The tourists were not in any danger, park officials said. The blaze, which had burned more than 25,000 acres of the Kaibab National Forest, was 30 miles north of the park, and it wasn't threatening any homes or buildings.

But with the only highway leading off the Grand Canyon's North Rim closed late Sunday, an estimate 800 tourists and 150 more employees were stranded at the park's lodge, cabins and campgrounds, said Leah McGinnis, a national park spokeswoman. She said park rangers went out on the trails to notify backpackers about the road closure.

The highway was expected to remain closed at least through Monday, said Sky Sieber, a public information officer with the team fighting the fire.

Firefighters were also battling blazes Monday in Nevada and New Mexico that had forced evacuations.

McGinnis said national park officials were working with fire managers and the state Department of Public Safety to look for opportunities to escort tourists out of the area.

The North Rim is scenic but significantly more remote and less popular than the park's main South Rim entrance, which was not affected by the fire.

Crews had lines around about half of the fire's perimeter, officials said. It was initially monitored as a natural fire and allowed to burn because it didn't threaten any property.

Two Nevada northern brush fires that temporarily shut down portions of Interstate 80 on Sunday night near Elko, 290 miles east of Reno, continued to burn out of control Monday, said Bureau of Land Management spokesman Mike Brown.

A 5,000-acre fire threatened the remote ranching community of Elburz, located east of Elko. A 10,000-acre blaze near the mining town of Carlin, west of Elko, had threatened a state fire academy Sunday night.

"It's just a giant tinderbox," Brown said, adding that dry lightning storms were forecast again Monday.

Elsewhere, a 2,300-acre wildfire in northern New Mexico, west of Gallina, forced residents of three small communities to flee their homes. On Sunday, evacuees accompanied by law enforcement escorts were allowed to return home briefly to check on or retrieve "the four Ps - pets, papers, pills, pictures," said Lawrence Lujan, a fire information officer.

Arizona fire officials said crews made progress over the weekend trying to control the 4,200-acre wildfire just north of the scenic community of Sedona.

Residents of about 75 homes and four resorts on the fire's northern flank were allowed to return Saturday, but hundreds of other people remained evacuated. Crews expected to contain the fire by Wednesday evening, but it wasn't known when the remaining evacuees will be allowed to return home.

As of Monday, wildfires around the United States had blackened 3.3 million acres this year, compared to 1.1 million acres at this same time in 2005, the National Interagency Fire Center reported. The agency, based in Boise, Idaho, said fires were active in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.