If Owyhee Canyonlands is on your list for fall dog trips, cross off the whole southern half of it for now. The BLM Owyhee Field Office issued a temporary area closure on Aug. 10 that takes a massive chunk of the region’s dispersed camping and hiking terrain off the table, and it’s not a precaution — the Big Grass Fire burning through it is currently the largest active wildfire in the country.

We haven’t covered this fire on the site before, and it’s grown into something worth your attention if you’ve ever taken a dog into the red-rock canyons along the Oregon-Idaho-Nevada border. This isn’t a smoke-and-caution post like the ones we’ve run for Mt. Hood or Colorado’s trail towns this month. Owyhee County’s closure is a hard line on a map, and a big piece of it used to be exactly the kind of place dogs get to run.

Quick Verdict: What’s Happening and What to Do

Detail	What You Need to Know
Fire size	513,437+ acres as of Aug. 9-10, 2026 — the largest active wildfire in the U.S.
Containment	Roughly 39%
Started	July 23, lightning strike, about 25 miles southwest of Jordan Valley, Oregon
BLM closure	Issued Aug. 10 — everything south of Trout Creek Road and Silver City Road, from the Oregon border east to Highway 78/51 and the Nevada border
Campground closed	North Fork Campground, Juniper Mountain Road
Evacuations	Level 3 “Go Now”: Triangle Reservoir, Pleasant Valley, South Mountain, Flint Creek Road, Juniper Mountain Road, west Mud Flat Road
Level 2 zone	Extends roughly 5 miles beyond the Level 3 areas, including Silver City
Your dog, today	Don’t plan a trip anywhere south of Trout Creek/Silver City Roads. Check the closure order before you drive out, not after

Why This Fire Matters If You Hike With a Dog

The Owyhee Canyonlands isn’t a niche destination. It’s a sprawling stretch of BLM land — red-rock canyons, hot springs, petroglyphs, the kind of high-desert terrain where you can drive an hour past pavement and not see another vehicle. Dispersed camping is allowed across most of it, dogs are welcome on leash, and on a lot of the more remote routes, off-leash is the norm rather than the exception. It’s the kind of place people go specifically because it isn’t crowded.

That’s also exactly why a fire like this is dangerous in a way a forest fire near a town isn’t. Cell service is spotty to nonexistent through most of the canyonlands. Roads in are often the only roads out. If you’re the type who checks a map once before a trip and calls it good, this is the fire that punishes that habit.

The Big Grass Fire started July 23 from a lightning strike southwest of Jordan Valley and didn’t slow down. By Aug. 9-10 it had burned past 513,000 acres with containment sitting around 39% — big enough and active enough that it currently holds the title of largest wildfire burning anywhere in the country, a status it picked up in early August and hasn’t given up since, per NW FireWatch. It’s since gone on to become the largest wildfire in modern Oregon history, passing the 2012 Long Draw Fire’s 14-year record.

What the Closure Actually Covers

The order is broad, and it’s worth reading closely rather than assuming your usual trailhead is fine because it’s not in a headline.

BLM’s closure announcement covers the entire area south of Trout Creek Road and Silver City Road, running from the Oregon border east to Highways 78 and 51, and continuing to the Nevada border. That’s most of the southern Owyhee Canyonlands in one order. Highways 78 and 51 themselves stay open for through traffic — but anything you’d pull off onto is a different story.

BLM separately closed North Fork Campground on Juniper Mountain Road, one of the more established dispersed sites in the area and a common jumping-off point for canyon hikes. If that’s where you usually camp, it’s not available right now, full stop.

The closure applies to public BLM land only — it doesn’t touch private property — but the practical effect for a dog hiker planning a trip is the same either way. Most of what makes this region worth the drive sits inside the closed zone.

The Evacuation Zones You Should Know Even If You’re Not a Resident

You don’t need to live in Owyhee County for the evacuation map to matter to your trip planning. It tells you where the fire is active enough that officials are moving people out, which is a good proxy for where you absolutely should not be hiking, dog or no dog.

1. Level 3 “Go Now” — the most urgent order — is active for Triangle Reservoir, Pleasant Valley, South Mountain, Flint Creek Road, Juniper Mountain Road, and west Mud Flat Road.
2. Level 2 “Get Set” extends roughly 5 miles beyond those Level 3 zones, including the community of Silver City.
3. Both levels can move — they’ve shifted multiple times since the fire started in late July, generally expanding rather than contracting as the fire has grown.

If your planned route touches any road named in either level, that’s not a “proceed with caution” situation. It’s a different trip entirely, this week.

Is This Really the Nation’s Largest Fire?

Yes, as of this writing. The Big Grass Fire has held the title of largest active wildfire in the United States since early August, and its footprint has only grown since — reported at over 575,000 acres and climbing by mid-August, with a fire perimeter reportedly running past 600 miles. Numbers like that move fast enough that any specific figure in this post could be stale within days. Treat the acreage and containment percentage as a snapshot, not a fixed fact, and check InciWeb’s Big Grass Fire page for the current status before you commit to a trip.

What to Actually Do If You Were Planning an Owyhee Trip

• Don’t drive out assuming your usual spot is open. Check the BLM closure order the morning you leave, not the week before. Owyhee Field Office can also confirm current status at 208-896-5912.
• If you’re anywhere near the northern edge of the closure zone, have an exit plan that doesn’t depend on cell service. This is remote high desert — the same reasoning behind our GPS collar guide applies to you, not just your dog. A device that reports your own location without a signal matters here.
• Redirect, don’t push the boundary. The closed zone is enormous, but Owyhee County and the surrounding region aren’t the only high desert BLM land in the Northwest. Pick somewhere fully outside the fire footprint rather than hiking the edge of a closure hoping it holds.
• Watch for smoke even outside the closure line. A fire this size pushes smoke well beyond its evacuation zones. If you’re anywhere downwind, check current conditions the way we laid out in our wildfire smoke and AQI guide before you hike, not after your dog is already coughing.
• High desert heat doesn’t pause for a wildfire. If you do find open BLM terrain nearby, the same triple-digit conditions we’ve been tracking across the Mountain West apply to the Owyhee high desert too — check the forecast, not just the fire map.
• Don’t leave a dog in a vehicle while you sort out a rerouted trip. Closure detours mean more time parked at a trailhead figuring out plan B, and a closed car in high desert sun heats up fast regardless of what’s burning nearby. Our hot car guide covers how quickly that turns dangerous.
• If you do relocate to open BLM land in the region, rattlesnake season is still in full swing. Same high desert terrain, same late-summer activity window — our rattlesnake safety guide covers what to watch for.

Where Else to Go Instead

The point of a closure this size isn’t just “don’t go here” — it’s “go somewhere that isn’t on fire.” If you’d planned an Owyhee trip specifically for the off-leash terrain and solitude, look at BLM land further from the fire perimeter before you settle for cancelling the trip entirely. Just don’t assume “further from the fire” automatically means “clear air” — check AQI for wherever you land, not just the fire map, before you commit to a full day outside.

We’ve also written about the layered rules dogs run into on other public land — closures aren’t unique to fire season, and our national park dog rules guide is a useful gut-check if your backup plan involves federal land with different regulations than the BLM ground you’re used to.

Bottom Line

The Big Grass Fire has burned more than 513,000 acres and holds the title of the nation’s largest active wildfire, and BLM’s Aug. 10 closure order takes most of the southern Owyhee Canyonlands off the map for dog hikers — everything south of Trout Creek and Silver City Roads, plus North Fork Campground outright. Level 3 evacuations are active for Triangle Reservoir, Pleasant Valley, South Mountain, and several nearby roads, with a Level 2 buffer extending further out.

If Owyhee was the plan, it isn’t right now. Check the closure order and InciWeb before you load the dog up — this fire has been growing for three weeks straight, and there’s no sign yet that it’s done.

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Fire statistics and closure boundaries sourced from the Bureau of Land Management and its North Fork Campground closure notice. Acreage, containment, and evacuation zone details from Idaho News. “Nation’s largest active wildfire” status from NW FireWatch. Oregon wildfire record context from KATU. Check current fire status at InciWeb before any Owyhee-area trip — this is an active, evolving fire, and containment, acreage, and closure boundaries can all shift within a single day.