WASHINGTON – A House bill to speed repairs at the Grand Canyon’s North Rim after the huge Dragon Bravo Fire in July 2025 is inching forward. But businesses dependent on tourism are getting impatient. 

Rep. Eli Crane, R-Oro Valley, authored the North Rim Restoration Act, which the House approved by voice vote in March. The bill would give the National Park Service emergency contracting authority to accelerate cleanup, rebuilding and infrastructure work related to the fire, which started July 4, 2025. 

By the time it was contained nearly three months later, it had burned nearly 150,000 acres and destroyed 98 historic buildings, including the Grand Canyon Lodge, plus dozens of others.

Water infrastructure was also destroyed. More than a year later, the North Rim still lacks drinking water. 

John Dillon, executive director of the Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association, which represents 16 tour operators, said he’s been surprised at how long it has taken for Congress to act as he and others who rely on the canyon “sit, waiting for help.”

“Grand Canyon is the economic epicenter of northern Arizona and southern Utah,” he said. “When the needle moves and visitation stops or drops off considerably, we are all impacted negatively with that.”

Businesses that rely on visitors to the North Rim say they’ve lost income because of the slow repairs. A flash flood in August that killed three people prolonged the uncertainty.

“We're grateful for the Restoration Act and the movement that it is having,” said Melinda Rich Marshall, the operations manager of Jacob Lake Inn, about 45 miles north of the canyon near Fredonia. “But we also still need help. We are still struggling.”

The North Rim reopened May 15 but vehicle traffic between May and August was down 54% this year compared to 2024, according to data from the NPS.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved the bill Sept. 30. But Congress won’t be back at work until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

Crane said the unanimous passage in the Senate committee signaled strong momentum. 

“Gateway communities, park staff, and small businesses are depending on it,” he said in a statement provided by his office. “This is our top priority, and we are pushing for it to be brought to the floor for a final vote as soon as the Senate returns in November.”

An excavator constructs a culvert for a temporary water intake along Bright Angel Creek in Grand Canyon National Park on Sept. 14, 2026. The temporary intake is part of ongoing efforts to restore water infrastructure following damage from the Aug. 29 flash flood.

National Park Service photo/N. Powell

Jacob Lake Inn, the self-proclaimed “gateway to the North Rim,” has been in operation for over a century, and is still family owned and operated. 

The fire left the inn untouched, but was evacuated for three weeks. The financial impact has persisted.

Jacob Lake Inn’s revenues were $1.5 million below usual from July 2025 to early August 2026, according to Marshall.

The Aug. 29 flash flood hit Bright Angel Canyon adjacent to the North Rim, shut down the popular North Kaibab Trail and severely damaged the Transcanyon Waterline, cutting off the South Rim’s water supply.

Marshall said misinformation that the flood left the North Rim closed or inhospitable has impacted business. 

Within one day of the flood, Jacob Lake Inn had 40 room cancellations, she said. Cancellations tripled over the next week. 

Those setbacks make the slow response from Congress more frustrating, she said.

“The longer that we wait for restoration to happen, the more potential there is for our business, for other small businesses … to not survive,” she said. 

For the current season, the North Rim has offered limited trail access and no overnight hotel or cabin lodging in the park, though the North Rim Campground reopened June 1. As of early October, several trails remained unavailable to the public – including the North Kaibab Trail, a major tourist draw, said Amanda Podmore, the conservation co-director of the Grand Canyon Trust. 

Podmore said there are several visitor services yet to be restored since the fire. The Grand Canyon Lodge, North Rim Visitor Center, permanent bathrooms and most restaurants are still closed, she said. 

While the park service has worked extensively for more than a year to reopen the North Rim, Podmore said, the lack of usual amenities have hurt the local economy.

“There's much ahead of us,” she said. “We see the North Rim Restoration Act as one really important tool in the toolbox for rebuilding.”

The August flood only exacerbated damage to the park, Podmore said. With staff now focusing on two natural disaster recoveries, she said, restoration efforts have slowed down. 

Molly McKee, who operates Above and Beyond Grand Canyon Tours with her husband, Cory Lander, said bookings were already lower than usual before the flood, even though their sightseeing and hiking tours operate primarily on the South Rim. 

McKee said the shortage of drinking water, closures of campgrounds and other lodging and restaurants since the flood have all kept customers away. 

“With what's going on in the park, we are bringing all of our drinking water into the park each day for our guests and guides,” McKee said. 

On Oct. 6, the NPS began taking public comments on how the North Rim should be restored. 

“We were here supporting people and helped to build the economy of this area … and we want to continue to be able to do that now,” Marshall said. “We hope that we can be a vital part of that rebuild process, and that our voices will be heard, too.”

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.