The Crooked Fire has burned close to 10,000 acres northeast of Idaho City, and by most measures it’s winding down. So why did the Forest Service add more trail closures on Sept. 3, two weeks after the fire’s original order went out? That’s the part worth sitting with before you plan a Boise-area dog trip for October or November. The closure order now runs through Dec. 31, 2026, at 11:59 p.m., and it’s carrying real penalties for anyone who ignores it.

That’s the part that trips people up: a calmer fire and a tighter closure order aren’t a contradiction. The Boise National Forest expanded what’s off-limits after the fire had already started losing steam, because the danger left behind — standing dead trees, loose rock on burned slopes — doesn’t ease up just because the flames did. If you’ve got a Boise-area dog trip planned around Idaho City, the honest answer is: read the order as it stands today, not as it stood in August.

Quick Verdict: Crooked Fire Status

Detail	What You Need to Know
Fire size	Roughly 10,000 acres
Closure order runs through	Dec. 31, 2026, 11:59 p.m. — unless rescinded sooner
Sept. 3 update	Order expanded to add more closed trails, not fewer
Penalty for entering	Class B misdemeanor — up to $5,000 and six months in jail
Started	Aug. 18, 2026, about 14 miles northeast of Idaho City
Cause	Human-caused, under investigation
Location	North Fork Boise River corridor, Boise National Forest, Idaho City Ranger District
Trails closed	Crooked River, Hungarian Ridge, Barber Flat, Grand Mountain
Also closed	Black Rock Campground, Upper and Lower Crooked River Trailheads, Moore’s Creek Summit Trail/Road

Which Trails Are Closed Near Idaho City?

Four named trails are shut under the current order, plus the trailheads and one campground that feed them:

1. Crooked River Trail — the trail the fire is named for, and the one most people are asking about.
2. Hungarian Ridge Trail — ridge access on the north side of the fire perimeter.
3. Barber Flat Trail — sits inside the closure area’s western edge.
4. Grand Mountain Trail — the highest-elevation route in the group, closed for fire and hazard-tree risk.

Alongside those four, the order also shuts down Black Rock Campground, the Upper and Lower Crooked River Trailheads, and Moore’s Creek Summit Trail and Road. That’s the whole cluster of North Fork Boise River recreation you’d normally point a dog at from Idaho City. Right now, none of it is legally open, fire crews or no fire crews on scene.

The Fire, Briefly

The Crooked Fire started Aug. 18 about 14 miles northeast of Idaho City, in steep, rocky, heavily timbered terrain along the North Fork of the Boise River — exactly the kind of ground that’s slow for hand crews to reach and slow to hold once a line is cut. It’s human-caused, cause still under investigation. At its peak push in early September, the fire had roughly 600 personnel assigned, eight helicopters, 22 engines, and international crews from Australia and New Zealand working alongside U.S. teams. That’s a serious commitment for a fire in a river drainage without major structures at risk — which tells you more about the terrain than about any town being threatened.

By late September, the fire had burned close to 10,000 acres and containment had climbed to 71%, largely on the back of cooler temperatures, higher humidity, and rain that knocked smoke down across the Boise area. Progress is real. It’s also not what decided the shape of the closure order — the Forest Service moved in the opposite direction while the fire calmed down, and that’s the part worth understanding.

Why the Order Got Stricter, Not Looser

Here’s the part that catches people off guard: the Boise National Forest’s original Aug. 23 closure order covered a set of Forest Service roads and trails “within and bordering” the fire area — ground that includes standing dead and dying trees, unstable slopes, and rolled debris that keeps blocking roadways even on nights when the fire itself isn’t spreading.

Then, on Sept. 3, with the fire already past its most active growth, the forest went further. It expanded the order to add more closed trails, not fewer — the opposite of what you’d expect from a fire that was starting to calm down. That’s the detail that matters more than the containment number: the people managing this closure looked at the burned ground and decided it needed more restriction, not less. The expiration date didn’t move either — Dec. 31, 2026, 11:59 p.m., unless the forest rescinds it sooner. A fire crew wrapping up mop-up in October doesn’t automatically trigger that. Somebody has to walk the hazard trees, assess the slopes, and sign a new order lifting the old one.

And this one has teeth. Entering the closure area is a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to $5,000 for an individual (more for an organization) and up to six months in jail. A closure order that just got bigger, backed by a $5,000 fine, isn’t the kind of thing to test out because a trailhead looks quiet.

What’s Actually Open Near Idaho City

The closure is real, but it’s also specific to the North Fork Boise River corridor northeast of town — it’s not a blanket shutdown of Boise-area hiking. Boise’s Ridge to Rivers trail system in the foothills, and the Boise River Greenbelt running through the city itself, sit well outside the fire perimeter and haven’t been touched by this order. If the plan was a dog trip anchored on Idaho City specifically, the honest move is to shift it into town or down toward Boise rather than waiting out a containment number that isn’t the actual gate.

It’s worth noting this one’s actually running the other direction from what we’ve seen elsewhere this season. Mount Hood’s trails came back when its closure order got trimmed down, and the Dome Fire near Yosemite has been inching toward the same kind of rollback. The Crooked Fire order went the other way — expanded, not reduced — which is a reminder that closure orders don’t all move on the same schedule or in the same direction, even when the fires themselves are behaving similarly. Big Sur’s situation is different again, a trail rule that predated its fire entirely. Three fires, three closure trajectories — read the specific order in front of you.

Idaho’s had a rough fire season generally. The Big Grass Fire tore through the Owyhee Canyonlands south of here earlier this summer, closing a much bigger footprint of BLM land under a similar logic — the closure order outlives the fire’s active phase by design, because reopening takes an assessment, not just a calendar flip.

Should You Reroute Your Trip?

If Idaho City and the North Fork corridor were the whole plan, yes — reroute for now. Nothing about 71% containment changes what’s legally open today, and hazard trees in a burned drainage don’t become safer just because a fire stopped growing. If Boise itself was the anchor and Idaho City was a day-trip add-on, skip the add-on and stick to the foothills or the Greenbelt. Either way, before driving out, check current air quality too — a fire that’s mostly contained can still be smoldering enough to matter on a still morning, and our smoke and AQI guide covers the thresholds worth watching before you load the dog in the car.

What to Actually Do This Week

• Read the closure order itself, not a summary of it. The Boise National Forest alert page lists every closed road and trail by number, and it’s the page that’ll show a rescission if one happens before Dec. 31.
• Don’t plan around the containment percentage. It’s a useful signal that the fire is calming down. It is not the mechanism that reopens anything.
• Call the Idaho City Ranger District if you’re unsure. A five-minute phone call beats guessing based on a news article that’s a few weeks old by the time you read it.
• Have a backup that doesn’t depend on this closure lifting. Ridge to Rivers and the Greenbelt are real dog trails sitting entirely outside the fire footprint — no reason to wait on Idaho City if your timeline doesn’t allow it.
• Check air quality the morning of, not the night before. Smoke behavior shifts fast in river drainages, especially with temperature inversions overnight.

Bottom Line

Close to 10,000 acres burned, a closure order that just got bigger instead of smaller, and a $5,000 fine backing it up — that’s the state of things around Idaho City right now, whatever the containment percentage says. None of it reopens the Crooked River, Hungarian Ridge, Barber Flat, or Grand Mountain trails, and none of it moves the Dec. 31 date on the closure covering Black Rock Campground, both Crooked River trailheads, and Moore’s Creek Summit. Plan the trip around the order, not the fire behavior report.

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Fire size, containment, and personnel figures drawn from reporting on the Crooked Fire, current as of late September 2026. Closure order details from the Boise National Forest’s Aug. 23 alert. Expanded trail closure details from the Idaho Capital Sun. This is an active fire recovery — confirm current closure status before any trip to Idaho City.