Floods hit a historic Grand Canyon lodge. It’s the second park landmark affected by a natural disaster in the past year

The Grand Canyon’s vast, mile-deep landscape may appear timeless, but two devastating disasters have recently struck the iconic natural wonder as the climate crisis intensifies extreme weather.

Muddy brown floodwaters roared through Phantom Ranch on August 29, swamping the 1920s lodge that has welcomed adventurers seeking a rare chance to spend the night at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and making it the park’s second historic structure impacted by a natural disaster in just over a year.

In July 2025, a destructive wildfire tore through dense pines on the canyon’s northern edge, destroying the historic Grand Canyon Lodge — the park’s only lodging there. The disastrous late-August flash flooding near Phantom Ranch struck below the burn scar left by that blaze, the National Weather Service said.

The climate crisis is making certain types of extreme weather events both more frequent and more severe. A warmer atmosphere can hold more water, which it wrings out in the form of more intense rainfall in some regions, potentially leading to devastating flooding. It’s also loading the dice in favor of wildfires that burn longer and hotter. In turn, landscapes marred by fire are more susceptible to flash flooding , due to sparse vegetation and changes in the soil.

Ahead of the normally busy Labor Day weekend at the park, the scars of these natural disasters and subsequent closures of lodging and hiking trails will likely impact how visitors enjoy one of America’s most iconic landscapes during the holiday and for years to come.

Michael Quinn/National Park Service

Tucked beside the Bright Angel Creek, nearly a mile below the canyon rim, Phantom Ranch was built in 1922. Construction was carried out mostly by foot and mules, as documented by historical photographs from the National Park Service.

To this day, there are no roads leading to the ranch. Guests arrive only by a 7.5-to-10-mile hike, mule ride or rafting down the Colorado River, making it one of the most remote and sought-after reservations in the National Park system, with reservations available via an online lottery 15 months in advance.

The stone cabins and canteen made of rounded river rocks showcase the rustic, homey appeal of the campground, whose outward appearance had changed little since 1922, according to the NPS.

Merrill D. Beal/National Park Service

The remote ranch’s hallmark isolation is now complicating recovery efforts.

As the murky waters of Bright Angel Creek began to retreat after the floods, witnesses described debris-filled water carrying mud, rocks and fallen trees through the canyon, transforming the area surrounding the ranch.

Floods destroyed the footbridges, leaving remnants of stone pylons littering the creek, NPS said, and hiking trails, utilities and other infrastructure suffered significant damage.

J. Thompson/National Park Service/AFP via Getty Images

The ranch, the nearby Bright Angel Campground and large sections of the inner canyon trail network remain closed indefinitely.

The NPS is cleaning up the campground and assessing damage to facilities and infrastructure across the area, but it is too soon to determine the extent of the damage at Phantom Ranch, the Interior Department said in a statement to CNN.

Two people were killed in the flooding, and another hiker remains missing .

After the flood, 62 people were evacuated from the campground and the lower North Kaibab Trail, according to the NPS.

One factor that may have limited the disaster’s toll was the closure of the ranch’s hiker dormitories. The bunkhouses had been closed since early 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent infrastructure projects, with one men’s dorm and one women’s dorm scheduled to reopen September 1. Had they been full, more hikers could have been caught in the rising waters.

Grand Canyon National Park via Getty Images

A lightning strike on July 4, 2025, sparked a blaze fueled by hot temperatures, low humidity and strong winds that raced across the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. Within days, it had destroyed the historic Grand Canyon Lodge.

Park officials initially expressed little concern about the fire at the less-visited North Rim, which draws only about a tenth of the Grand Canyon’s millions of annual visitors. But by July 13, the Dragon Bravo Fire had grown out of control, destroying 85% of the lodge and its outbuildings, according to the NPS.

Eden/National Park Service

When the lodge burned down in 2025, it wasn’t the first time. First built in 1928, the lodge burned down in a kitchen fire in 1932 and was rebuilt in 1937, according to the Grand Canyon Historical Society. The new building used much of the original lodge’s native Kaibab Limestone, according to the NPS.

Located at the end of Arizona’s Highway 67, the Grand Canyon Lodge welcomed travelers and was often their first sight in the park — even before the canyon itself, the NPS said.

Its sloped roof and large ponderosa beams made it a landmark on the North Rim.

The NPS said long-term recovery planning is underway, but no reopening date has been announced for the historic lodge.

One famous resident of the lodge survived the flames. Brighty the Burro , a 600-pound bronze statue that greeted visitors in the Grand Canyon Lodge, was found damaged by the fire, but park officials chose to save the cherished mascot.

The statue was modeled after a real burro that lived in the canyon in the early 20th century. According to the Grand Canyon Historical Society, the animal gave children rides and hauled water to a North Ridge summer camp in exchange for pancakes.

Brighty is being kept safe at the Grand Canyon Museum Collection facility, the NPS said, with no timeline yet for his restoration or return to the North Rim.

CNN’s Julia Vargas Jones, Laura Paddison and Andrew Freedman contributed to this report

大峡谷广袤无垠、深达一英里的地貌似乎永恒不变，但随着气候危机加剧极端天气，最近两场毁灭性的灾难袭击了这一标志性的自然奇观。

8 月 29 日，浑浊的棕色洪水咆哮着冲进了幻影牧场，淹没了这座建于 20 世纪 20 年代的旅馆。该旅馆曾接待过寻求在大峡谷底部过夜的冒险者，使其成为一年多以来该公园第二个受到自然灾害影响的历史建筑。

2025年7月，一场破坏性极强的野火席卷了大峡谷北缘茂密的松林，摧毁了历史悠久的大峡谷旅馆——公园内唯一的住宿设施。美国国家气象局表示，8月下旬发生在幻影牧场附近的灾难性山洪暴发，袭击了这场大火烧毁区域下方的地带。

气候危机导致某些类型的极端天气事件更加频繁且更加严重。温暖的大气层能够容纳更多水分，并在某些地区以更强降雨的形式释放出来，可能导致毁灭性的洪水。气候危机也增加了野火爆发的可能性，野火燃烧时间更长、温度更高。反过来，由于植被稀疏和土壤变化，被火灾破坏的地区更容易发生突发性洪水。

在公园即将迎来繁忙的劳动节周末之际，这些自然灾害造成的创伤以及随后的住宿和徒步旅行路线的关闭，可能会影响游客在假期期间以及未来几年内如何享受美国最具标志性的景观之一。

迈克尔·奎因/国家公园管理局

幻影牧场坐落在布莱特安吉尔溪旁，位于峡谷边缘下方近一英里处，建于 1922 年。根据国家公园管理局的历史照片记载，当时的建设主要依靠步行和骡子完成。

时至今日，仍然没有道路通往牧场。客人只能徒步 7.5 到 10 英里、骑骡子或沿科罗拉多河漂流才能到达，这使其成为国家公园系统中最为偏远和最受欢迎的保护区之一，预订需提前 15 个月通过在线抽签进行。

据美国国家公园管理局称，用圆润的河石建造的石屋和食堂展现了露营地的质朴温馨的魅力，其外观自 1922 年以来几乎没有变化。

梅里尔·D·比尔/国家公园管理局

该偏远牧场的与世隔绝如今给灾后重建工作带来了困难。

洪水过后，布莱特安吉尔溪浑浊的河水开始退去，目击者描述说，裹挟着泥浆、岩石和倒下的树木的河水流经峡谷，改变了牧场周围的地区。

美国国家公园管理局表示，洪水摧毁了人行桥，只留下石墩残骸散落在小溪中，远足小径、公用设施和其他基础设施也遭受了重大破坏。

J. Thompson/美国国家公园管理局/法新社（经由Getty Images）

牧场、附近的布莱特安吉尔露营地以及峡谷内部步道网络的大部分区域仍无限期关闭。

美国国家公园管理局正在清理露营地，并评估该地区设施和基础设施的损坏情况，但内政部在给 CNN 的一份声明中表示，现在确定幻影牧场的损坏程度还为时过早。

洪水造成两人死亡，另有一名徒步旅行者失踪。

据美国国家公园管理局称，洪水过后，62 人从露营地和北凯巴布步道下游撤离。

这场灾难造成的伤亡人数可能较少的一个因素是牧场的徒步旅行者宿舍关闭了。由于新冠疫情以及随后的基础设施建设项目，这些宿舍自2020年初以来一直关闭，其中一栋男生宿舍和一栋女生宿舍计划于9月1日重新开放。如果宿舍满员，可能会有更多徒步旅行者被上涨的洪水围困。

大峡谷国家公园（图片来自Getty Images）

2025年7月4日，一道闪电引发大火，高温、低湿度和强风助长了火势，火势迅速蔓延至大峡谷国家公园北缘。短短几天内，历史悠久的大峡谷旅馆便被夷为平地。

公园管理人员最初对游客较少的北缘发生的火灾并不十分担心，北缘的游客量仅占大峡谷每年数百万游客的十分之一左右。但据国家公园管理局称，到7月13日，龙布拉沃山火已失控蔓延，烧毁了旅馆及其附属建筑的85%。

伊甸园/国家公园管理局

2025年，这座旅馆被烧毁，但这并非它第一次遭遇火灾。据大峡谷历史协会记载，该旅馆最初建于1928年，1932年毁于一场厨房火灾，后于1937年重建。据美国国家公园管理局称，新建筑大量使用了原旅馆的凯巴布石灰岩。

大峡谷旅馆位于亚利桑那州 67 号公路的尽头，迎接游客的到来，而且通常是游客进入公园后看到的第一处景点——甚至比看到大峡谷本身还要早，国家公园管理局表示。

其倾斜的屋顶和巨大的黄松木梁使其成为北缘的地标。

美国国家公园管理局表示，长期恢复计划正在进行中，但尚未公布这家历史悠久的旅馆的重新开放日期。

这家旅馆的一位著名“居民”在大火中幸存了下来。大峡谷旅馆里迎接游客的600磅重的青铜雕像“布莱蒂驴”在火灾中受损，但公园管理人员决定保留这尊备受喜爱的吉祥物。

这座雕像仿照的是20世纪初生活在大峡谷里的一头真正的驴子。据大峡谷历史协会记载，这头驴子会载着孩子们到北岭的夏令营里拉水，以此换取煎饼。

美国国家公园管理局表示，布莱蒂目前被安全地保存在大峡谷博物馆收藏馆，但尚未确定何时对其进行修复或将其送回北缘。

CNN的朱莉娅·瓦格斯·琼斯、劳拉·帕迪森和安德鲁·弗里德曼对本报道亦有贡献。