Rim Fire Road Closure Moved

In order to provide room for logistics and set-up for the Rim Fire, the road closure on Highway 120 has been moved to the east of the Merced Grove parking lot. The Merced Grove parking lot remains open.

Did you mean "to the west of Merced Grove parking lot?" If the west end of the closure is at Smith Station (well outside the Park) and the east end is east of the MG lot, does that mean you can drive through part of the closed area (presumably coming from the east) to get to the MG lot?

It's really frightening how fast this thing is spreading. I was just looking at some numbers and it's already much bigger than the devastating Arch Rock, Steamboat or Ackerson fires of the 90's (in fact, right now it's almost as big as all 3 of those combined). Really hoping for some kind of huge break in the fighting of this blaze.

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DavidK42
Did you mean "to the west of Merced Grove parking lot?" If the west end of the closure is at Smith Station (well outside the Park) and the east end is east of the MG lot, does that mean you can drive through part of the closed area (presumably coming from the east) to get to the MG lot?

No. Hwy 120 is closed from the Merced Grove parking lot all the way to Smith Station. The Hodgden Meadow campground is closed. The residents in the Hodgden Meadow housing area have been evacuated.

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It's really frightening how fast this thing is spreading. I was just looking at some numbers and it's already much bigger than the devastating Arch Rock, Steamboat or Ackerson fires of the 90's (in fact, right now it's almost as big as all 3 of those combined). Really hoping for some kind of huge break in the fighting of this blaze.

This is no where near as fast as the Harlow Fire in 1961. It burned over 20,000 acres in two hours. That's 175 acres per minute.