Fire Season Is Here: Check Wildfire Conditions Before Your Next Paddle

It's mid-summer, the rivers are calling, and there's nothing we love more here at Go North than tossing a packraft in a backpack and chasing water wherever it leads. But this year, "wherever it leads" comes with a little extra homework. Much of the West is bracing for what could be an unprecedented fire season, and for paddlers that means wildfire, smoke, and closures now belong on your pre-trip checklist right alongside flows and weather.

Our friends at American Whitewater just made that homework a whole lot easier.

A New Map Built for Paddlers

American Whitewater has launched a Wildfire Information Map that overlays the runs in its National Whitewater Inventory with the latest wildfire data. Open it and you'll see rivers and active fires by default, but the real power lives in the layers menu in the top-right: smoke and air-quality data, live AlertWildfire webcams where available, past fire history, and U.S. Forest Service closure areas (currently Washington and Oregon only). You can measure, draw, customize, share, and print — everything you need to plan a safer trip. Tap the (i) button in the blue header for full instructions.

Why It Matters This Summer

This isn't hypothetical. Right now major fires are burning across Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. In late June, the 30,000-acre Snyder Fire on the Utah–Colorado border forced dramatic evacuations on the popular Ruby-Horsethief stretch of the Colorado River — more than 120 people, six dogs, and one cat were safely evacuated by railcar, with reports of river camps burned to the ground. Farther south, the 60,000-acre Ferris Fire tore through a section of the Dolores River. Conditions like these can reshape a trip, or close a river, practically overnight.

The good news: that Ruby-Horsethief stretch has since reopened, thanks to fast work by firefighters, search and rescue crews, and river managers. But the takeaway is simple — check before you go.

Paddle Smart, Stay Flexible

This is exactly the kind of season where a little flexibility goes a long way, and it happens to be the mindset our boats are built around. A Go North packraft weighs just a few pounds and lives in a backpack, so when smoke settles over your first-choice canyon or a closure blocks your put-in, you're not stuck. You can pivot to a clear alpine lake, a different drainage, or a run two valleys over without rethinking your whole rig. Spontaneity is a feature, not a bug — as long as you pair it with good information.

A few habits worth building into every trip this summer:

• Check American Whitewater's Wildfire Map for fires, smoke, and closures on and around your run.

• Watch the air quality — smoke can make even an open river a bad call for your lungs.

• Have a plan B (and C). Scout a couple of backup runs before you leave home.

• Respect closures. They protect you and the crews working the fire.

• Pack out more than you pack in, and be extra careful with anything that sparks.

  
  

The Water's Still Out There

Fire season doesn't have to mean the end of your paddling season — it just means planning like a pro. Bookmark American Whitewater's Wildfire Map, keep your Go North packraft packed and ready, and stay flexible. The rivers are still out there. Let's go find them — safely.