Wyoming officials, meanwhile, struggled with a wildfire in the Shoshone National Forest that exploded Friday to 14,500 acres Friday from only 20 acres a few days earlier.
The fires in the Mount Jefferson Wilderness of central Oregon were totally uncontained, forcing as many as 1,500 residents to flee their homes Thursday and spoiling President Bush's plans for a forest tour.
``It's a real dangerous fire,'' said incident commander Mike Benefield. ``It's going to cover some ground before it's all done.''
The blazes also burned a youth camp, closed a 21-mile stretch of highway over the Santiam Pass, and threw up a white-capped plume of smoke that towered over Central Oregon and spread a heavy swath of gray across the region.
One visitor, Brian Nelson, had paused north of Bend to take pictures of the snowcapped peaks of the Cascades but was soon staring at the billowing smoke.
``That's awesome,'' said Nelson, of Hesperia, Calif. ``We see some pretty good fires in California, but this one's got a lot of fuel to burn.''
Forecasters predicted good conditions for firefighting Friday, with rain falling over the mountains, temperatures cooling by 10 degrees and humidity rising to 40 percent. The temperature topped 90 on Thursday, with humidity as low as 15 percent.
In Montana, tension was high Friday morning as officials prepared for what one official called an ``ugly'' forecast: more dry lightning and wind storms.
Three dozen large fires continue to burn there, and firefighting crews were stretched thin. The Defense Department said it was bringing in 560 soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas, to help battle the blazes, which have burned more than 400,000 acres in the state.
The last cold front that moved through the state earlier this week brought wind that quadrupled fires in size and forced the evacuation of hundreds more families. Crews were just beginning to make headway building containment lines Thursday when they learned that Friday would bring another red-flag warning.
``It seems like every time we get a break and we start getting ahead, something else happens,'' fire information officer Jim Lane said Friday.
The Wyoming fire _ in the Boulder Basin, about 25 miles southwest of Cody _ was feeding off beetle-killed spruce trees, and crews worked to keep the flames from several homes and dude ranches on the south fork of the Shoshone River. No evacuations have been ordered.
Nearby, crews got help from overnight rain and cooler weather as they tried to keep another fire from leaving Yellowstone National Park. Flames came within a half-mile of East Entrance Road, keeping it closed and forcing visitors from Cody to detour 29 miles to another entrance.
In and around the Oregon resort community of Camp Sherman, between 1,200 and 1,500 residents were told to evacuate Thursday.
``We're prepared to stay as long as we need to. The main thing is to have a place to go back to,'' said Connie Deerry, one of about 30 people at a shelter late Thursday.
Bush had planned to travel through the area to promote legislation on forest thinning but instead got an aerial view from a Marine helicopter. He didn't see too much, though, as the thick smoke blocked the view and filled the cabin with an acrid smell.
Outside Tucson, Ariz., the charred Mount Lemmon reopened to the public after closing in June because of a fire that ultimately charred 84,750 acres and destroyed 322 homes and cabins.
``I just want to get up and see a piece of my heart that's gone,'' Charles Van Patten said as he waited for the road to open Thursday.
About 2.4 million acres have been charred so far this wildfire season, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
