Camas in Bloom Spring of 2022

Wickiup Creek, Owyhee County, Idaho:  Weather

Elevation: 5675 feet

For Current Satellite and Radar Data: Go to the Radar Page - Radar

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Big Grass Fire Status - Tuesday Morning (8/11/2026)

The Big Grass Fire made a major transition last night. The map above shows todays fire border in red and the present burning fire hot spots shown in orange. The ranch cabin at Wickiup, where the below webcam pictures originate is located at the black dot in the upper-middle right of the picture. As you can see from the webcam pictures below, much work is being done to protect the ranch cabin. We will try to keep you up-to-date as the fire burns our ranch grazing area and approaches the Wickiup cabin. This burning area between the north and south burning areas shown on the map includes most of our private ranch land and grazing allotment land. At this point we don't know if any cattle have been lost, but our grazing feed is burning.

The Fire Plan

As we have watched the fire burn around Wickiup over the last couple of days it has been somewhat unclear about the firefighters objectives. After yesterday the figherfighters plan has become more obvious. Although we don't have detail information on the overall plan, we can make some observations and educated guesses on their objectives.

The fire fighters objective are to put out the fire and protect buildings and critical infrastructure. Using this criteria, we can see the reasons for the present route of the fire around Wickiup. First the fire fighters need a place for a back burn fire brake to stop the fire from moving west to east. Unforunately there is not a good route north-south in Owyhee County to prepare a back fire brake until a road could be found running north to south from the middle area of the fire to the northern arm.

I turns out the road from Mud Flat to Wickiup, use to run all the way to Triangle, but over the years eventually became blocked from Wickiup to Triangle. However, this route gave the fire fighters a path for equipment and personnel movement through the area. Thus they decided to use that road as the place for the backfire brake.

Looking at the map above, you can see the back fire route chosen and how the fire priorities were implemented. The strategy involves keeping the fire north of the Mud Flat road and west of the Mud flat to Wickiup road all the way to triangle. When the fire had burned into Anne Valley, see the map above, the fire fighters began back burning along the road into Wickiup and back west along Mud Flat road. The red dot in the bottom right shows the point that the road to Wickiup leaves the Mud Flat road.

Using the property priorities several slight variations were needed. First the Bull Basin site, along Mud Flat road, see the black dot at the bottom right, was in the prescribed back burn area, so the fire was pushed just north of the site. Second the blue dot shows the location of the ranch building in the picture to the right. The fire was routed to the west of it to put it on the protected side of the back burn.

From there the back fire generally follows the road to Wickiup. One exception is an arm going west to CO, see the black dot between Wickiup and Bull Basin, were a stock water tank is located. The control burn provides some protection from uncontrolled fire damage, and a safe place for cattle. As the back fire line moves along the road to the Wickiup meadow the route has to leave the road again to protect the Meadow and cabin at Wickiup. The back fire is then routed west of the road and cabin over the hill and into the Rosie Fire burn area of 2024 and onto the wild fire line at Triangle. Thus completeing the backfire brake.

Although this may be a good fire control strategy, it does leave our ranch grazing land and present cattle in danger. Much of the back fire line is within our ranch boundary or on our grazing allotment. Also, it leaves much of our grazing allotment within the area between the wild fire and the fire brake. Thus making it still vulnerable to the wild fire. At this point the northern and mid arm of the fire are now coming together right over our ranch. Now, most of our ranch structures are on the protected side of the fire brake, but unfortunately most of our ranch grazing land is still on the unprotected side.

The weather is expected to become cooler, with higher moisture with the next week. This is good news, but there is some potential for for a possible thunderstorm and increased wind during that time.

The Big Grass Fire has now burned over 555,000 arces, and 1286 personnel are now on the fire. The Big Grass Fire is now about 35% contained, but mostly in Oregon. See the overall fire map to the right. The very southern end of the fire was the most active right now, and the fire fighters set a number of back fires.

Once they get the fire around Mud Flat and Wickiup controlled, the major portion of the fire fighters will be focused on the most southern arm of the fire. At the moment this branch of the fire is not threatening our ranch or our grazing land.

The most recent operational fire information can be found on YouTube at: @BigGrassFireInformation2026. Several updates are made each day, so check back regularly for the most recent update.

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