Arizona wants to remind people that while the North Rim is closed due to the massive Dragon Bravo Fire, the South Rim is very much open for business. And they invite people to see for themselves.
The fire happened to strike during Grand Canyon National Park’s busiest season: July.
"And so having a fire in the park even though it’s on the North Rim, which is separated by the canyon from the South Rim, that’s really served to depress some visitation that not just the south rim itself but surrounding communities would have," said Josh Coddington, communications director for Arizona’s Office of Tourism.
The office, elected officials and the canyon’s surrounding communities have been pressing to try to keep that tourism alive. Five million visitors spent more than $700 million annually in the area while visiting the park in recent years and the South Rim is vastly unaffected by the fire on the North.
He invited people to see it for themselves using the national park’s four webcams.
"You don’t have to take me, tourism guy’s word for it that you should go visit right now. You can actually look at these webcams which look from the south rim across the canyon and you can see what it looks like right now," Coddington said.
The national park's webcams showed broody monsoon skies Friday afternoon. And he noted that air quality at the South Rim remains good.
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Thompson says the closure is scheduled to continue through the end of September. The Pocket Fire has burned more than 27,000 acres.
