fire glacier national park montana
© Corey R. Lewis /CNN iReport
A fast-spreading wildfire forced the closure of an entrance to Glacier National Park in Montana and prompted the evacuation of two campgrounds and a motor inn inside the park at the height of the summer tourist season, officials said on Wednesday.

Shuttle bus drivers and others first spotted the so-called Reynolds Creek Wildland Fire on Tuesday just east of a popular hiking site, Logan Pass, park officials said in a statement. The blaze has since charred about 2,000 acres (809 hectares) in the park, officials said.

Park authorities shut down the St. Mary entrance at the eastern end of the park and about 20 miles (32 km) of roadway from that entrance to an area called Big Bend, said Katelyn Liming, a spokeswoman for the team fighting the blaze.

Some visitors who were on the road were forced to abandon their vehicles to escape the fast-moving blazes on Tuesday, and one vehicle was engulfed by flames, although no injuries have been reported, officials said.

The rest of Glacier National Park, which lies in northwestern Montana along the Canadian border, remains open to the public but officials have said the fire was burning in heavy timber with a high potential to spread.

Forecasts called for strong winds, low humidity and warm temperatures that were expected to stoke the flames further on Wednesday afternoon. The cause of the fire was undetermined.

Two campgrounds in park's east end were evacuated - Rising Sun with 84 campsites on Tuesday and St. Mary with 184 sites on Wednesday - and a motor inn also was closed. The number of campers and other visitors affected was unclear.

Park rangers searched backcountry areas for hikers who might be in danger of becoming trapped, officials said.

The resort village of St. Mary outside Glacier Park's eastern entrance remained open despite the wildfire miles away, resort employee Alfred Menendez said.

"It is smoky here but it's been raining on and off this morning and visibility has improved," Menendez said. "We are still open."

Wildfires in recent weeks have raged across several states in the drought-parched U.S. West.

In Washington state, hundreds of firefighters backed by water-dropping aircraft battled a blaze burning unchecked across 3,800 acres (1,538 hectares) of dry timber and grass outside of the southeastern city of Walla Walla, officials said.

Evacuation orders remained in place for 120 residents in the Klicker Mountain and Blue Ridge areas on Wednesday.