DULUTH – A wildfire inside a North Shore state park Friday morning covered 210 acres, or about a third of a square mile, prompting a partial closure of the Superior Hiking Trail.
Predicted winds Friday could push the fire toward the trail, according to the Minnesota Interagency Fire Center. Rainfall overnight wasn’t enough to extinguish the Crosby fire, and wind gusts of up to 30 mph are expected.
The fire is contained by 35%. Fire center officials said better access to the blaze has altered estimates of its size.
The hiking trail closed at 8 a.m. Friday between Caribou Falls State Wayside on Hwy. 61 to Lake County Road 7 access points inside George H. Crosby Manitou State Park. The park remains open.
Fire agency officials have not yet identified a cause.
The blaze was detected Wednesday along a remote and steep ridge of the park near the Caribou River, about 10 miles southwest of Tofte. The fire has been smoldering and moving through mixed maple trees and fall leaf litter, according to a news release.
Firefighters with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the Superior National Forest are responding, along with water-scooping planes and a helicopter dropping water.
In May, two wildfires burned more than 45 square miles, destroying 150 structures in their wake in the Brimson area of northeastern Minnesota.
