Monday, September 21, 2026

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.