Grand Canyon Lodge

I would hike in, spend the night, and hike out.

I had a map, a compass, and everything else needed for navigation and a radio for communication with the rangers of the Grand Canyon Lodge.

At the time, the park had radio repeaters at the top and bottom of the rim, so you could talk from the top to the bottom of the canyon.

The conversation was by radio repeater and was a continual transmission.

The repeater was mounted on the highest part of the rim to ensure the best coverage.

The repeater was about up to twenty feet up a tree.

I was hiking up the trail by the Grand Canyon Lodge.

The weather was warm and sunny.

The North Rim's already operating with reduced services after everything that's happened over the last two years.

Last year, the Dragon Bravo fire destroyed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge and dozens of other rim structures.

This year, the park was finally beginning to rebuild and recover from that disaster, and now major flash floods severely damaging one of the primary trail corridors through the canyon and critical water infrastructure.

And then the repairs themselves get hit by another flood.

[sniffs] In July of twenty twenty-five, a lightning-caused wildfire called the Dragon Bravo Fire tore through the North Rim.

It burned roughly a hundred and forty-five thousand acres and destroyed more than a hundred structures, including the historic Grand Canyon Lodge, the only in-park lodging on that entire side of the canyon, a building that had stood in one form or another since the nineteen thirties.

The North Rim reopened in a limited phased way starting in May of twenty twenty-six.

But as of this recording, there is no lodging there, no potable water, no gas, or full services in the developed area.