The entrance to Grand Canyon Lodge. (Connect Images/Whit Richardson/Getty Images)

In June, Lauren Baumann Frisco and her family did a multiday tour of the top national parks in the southwestern United States, and they were floored by all the natural beauty. But for Frisco, it was the stay at Grand Canyon Lodge, the North Rim's near century-old accommodation, that made the biggest impression. She could already see herself returning someday to the sprawling property, with its charming log cabins and view of the Grand Canyon from 8,000 feet above.

"It was just a magical experience," she told SFGATE. "You felt like you were being transported back in time."

Frisco couldn't have known that there wouldn't be a second visit. Three weeks after her family's stay at the lodge, the Dragon Bravo Fire - one of two wildfires that scorched northern Arizona over the weekend - destroyed the historic structure, along with dozens of other buildings. Though swift evacuations prevented any injuries or loss of life, according to the National Park Service, questions linger over the agency's initial decision to manage the fire with a containment strategy rather than a full suppression one.

A firefighter smothers the flames from the Dragon Bravo Fire at Grand Canyon Lodge. (Grand Canyon National Park/Getty Images)

Now, those who loved the lodge are mourning the loss of an architectural masterpiece that stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon for 88 years. And as those who knew it well will likely remember, this isn't the first time the lodge has burned down.

In the 1920s, the newly formed park service hired architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood to design a lodge where visitors could recuperate after a long day of wonder and awe. (The project would benefit both the park service and the Union Pacific Railroad, which was eager to transport tourists to national parks such as Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce Canyon.) Underwood - whose work on Yosemite's Ahwahnee Hotel, the Zion Lodge and the Bryce Canyon Lodge had made him famous - drew up a Spanish-style structure with an observation tower and three wings, plus a handful of cabins scattered throughout the property.

The lodge opened for business in 1928. But it wouldn't remain open for long. Four years later, a kitchen fire destroyed the entire main lodge, leaving only its cabins behind. The Union Pacific Railroad's subsidiary, the Utah Parks Company, quickly rebuilt the lodge, forgoing its second floor in favor of vaulted and beamed ceilings. The lodge's second iteration opened in 1937.

The exterior of Grand Canyon Lodge in 1988. (Mark Citret)

It's this version of the Grand Canyon Lodge that North Rim visitors are familiar with today. But "new" for the 1930s still seems charmingly antique for those who have seen the lodge over the past few decades.

"It was so beautifully rustic: the architecture, the stonework, the floors, the furnishings," Mark Citret, an architectural photographer living in Daly City, told SFGATE.

Citret visited the Grand Canyon Lodge with his 4x5 Sinar Norma view camera in 1988, when he was planning a book about architecture at the national parks. He'd been enamored with the Ahwahnee Hotel, the Jackson Lake Lodge at Grand Teton National Park and the Glacier Park Lodge at Glacier National Park. But the placement of the Grand Canyon Lodge - as well as its regionally appropriate materials - made it "wonderful," he said.

"It was just perched on the rim," Citret reminisced. "It really felt like it was just growing out of the canyon."

Citret was far from the only artist to admire the Grand Canyon Lodge. Richard Luckett, an architect and lifelong Arizonan, told SFGATE via social media that he had been impressed by the combination of wisdom and simplicity used to design the lodge when he took his first trip to the North Rim this May. The structure's local materials ("rock, stone and timber carried in over dirt roads") and "soaring" log beams had inspired him, even after an eight-day trip down the Colorado River.

The lounge at Grand Canyon Lodge in 1988. (Mark Citret)

Frisco's children took note of the pint-sized delights, such as the bunk beds and the little writing desk in their cabin. After a day in the park, her family enjoyed walking to the lodge's famous dining room, where they could gaze at the Grand Canyon's colorful mesas and temples while eating dinner.

"You can sit in the dining room and you're just … there. The canyon dropped off right in front of where we were eating," she said. "I could just walk from my cabin and go do that."

Frisco told SFGATE that she was "really sad" to hear that the Grand Canyon Lodge had been lost to the Dragon Bravo Fire and that she hoped it would someday be rebuilt again. Her 8-year-old daughter, meanwhile, expressed concern for Ranger Doug, a quirky and beloved park ranger known for making Grand Canyon-themed parodies of hit songs. Frisco's family had met Ranger Doug at one of the North Rim's lookout points, where he'd taught them a safety-oriented riff on "Free Fallin'" by Tom Petty.

Ranger Doug (left) and the lyrics to his "Free Fallin'" parody called "(Don't Be) Free Fallin.'" (Lauren Baumann Frisco)

Though the park service has not made specific comments on the safety of Ranger Doug, a news release from Sunday said that all North Rim staff and residents "were successfully evacuated prior to the fire's escalation."

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