Cottonwood Fire
97,464 acres
95% contained
Utah

The Cottonwood Fire is on the current NIFC active-incident list at 97,464 acres and 95% contained, 60 days after it was discovered on Jun 22.

Source: the federal NIFC/WFIGS Incident Locations feed, re-read every 30 minutes. Last read 2026-08-22 03:13 UTC. Nothing on this page is estimated.

The numbers
StateUtah
Size97,464 acres
Containment95%
CauseUndetermined
DiscoveredJun 22
Personnel assigned42
Day-by-day, as we read it
DateAcresContainedChange
2026-08-0997,46495%
2026-08-1097,46495%no change
2026-08-1197,46495%no change
2026-08-1297,46495%no change
2026-08-1397,46495%no change
2026-08-1497,46495%no change
2026-08-1597,46495%no change
2026-08-1697,46495%no change
2026-08-1797,46495%no change
2026-08-1897,46495%no change
2026-08-1997,46495%no change
2026-08-2097,46495%no change
2026-08-2197,46495%no change
2026-08-2297,46495%no change
Trails within 100 km
Bryce Canyon Rim Trail — 78 km away, live AQI and conditions
Peek-A-Boo Loop Bryce — 80 km away, live AQI and conditions
Kanarra Creek Slot Canyon — 98 km away, live AQI and conditions
Zion Narrows (Top-Down) — 99 km away, live AQI and conditions

Distance is not the whole question — smoke carries much further than fire, and trailheads and roads close well before flames reach them. Each trail page shows live AQI; check the managing agency and inciweb.nwcg.gov for closures before you drive.

What does “95% contained” mean here?

Containment is the share of the fire's perimeter that crews have a control line around — not how much of the fire is out. A 95% contained fire can still put up plenty of smoke; a 0% contained fire is still growing freely.

Where do these numbers come from?

The NIFC/WFIGS Incident Locations feed — the official interagency record used by fire managers. We re-read it every 30 minutes and stamp the read time. The day-by-day table is our own record of those reads; acres sometimes drop when a perimeter is remapped, and we label that rather than smoothing it out.

Can I still hike near it?

Check the managing agency and inciweb.nwcg.gov for closures first — they close roads and trailheads well ahead of the fire. Then check the live AQI on the trail page itself; smoke is usually what decides the day, not flames.