Residents were given the all-clear late Monday, about 24 hours after they were first asked to leave as the wind pushed the fire into Ventana Canyon.
Fire officials said relatively high humidity ranging between 30 percent and 50 percent and air-dropped fire retardant extinguished flames in some areas and cooled the fire in others.
Firefighters were focused on better securing the fire lines near Ventana and Sabino canyons late Monday and early Tuesday, said Marsha Cooper, a spokeswoman for the team fighting the fire. Other areas of the fire have begun to die out, she said.
Residents were urged to evacuate about 200 homes, and about 250 guests had to leave a resort hotel on Sunday. The resort reopened early Tuesday.
Ventana Canyon is in the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, where the fire has raged since June 17. It has blackened roughly 82,000 acres, and it is not expected to be fully contained for at least a week.
The fire destroyed more than 300 homes last month in and around the mountaintop vacation hamlet of Summerhaven on Mount Lemmon. Last week it burned a few cabins in Willow Canyon.
In New Mexico, firefighters battling a blaze that has burned 2,500 acres of Taos Pueblo land were focusing their efforts Tuesday on keeping the fire out of Taos Canyon, which has homes and several bedroom communities.
In Washington, a 1,300-acre wildfire on the Spokane Indian Reservation was 75 percent contained Tuesday. Earlier, authorities had feared winds might push the flames beyond fire lines and threaten about 80 homes.
Other wildfires were reported in California, Oregon and Utah.
The summer's wildfire season continues to run well below the average pace. The National Interagency Fire Center said Tuesday that 983,478 acres have burned nationally this year, compared to 1.64 million acres to this date on average.
