Arizona Republic (May 14, 2026) by Brandon Loomis

A fire near the U.S.-Mexico border south of Sierra Vista has closed a mountain pass through the Coronado National Memorial, according to the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office.

The department released a statement in the afternoon on May 14 saying it was closing Montezuma Canyon Road from the memorial park’s entrance to Montezuma Pass as firefighters were en route to suppress the Yaqui Fire, initially reported at 10 acres. Coronado National Memorial then reported on its Facebook page that it was closing the entire park until further notice.

A state air-attack plane was on its way to survey the fire, according to Carol Capas, a Sheriff’s Office spokesperson. The primary concern in late afternoon was south-southwest winds at 17 mph with gusts up to 22 mph.

“It’s windy,” Capas said. “It’s overcast. The clouds have come up.”

The memorial is a federal park that straddles the south end of the Huachuca Mountains, and Montezuma Pass offers sweeping views into Mexico to the south and across the grasslands and oak hills of the San Rafael Valley to the west. The fire ignited just to the memorial’s west, in an unpopulated area of federal lands not far from part of the international border wall and the southern terminus of the Arizona Trail.

There are ranches in the vicinity, but no homes around the west side of the pass, the approach to which is across public lands. “We hope it doesn’t get that far,” Capas said. “A majority of the residences are on the east side of the pass.”

 

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