The Dome Fire burning in a remote stretch of Yosemite National Park north of Wawona Dome has grown to 2,391 acres, up from about five acres when it ignited on September 15, 2026, and its spread has forced the closure of Chilnualna Falls Trail, one of the park’s most popular day hikes to a waterfall. The blaze started roughly a quarter-mile north of the Chilnualna Falls Trailhead and was visible from Wawona Road, the stretch of Highway 41 that runs through the park, before ground crews and aircraft began working it. Its cause remains under investigation.
The fire has grown nearly five hundred-fold in four days: from about 300 acres on the evening of September 16 to 1,177 acres by the next afternoon, then to 2,186 acres as containment reached 15 percent, before climbing to its current size as it pushed into terrain already burned by the 2017 Empire Fire. The National Park Service holds jurisdiction over the incident, while CAL FIRE, which is not the lead agency, has been keeping the running update log because the blaze sits inside Mariposa County and falls within the mapping system the state shares with federal land managers.
Firefighters requested additional ground and air resources at nearly every stage of the escalation, from the initial five-acre report through jumps to 20, 40 and then 100 acres over the course of September 15 alone, as crews described limited and difficult access into the wilderness terrain where the fire had started. Each of those jumps is timestamped in CAL FIRE’s Dome Fire incident page, which has carried the acreage and containment figures since ignition.
From a Five-Acre Spark to 2,391 Acres
Yosemite’s September 15 announcement described a fire of about five acres with a moderate rate of spread, moving away from the community of Wawona, and reported no immediate threat to infrastructure or developed areas — an assessment issued before the acreage began climbing. By the next morning it had grown to roughly 300 acres and was burning actively overnight, aligned with wind and upslope terrain that made direct attack difficult.
Growth accelerated through the following two days: 1,177 acres and zero percent contained by the evening of September 16, then 10 percent contained by September 17 as California Interagency Incident Management Team 3 mobilized. Fire behavior slowed only where the flames reached ground already burned by the 2017 Empire Fire and other past fires, where reduced vegetation left the fire creeping and smoldering rather than running.
Chilnualna Falls Trail and Nearby Routes Closed
The closures extend beyond the falls trail itself. Routes running from the top of Chilnualna Falls toward Buena Vista and Crescent lakes are also shut, though both lakes remain reachable by an approach from the east. The rest of Yosemite National Park remains open, and the park’s current conditions page lists Wawona Road itself as open even as the trailhead it passes near stays closed to hikers.
Visitors planning a trip near Wawona are being directed to check that conditions page before choosing a route, since wilderness permits issued for the area may no longer match what is safe to hike. Yosemite’s fire information team can be reached by email at [email protected] for questions the website does not answer, and drivers checking on Wawona Road or other park routes can call 209-372-0200 and press 1 and then 1 again for a recorded status update, since the park’s online closure listings are described as reflecting planned or long-term closures rather than minute-by-minute changes.
Smoke Settling Over Wawona and El Portal
Smoke from the fire is expected to keep affecting communities inside and around the park, with the heaviest impacts concentrated around El Portal and Wawona. Periods of smoke are also possible farther into the park, including Yosemite Valley and Tuolumne Meadows, depending on wind direction and how actively the fire is burning on a given day.
The park is pointing visitors to the AirNow Fire and Smoke Map for real-time air-quality readings rather than relying on visible haze alone, since smoke density near a fire’s perimeter does not always match particulate levels miles away in the valley.
A Multi-Agency Team Takes Command
California Interagency Incident Management Team 3 took command of the response on September 17 after mobilizing the day before, bringing additional structure to a fire that had been managed until then by park crews and CAL FIRE aircraft working under National Park Service jurisdiction. Helicopters have since transported hotshot crews into sections of the burn area that ground vehicles cannot reach, and water-dropping helicopters have been assigned alongside them.
No structures or injuries have been reported in connection with the fire as of the latest update, and additional hotshot crews and firefighting resources continue arriving to support suppression in the steep, limited-access terrain north of Wawona. The public can also watch the fire’s surroundings through two ALERTCalifornia camera feeds, Signal Peak Lookout and Deadwood Mountain, maintained by the University of California, San Diego and linked from CAL FIRE’s incident page alongside the update log.
The incident’s cause remains under investigation, and neither CAL FIRE nor the National Park Service has posted a timeline for reopening Chilnualna Falls Trail. Gusty winds were still carrying embers ahead of the main fire as of the most recent report, producing spot fires to the north even as the blaze’s forward progress slowed in the old Empire Fire scar.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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