Nearly 20,000 Acre Wildfire Reaches Small Montana Ski Area
This story has been updated with a recent post from Maverick Mountain.
A nearly 20,000-acre wildfire has begun to burn Montana’s Maverick Mountain, a small ski area with one double lift.
In an update Tuesday morning, local officials said the southeast corner of the Sand Creek Fire had reached the ski area.
They said that structure protection between Maverick and the nearby resort Elkhorn Hotsprings was the primary focus for firefighters ahead of the advancing blaze.
“Smokejumpers constructed handline to connect with the Sand Creek Trail. Crews set up pump and sprinkler kits around structures,” the morning update read. “Point protection of critical values at risk will continue today, while fire managers scout for opportunities for placement of indirect line on the south side of the fire. Firing operations to reduce fuels between lines and the active fire may occur if conditions allow.”
Maverick Mountain, in a social media post on Tuesday, wrote, “With heavy hearts, we are sad to say the sand creek fire is actively inside the ski area boundary.”
This ski area added that its lone Maverick double had “sustained damage, but further details are unknown.”
“A big thank you to all the people on the front line and everyone who has helped us this far!” the ski area wrote. “Please keep our community in your thoughts.”
Officials said that a Red Flag Warning for critical burn conditions would be in place between noon and 9 p.m. on Tuesday. They said that the Sand Creek Fire is continuing to spread east-southeast in response to northwest winds.
Elkhorn Hot Springs and Maverick Mountain, including all communities extending south to Shale Creek and Clark Creek on the north end of Grasshopper Valley, are in GO evacuation status, officials said.
The Beaverhead County Public Health Department said Monday evening that the Sand Creek Fire had breached the top of Maverick Mountain.
“Our hearts are with everyone being impacted by this tragic event as it unfolds,” the department wrote in a social media post. “Thank you to the firefighters working tirelessly on mitigation measures.”
Just north of the Sand Creek, another fire, the Bobcat Lakes fire, is burning.
Officials said firefighters worked to hold that fire west of the Pioneer Mountains Scenic By-Way. Their main objective on Tuesday is protecting structures at Jerked Prairie and along the By-Way.
The wildfires in Montana join some others that have threatened or burned ski resorts across the West this summer.
In Utah, the Cottonwood Fire ripped through Eagle Point Resort, which, weeks later, announced that it wouldn’t be able to open for the 2026-27 ski season.
In Oregon, the Grasshopper Fire continues to burn near Mt. Hood Meadows. In its latest update on Monday, the resort said that south of its slopes, Highway 35 is holding strong as a barrier between the ski lifts and the flames.
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