Sunday afternoon, killing both pilots aboard. They have been identified as Greg King, 56, and Ryan Cutter. The aircraft, a Eurocopter Super Puma operated by the Oregon company Fly Precision under contract to the Forest Service, went down southeast of Ostrander Lake.

Bucket work means scooping water from a lake or river and dropping it on the fire, flown low and repeatedly over burning ground. The crew had been contracted to the Forest Service's Price Valley Rappel Crew in Idaho and were supporting a helitack rappel operation, the specialised work of putting firefighters into terrain that cannot be reached any other way. That is the job this fire has demanded from the start, because almost none of its perimeter can be walked to.

The remains of both pilots were recovered on Monday and taken to the Mariposa County coroner's office under an honour escort, with firefighters lining the route. The incident team has ordered critical incident stress management support for crews still on the fire.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating. The NTSB has said its personnel will reach the site when fire conditions allow, which is its own comment on where this fire is burning. No cause has been released and none should be assumed.

Fly Precision said in a statement that it was devastated and asked for privacy for the families. The Alaska Division of Forestry and Fire Protection, which identified King, described him as a dedicated aviator and a friend to many of its staff.

This paper has spent a week reporting the Dome Fire as a closure and an inconvenience, which for everyone reading it is what it has been. For the people working it, it is not that.

The Park Service expanded the closure on Monday. The Ostrander Lake Trail and all areas and trails south of it are now shut, on top of the Chilnualna Falls trail and the routes from the top of the falls toward Buena Vista and Crescent lakes. The closed area still extends east of the Wawona Road between Wawona and Chinquapin. Both lakes remain reachable from the east.

The latest federal perimeter puts the fire at 3,420 acres with 15 percent containment and 784 personnel assigned. The park's own Monday morning figure was 3,222 acres, 15 percent and 581 personnel; the difference is when each was last measured rather than a disagreement.

The fire has moved north into the footprint of the 2017 Empire Fire, and that is the detail the incident team keeps returning to. Heavy dead and down fuel inside an old burn scar is receptive to spotting, which is why embers landing ahead of the front have been the main problem rather than the front itself. Crews have been flying hotshot crews into the Empire footprint and working direct hand line in the Bridalveil and Alder Creek drainages where natural barriers help.

There is an upside to the same fact. A large recent burn scar now sits between the fire and Wawona, and as long as the fire stays above the canyon rim, the incident team does not anticipate a threat to the community. There have been no evacuation orders or warnings at any point.

Air quality is the part that reaches everyone else. Wawona has been running unhealthy for sensitive groups with periods of unhealthy outright; Yosemite Valley has been unhealthy for sensitive groups; Hodgdon Meadow and Tuolumne Meadows moderate. Every road into and through the park remains open.

The latest interagency mapping puts the Dome Fire at 3,047 acres with 15 percent containment, measured Sunday evening. That is up from 1,177 acres and no containment on Wednesday. Five hundred and eighty-one personnel are assigned, against 187 last week, and the cause remains undetermined.

Figures reported over the weekend varied between roughly 2,200 and 3,000 acres depending on when each source last mapped. The number above is the most recent federal perimeter, which is the one this paper tracks.

The Park Service has now drawn the closure precisely. The Chilnualna Falls trail is shut, along with the trails from the top of the falls toward Buena Vista and Crescent lakes, and the closed area extends east of the Wawona Road from Wawona up to Chinquapin. Both lakes remain reachable from the east. Reporting has differed on the expiry date, and the park's own conditions page carries no end date at all, so treat it as open-ended and check before you drive.

Every road is open: Wawona Road, El Portal Road, Big Oak Flat Road, the valley roads and Hetch Hetchy. There have been no evacuation orders or warnings at any point, and Wawona has not been under threat. The fire has been moving away from the community since it started.

Smoke is the part that will reach most people. The park warns of smoky conditions with periods of unhealthy air, heaviest around El Portal and Wawona and reaching into Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows at times. Forecasters expected warmer temperatures, lower humidity and ridge gusts of 15 to 20 mph over the weekend, which is the combination that moves a fire like this.

A footnote that says something about the place: the Wawona Hotel, built in 1856 and the oldest lodging in any national park, has been closed since December 2024 after roof work uncovered structural failure. It is shut for reasons entirely unrelated to the fire, and it is shut all the same.

The fire above Wawona that closed the Chilnualna Falls Trail on Tuesday was mapped at 100 acres that afternoon. By Wednesday afternoon it had reached 1,177 with no containment at all. The latest interagency perimeter mapping puts it at 1,976 acres with 10 percent contained — the first line crews have managed to hold.

California Interagency Management Team 3 took command on Thursday, with 187 personnel assigned. The National Park Service holds jurisdiction and Cal Fire air resources are supporting.

The behaviour explains the growth. The fire is making upslope runs aligned with terrain and wind, flanking and backing through grass, brush and timber, with short-range spotting observed. It sits in wilderness on steep, rugged ground with limited access, which keeps crews off much of the edge and puts the weight of the effort in the air.

The fire centre sits roughly five miles northeast of Wawona, north of Wawona Dome and up toward Turner Meadow and Turner Ridge. It is not threatening the community, and the park remains open. What is closed is the Chilnualna Falls Trail and the routes from the top of the falls toward Buena Vista and Crescent lakes, both still reachable from the east.

Estimated containment remains September 30, which at ten percent should be read as a planning figure rather than a forecast. Smoke has carried as far as Douglas County, Nevada. The cause is still under investigation.

A wildfire that started Tuesday roughly a quarter-mile north of Chilnualna Falls had grown to about 100 acres by late afternoon, and the Park Service closed the Chilnualna Falls Trail along with the routes running from the top of the falls toward Buena Vista and Crescent lakes.

The fire takes its name from nearby Wawona Dome. It was reported around midday and is moving north and northeast at a moderate rate, away from the community of Wawona. No evacuation warnings were issued and officials reported no immediate threat to infrastructure or developed areas. Crews worked it from the ground and from the air, securing line along the south and west flanks and using natural barriers elsewhere.

The rest of Yosemite is open and operating normally. Buena Vista and Crescent lakes can still be reached from the east, which makes a trip into that country a rerouting problem rather than a cancelled one. The smoke column has been visible from Wawona Road.

If Chilnualna was on your calendar this weekend, assume it stays shut and check before you drive. The Park Service is pointing people to InciWeb for fire updates and AirNow for air quality, which is worth watching well beyond the park when a late-season fire settles into a drainage.

Fires this time of year move quickly through cured grass and brush in the southern Sierra. A hundred acres is small, but the situation can change either direction inside a day.

A stretch of the Appalachian Trail through the Appalachian Ranger District remains closed, with a detour in place at Iron Mountain Gap routing hikers around the last few miles, from roughly a mile south of the destroyed Cherry Gap Shelter to about a mile north of the gap. Fire restrictions have been in force in the Roan Mountain area since the storm raised the fire danger, and crews are still laying gravel by the thousands of tons on forest roads.

In Virginia, road reconstruction in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area closed Whitetop Road and the Whitetop trailhead along with the observation point; the trail itself stays open where it crosses. Elk Garden and Beach Mountain are the alternates.

New York and New Jersey have their own list. The Appalachian and Ramapo-Dunderberg trails are detoured through Harriman to cross the Palisades Interstate Parkway by the Anthony Wayne overpass. The Breakneck and Wilkinson Memorial trailheads, and the Breakneck Ridge train station with them, stay closed into mid-2027. A section of the Highlands Trail in Byram is shut while a Superfund site is addressed.

In Vermont, Taft Lodge on Mount Mansfield closed on September 8 for repairs — the oldest and largest overnight site on the Long Trail, at 105 years old, is getting its rotting sill logs replaced. The bridge over Homer Stone Brook north of Little Rock Pond is gone until crews replace it; hikers rock-hop just east of the old site.

The season is turning over as all this happens. Northbound finishers are thinning out and southbounders and flip-floppers are taking over the trail, which is the stretch of the year when a stale closure list costs you the most.

The Sierra National Forest lifted its Garnet Fire closure in June and the Mammoth Pool boat launch is open again, though the burn area still holds hazards. Much of the Caribou Wilderness remains open but rough after the 2021 Dixie Fire, with downed timber and faint tread; hikers report some clearing has been done. North of Chester the Pacific Crest Trail is still choked with thorn brush and blowdown. Verify with the managing agency before committing to a route.

Mount Rainier has the Wonderland Trail closed between Carbon River and Summerland because of the Grand Park 2 and Garda Falls fires, and is not issuing full-circuit permits until further notice. There is no version of the loop available right now.

Sunrise Road and White River Road are closed as well, which takes out the trails that start from them. That is a large share of the park's northeast quarter gone at once, in the weeks people normally plan around.

Central Oregon is under Stage 2 public-use restrictions, and parts of Mount Hood National Forest remain inside the Grasshopper Fire closure. Between the two, the late-summer Cascades map has more holes in it than usual.

One thing worth repeating because it is where people get caught: a closed trail stays closed after the smoke clears. Air quality improving is not a reopening, and the forest order is the only thing that decides it.

Fifty-four trails and twenty-four forest roads in Mount Hood National Forest closed on August 4 as the Grasshopper Fire pushed toward the mountain. The forest describes it as a good portion of the Barlow Ranger District. The order runs through December 31 unless it is rescinded or amended first.

The fire started on July 23 and has reached roughly 48,000 acres at 23 percent containment, close enough to the Mount Hood Highway to matter. Parts of the Timberline Trail are inside the closure.

The Pacific Crest Trail portion of the Timberline, which runs around the east side of the mountain, is still open. Forest staff attribute that partly to winds swinging back to the west, which is the kind of reprieve that can reverse inside a day.

Do not expect a clean reopening. The forest says it will shrink the closure area before lifting it entirely, and that developed sites, campgrounds and heavily used roads will stay shut until hazard trees and damaged infrastructure are dealt with. That process runs on a scale of seasons.