RV News: Grand Canyon Fire Scandal, Bear Attacks, Park Openings & Major Industry Merger

Mike Wendland (0:00): Good morning. Good morning, and welcome to the Monday news edition of

Mike Wendland (0:03): the RV lifestyle podcast, the longest running weekly RV lifestyle podcast in The US. I'm Mike Wendland coming to you this Monday morning with the stories that matter most to RVers right now. If you are new to this news edition of our podcast, let me tell you something about how it works because it matters. I spent more than thirty years as a professional journalist. I covered presidents, wars, consumer fraud, government corruption, everything in between.

Mike Wendland (0:29): I won 18 Emmy awards doing it. The one thing that was drilled into me from day one, never left, is this. You source everything. You don't report what you heard. You report what you verified, and that's exactly how we do it here.

Mike Wendland (0:44): Every story in this Monday news edition is sourced. I don't traffic in rumors. I don't repeat forum speculation. I don't pass along manufacturer's spin without telling you where it came from. If we say it, we can back it up, and we do.

Mike Wendland (0:58): The full transcript of today's show and every source linked and organized by story is posted at rvpodcast.com under the transcript tab. That's rvpodcast.com. Check us out. Check out our work every week without fail. And, hey, if you like what we do in this podcast, I'd be very grateful if you'd give us a nice review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen to us.

Mike Wendland (1:24): Alright. Let's get into it. Story one, fire season is here, and the Grand Canyon fallout and the road ahead. We're gonna lead today with fire, and I wanna start with a story out of Washington this week. A story about what happened last summer at the Grand Canyon and why it matters directly to your camping season right now.

Mike Wendland (1:44): If you were following along with us last summer, you know about the Dragon Bravo fire. It tore through the north rim of the Grand Canyon National Park starting 07/04/2025, and it was absolutely catastrophic. More than a 145,000 acres burned, and the historic Grand Canyon Lodge, gone. The visitor center, gone. More than a 100 buildings, the structure destroyed.

Mike Wendland (2:08): 73 miles of trails damaged. It was the largest wildfire in The US in '25. Well, this past week, interior secretary Doug Burgham testified before both house and senate committees, and he pointed the finger directly at the National Park Service. He said fire managers initially chose a, quote, confine and contain approach rather than aggressive suppression, and that decision may have allowed the fire to explode out of control. And here's where it gets complicated.

Mike Wendland (2:39): National park leaders told the public they were using a full suppression strategy from the very beginning, but the park's own social media told a different story. Those posts indicated the fire was being allowed to burn in order to manage fuel loads. Bergam sided with the social media post over the park's official statements, and he told senators that in hindsight, an approach of suppression versus containment might have saved hundreds of millions of dollars in historic properties. His order for 2026 is straightforward. He says, when a fire starts, put it out.

Mike Wendland (3:16): And not everybody agrees. Retired firefighters and fire science researchers have pushed back, some of them, pointing out that the steep terrain of the North Rim, decades of accumulated fuels, and extreme wind gusts made this fire nearly impossible to stop once it got going. Multiple investigations are still underway, and this debate's gonna continue for a long time. But here is what you need to know for your camping plans right now. The 2026 fire season is already well underway.

Unknown Speaker (3:48): The National Interagency Fire Center, it's called the NIFC, says that so far this year, 22,600 fires have burned over 1,800,000 acres already above the ten year average for acreage. Yesterday, a 109 new fires. Yesterday alone, a 109 new fires were reported with six new large fires and 25 uncontained large fires nationwide. Nearly 1,900 personnel assigned across active incidents, and the South and the Southeast is the most active region right now, thanks to a severe drought with the Rocky Mountain states and then the High Plains also reporting active problems. Georgia and Alabama have had big wildfires this past week.

Unknown Speaker (4:37): In Florida, over the past two weeks where we were, we saw wildfires in Gainesville and Saint Augustine. In fact, in Saint Augustine, we woke up one morning to find our campground covered, layered in thick smoke from two wildfires that were burning just West of I 95. Complete fire bans were in effect. In fact, they made us turn off our campfire one night. And even though it was a gas campfire, and those are often allowed in no burn zones, they said, no.

Unknown Speaker (5:05): This was so serious that we had to turn ours off too. In North Carolina, the Forest Service issued a statewide burn ban covering all 100 counties, and that ban's been in place for nearly a month with no end date announced. No campfires. No open burning of any kind, and that includes fire rings and fire pits. The only exceptions, propane stoves and covered charcoal grills.

Mike Wendland (5:29): Now the impact on campgrounds has been real. The manager of the Asheville East KOA told local news that a campfire is a huge part of why people come camping, and they've had cancellations. So here's my practical advice before any camping trip in the Southeast right now. Check nifc.gov before you go. In fact, put that in your favorites list, nifc.gov.

Mike Wendland (5:55): It's the national situation map that they show there, updated daily. It shows active fires and restrictions. And if you're going through an area with active fires, you can find out about it through that website. If you are boondocking on any US Forest Service land in the Southeast, assume restrictions are in place and verify before you light anything. This is gonna be another one of those years, folks.

Mike Wendland (6:20): The fuel loads are high, the ground is dry, and the fire danger is real, so be aware out there. Story two, another huge RV consolidation is getting some serious attention now. The big only get bigger. I wanna shift to a major industry news story that could significantly affect the future of the RV business, and this story's been making the rounds now for a couple of weeks, but the buzz is not dying down. Two names are essentially everywhere inside your RV, Patrick Industries and LCI Industries, whose primary brand is Lippert Components.

Mike Wendland (7:00): Between the two of them, they supply an enormous share of what goes into virtually every RV built in The United States. We're talking flooring, cabinetry, structural components, slide systems, leveling systems, furniture, windows, doors, hitches, the list goes on and on. If you own an RV, you almost certainly have products from both companies inside it right now. Well, a couple of weeks ago, both companies simultaneously issued press releases confirming that they're in discussions about a potential merger of equals. Reports indicate it would be an all stock transaction.

Mike Wendland (7:35): It would combine the two largest component suppliers in the RV industry into one gigantic company. Both press releases, brief, nearly identical. They confirm discussions ongoing, but were very clear that no agreement has been reached, and there's no assurance that a deal happens at all or on what terms. And both companies said they would not comment further unless a formal agreement is reached or they determine additional disclosures needed. This is a significant story and for several reasons.

Mike Wendland (8:05): First, the scale. Patrick Industries employs more than 10,000 people and serves the RV, marine, powersports, and housing markets. LCI through Lippert is arguably the single most dominant component supplier in the RV industry specifically. A combined company would have an almost unmatched position in the supply chain. Second, the trend.

Mike Wendland (8:31): This is the big getting bigger story, and that has been reshaping the RV industry for the past decade. Both companies have been on aggressive acquisition runs, buying up smaller suppliers one by one. This would not be another bolt on acquisition. This would be a transformational combination between two major peers. The questions that matter to RV owners are fair ones.

Mike Wendland (8:54): What does consolidation on this scale mean for parts availability, for pricing, for quality, and for competition? Those answers are not yet available. Right now, we're in what investors call the standstill window, the period between the announcement and any resolution. The next likely moments for more information will be Patrick Industries' first quarter twenty twenty six earnings call, which typically lands in late April or early May, so we're due for one, and Lippert's own call, which should occur shortly after. Analysts will push both companies hard on this topic.

Mike Wendland (9:30): You can bet that during the call. So we're gonna stay on the story, and it matters to anybody who owns, operates, or is thinking about buying an RV. Story three, a wildlife roundup. Spring bears are out, and they're active. Now the wildflowers are booming.

Unknown Speaker (9:46): It's spring. The temperatures are warming. The campgrounds are filling up, and the bears are hungry. Every spring, we talk about this, and every spring, we hear from people who learned the hard way. This week gave all of us a very vivid reminder.

Mike Wendland (9:58): Rangers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park spent two consecutive weekends responding to six separate aggressive bear encounters. Trails and roads are now closed as a result. What happened over the weekend of April, rangers at Abrams Falls Trail, a popular hike to a waterfall in the Tennessee side of the park, responded to three separate incidents involving an aggressive black bear. And in one of those incidents, a visitor who had entered a closed area was bitten by the bear. The trail and access road were temporarily closed and have since reopened after rangers confirmed no further activity.

Mike Wendland (10:34): But then last weekend, three more incidents at Ramsey Cascades Trail, another popular waterfall hike. Two bears approached a separate group of hikers and took their backpacks. Third bear displayed aggressive behavior and chased a group of visitors. Now the National Park Service explained that this happens every spring, and it's worth understanding. Right now, mother bears are emerging from their dens with young cubs.

Mike Wendland (10:59): Every spring, well, food sources are extremely limited. So when a mother bear is hungry and protecting cubs, she's gonna be on high alert. She's gonna be assertive about getting food. That's not a bear being vicious. That's a bear doing exactly what their instincts tell him to do.

Mike Wendland (11:15): The problem is people. People get too close. They leave food accessible, or they enter closed areas. The Smokies are home to roughly 1,900 black bears, and they see about 12,000,000 visitors a year. That means encounters are going to happen.

Mike Wendland (11:29): The rules exist for a reason. Here are the rules that apply anywhere you camp in bear country, not just the Smokies. Stay at least 50 yards from any bear. That's about a 150 feet. Violating that distance is a federal offense.

Mike Wendland (11:44): Store all food, trash, anything with a scent in a locked hard sided vehicle or a certified bear resistant container. That means inside your RV or tow vehicle, not on the picnic table, not in the screened room, not in a soft cooler on your patio, and never feed a bear. If you do, they're gonna kill that bear because he gets acclimated to food. Don't leave food out. Don't feed a bear.

Unknown Speaker (12:12): It's a federal offense. Fines are up to $5,000 or six months in jail. Like I said, bears almost always end up euthanized. So when you feed a bear, you're not being kind. You're ending its life.

Unknown Speaker (12:24): And maybe you wanna leave your pets at home or certainly keep them secured. In bear country, dogs can provoke both defensive and predatory behavior in bears. And carry bear spray. Know how to use it. The park specifically noted that bears and the Smokies have shown predatory stalking behavior.

Mike Wendland (12:42): Duh. Especially towards solo hikers, bear spray works, so you better know how to get it, use it, and be able to reach it quickly. If you see somebody feeding or approaching a bear, report it immediately and yell at them. Tell them they're idiots. This is not just the Smokies.

Mike Wendland (13:00): Spring bear activity is elevated right now from the Appalachians to the Rockies to the Pacific Northwest. So if you are camping anywhere in bear country, take these rules seriously. Story four, national parks. We got a opening roundup for you, and this is some genuinely good news because this is the time of year I love. The parks are opening up.

Unknown Speaker (13:22): The gates are swinging wide. And if you're planning any national park camping this spring and summer, I'm gonna give you what's gonna open. The Grand Canyon, the North Rim. This is a big one. Like I said, after last year's catastrophic dragon bravo fire, there was real uncertainty about the park's future, at least the north part of the park there.

Mike Wendland (13:40): Well, it's coming back. Grand Canyon National Park has officially confirmed that the North Rim entrance, Highway 67, Cape Royal Road, and Point Imperial Road all will open at 6AM, Friday, May 15. North Rim campground reservations, by the way, already running ahead of last year's pace, which tells you people are very eager to get back. Now I wanna be honest with you here. The fire damage will be very visible.

Mike Wendland (14:06): The historic Grand Canyon Lodge, as I just reported a minute ago, which welcomed visitors since the twenties, it's gone. The visitor center, also gone. More than a 100 structures, not there. So you're gonna go there, and it's going to look different than anything you've seen before at that park. But the canyon itself, still one of the most overwhelming sites in the natural world.

Unknown Speaker (14:26): The North Rim sits about 8,000 feet high, so it's cooler. It's quieter, far less crowded than the South Rim. Even with the fire scars, it's gonna be worth visiting. So just go in with realistic expectations about what has been lost. Alright.

Mike Wendland (14:41): Let's shift our attention to Yellowstone. The northern, western, and northeastern entrances opened a couple of weeks ago. That means Mammoth Hot Springs, the Lamar Valley, Norse Geyser Basin, and Old Faithful all accessible right now. Additional interior roads continue opening throughout May as weather permits. For the most current road status, follow Yellowstone National Park Service on Facebook.

Mike Wendland (15:04): They post updates there regularly. And I wanna add a personal note here. If you have any flexibility and can get to the Lamar Valley in May before the summer crowds arrive, do it. Spring and Lamar is bison calves, bears out of hibernation, and wolves moving to the valley. It's something else entirely.

Mike Wendland (15:24): How about Glacier National Park? Well, Glacier has some early good news and one very welcome policy change for '26. Several secondary roads have already opened for the season. Many Glacier Road, that's my favorite, the North Fork Road to Camas Creek, and others are open right now. That means access to some beautiful areas of the park while the alpine section is still being cleared.

Unknown Speaker (15:48): The famous going to the Sun Road, that's a different story as it always is in the spring. The full 52 mile alpine section typically doesn't get opened until mid June, sometimes early July because crews have to clear snow across nearly 40 avalanche paths. Progress depends entirely on the snowpack, and they had a lot this year, and spring weather. No firm opening date to give you yet, so check the National Park Service website or glacier.org for current road status. Now here's the policy news that a lot of you are gonna be happy with.

Mike Wendland (16:21): For '26, Glacier's eliminating the vehicle reservation system that's been in place for the past several years. That means no more timed entry permits, no more planning your trip months in advance around a reservation window. You can drive into Glacier whenever it fits your schedule. Alright. To the east and Acadia National Park in Maine.

Mike Wendland (16:43): The majority of Acadia's Park Loop Road, that gorgeous 27 mile Coastal Drive opened a couple of weeks ago. If you've never driven the Park Loop Road, it's one of the most beautiful scenic drives in the Eastern US. If you're heading there soon, know that a short section of the road near Bar Harbor remains closed through June 12 for culvert replacement work. That closure will lift Memorial Day weekend, and then it goes back into place on June 12. And for RVers specifically, Acadia has vehicle restrictions you need to know.

Mike Wendland (17:15): The lowest bridge on the Park Loop Road is only 10 feet four inches high, so RVs are not permitted. Cadillac Summit Road, same thing. Don't take your RV there. You can't go beyond Schooner Head Overlook, so you gotta know your rig's height. The Island Explorer shuttle at Acadia, fare free, begins new spring service May 20 between the Acadia Gateway Center in Trenton and Bar Harbor.

Mike Wendland (17:41): Story five, our last one. The cofounder transitions out at Story Overland, a class b maker. Now there's a lot of intrigue swirling around one of the RV industry's most recognizable new startup brands. Andrew Cooley, cofounder of Storyteller Overland, has stepped away from the company. Cooley, who helped build Storyteller into one of the most talked about names in the adventure van space, had been serving in a key leadership role focused on growth and brand development.

Mike Wendland (18:13): What's unusual here isn't just the departure, it's the lack of detail. There's been no big announcement, no farewell tour, no clear explanation about why he left. In an industry where leadership moves are usually accompanied by press releases and handshakes, this one has been notably quiet. Now reading between the lines and based on how these things typically unfold, the most likely explanation is a strategic shift. Storyteller has grown quickly.

Mike Wendland (18:42): It's evolved from a scrappy little startup into a more structured, scaled manufacturer, and that kind of transition often brings changes in leadership, especially among founders whose strengths are in early growth and brand building. Still, the silence leaves room for speculation, and that's exactly what's happening across RV forums and owner groups. There's no credible reports of controversy or scandal, nothing like that. Just a lot of curiosity about what prompted the change and what it means for the company going forward. Bottom line, a key founder is out.

Unknown Speaker (19:17): The company isn't saying much, and in the RV world, that's enough to get people talking. We'll keep an eye on this one. And that's the news of the week. Thank you for spending part of your Monday morning with me. Jennifer and I will be back Wednesday with our stories from the road edition of the podcast.

Mike Wendland (19:36): And a quick announcement right now for you, we've got our next workshop scheduled. It will be Thursday, May 14. The topic, very timely one, just before the Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start of summer and the RV travel season. We're gonna do an interactive online training session for RVers who don't want breakdowns to ruin their trips. So, again, it's May.

Mike Wendland (20:01): We will go through exactly what you need to do when things go wrong, how to diagnose common problems, how to fix them when you need professional help, and much more. You can get all the details for this at rvlifestyle.com/workshop. Now I wanna tell you that every one of our workshops usually sells out because we have no more room, so you wanna get in early on this if you're interested in it. Rvlifestyle.com/workshop. The cost is just $10.

Mike Wendland (20:30): If you're a member of rvcommunity.com, it comes with your memberships free. But otherwise, head over with your $10 to rvlifestyle.com/workshop. May 14. Be there. Alright.

Unknown Speaker (20:43): I'm Mike Wendland. Keep the wheels turning. Stay safe out there. I'll see you down the road and on Wednesday with our next episode.