There is another issue which may be more important, and that is dealing with the fires. I live in Colorado, and the past couple years have been bad. Smoke settles low spots and a fire 50 miles away can cause breathing problems, especially when associated with altitude. A "low spot" is valley or drainage. Another problem is when there is smoke in the area from a distant fire, you can't tell if a new fire is starting. Last summer, we came close to making a night time evacuation of our camp because it was so smokey. The nearest fire was about 75 miles away.

We no longer plan trips where there is not an escape route other than the direction we came in, and we carry maps for the escape route.

There is usually about a 12 hour "grace period" after a fire starts, and then they can move frighteningly fast. They can certainly move faster than a hiker can hike. This means any fire within about 20 miles should be treated as a serious situation, and our plan is to walk out without panic. It's rare for a fire to travel this far in 12 hours, but it's quite common after the first 12 hours of the fire starting.

Am I overly cautious? Yes. I prefer to avoid situations that scare me.