New Fire - River Closure

New Fly Shop Hours for Fall - 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily except on Sunday when we are open 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

This photo taken from my house looking north at 11:40 PM Monday night.

Last night we had a series of lightning strikes which started several wild fires down near Sherar’s Falls. All day Monday, the winds were mostly light to variable until about 4:00 PM when the winds started to really pick up. The fire by that point was about 4000 acres and all of the campgrounds from Buck Hollow to Mack’s Canyon were evacuated by law enforcement. The lower gravel access road was closed to all traffic and to camping by the time we left the fly shop. By 6:00 PM the fire had jumped across the Deschutes (not exactly sure where it first jumped) and was heading both up and down river. A level three evacuation was in place all the way up to Blue Hole Campground, which is just a few miles downstream of Maupin. I can see the fire from my window right now (nearly 11:00 PM) and it looks very large and growing. 

It is difficult to find much information about this fire on the web - but I do know that if you have a boater pass for the lower river (section 3 or section 4) you would have gotten an email from recreation.gov about the fire. A lot of people who were supposed to go on guided trips tomorrow (Tuesday) below Sherar’s Falls will not be going. The access road which leads down to Mack’s Canyon is likely going to be closed for a few days and boating will also be closed in order to allow aircraft to reload with water from the river. I believe that the rafting trips will also be impacted as they are likely to close Sandy Beach, if they have not already.

Labor Day weekend was busy with a lot of rafting and camping on the river. I was driving back from The Dalles today around noon and saw a steady stream of people exiting the area with camping gear and raft trailers in tow. It wasn’t super smoky until late afternoon when the wind shifted - by the time we left the fly shop at 6:00 PM the sky was dark in a combo of clouds and smoke and the thunder and lightning has rolled back into town. The winds are very strong right now and that is fueling the flames and making this fire a whole lot worse. Tygh Valley just can’t seem to catch a break this year. 

I use an App called Watch Duty to check on fires around us. The two fires to look for are the Conroy Road fire and the Oak Canyon Fire. Another source of information can be found on the Waco County Sheriff Facebook page, the Columbia Gorge Wildland & Fire Information Page on Facebook. On X (Twitter) the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch has a little info. There usually are not too many updates through the night as crews are very busy firefighting, but these are the places that you can check for updates and evacuation notices. 

If you are not familiar with the river, open up a map of Maupin on Google and follow the Deschutes River north (downstream) from Maupin until you see Sherar’s Falls and the point where Hwy 216 crosses the river. The fire is most active from here downstream past the Pine Tree or Lone Pine boat launch. The fire jumped over the river somewhere down in the canyon, but I am not sure where. Do not drive down river to take a look at the fire, you will only be getting in the way of the vehicles on duty. You will not be able to launch for a camp trip or for any jet boat trip out of Mack’s Canyon tomorrow, nor will you be able to float anywhere from Buck Hollow to Mack’s Canyon. You wouldn’t want to risk leaving your vehicle down on the access road anywhere in hopes that your shuttle driver can get it out because they will not be allowed to go down there.  If you are on a jet boat trip leaving from the mouth - Heritage Landing - you should be good to go. 

This is going to put a damper on a lot of people’s steelhead plans, I am afraid. It will also cause the river around Maupin to get very, very crowded as the access will be limited to just a few miles of river. If you don’t have to come out here, you probably should stay home for a couple of days. This fire is not going to be out any time soon unless we get a bunch of rain. 

We will keep you posted as we learn more. We are a 1-2 person operation in the shop from now through the winter, so we prefer to give you updates via this fishing report instead of having to answer 1000 phone calls and emails to relay the exact same information we are giving you here. If you have a guided trip planned, please try to contact your guide directly and remember that they have no way of being in touch while they are out on the river.