This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Lightning has been determined as the cause of a wildfire on the Dinosaur National Monument, where flames had blackened 600 acres of grass, brush and Ponderosa pine as of Tuesday afternoon.
Dubbed the Ecklund Fire, the blaze began after a thunderstorm moved through the region late Saturday afternoon in Lodore Canyon. The fire began within in the Colorado portion of the monument grounds that straddle the Colorado-Utah border, said Bureau of Land Management spokesman Dan Johnson.
Roughly 100 firefighters — including monument staff and National Park Service crews, and water- and fire retardant-bearing helicopters — were working to contain the blaze.
Crews had built lines around 10 percent of the fire. Full containment was tentatively targeted for July 10.
"The fire has burned off of the monument into the Diamond Breaks Wilderness Study Area on BLM land and then back into us," Johnson said Tuesday.
Johnson said the fire was in remote, rocky terrain and did not pose any immediate threat to monument visitors or structures. No evacuations were in effect.
However, the upper lot of the Canyon Overlook along the Harpers Corner Road remained closed for helicopter operations.
Twitter: @remims