Courtesy of Indigo Creek Outfitters

Rafters with Indigo Creek Outfitters raft the lower Rogue River as wildfires burn nearby.

Wildfire smoke has been settling throughout the Rogue Valley, but it's been clear blue skies on the "wild and scenic" stretch of the Rogue River, according to several local outfitters.



That's good news for companies taking rafters to the Rogue. Outfitters have had to re-route their drives to and from the river, but have otherwise enjoyed business as usual – even as fires have choked cities with smoke and closed other recreation areas nearby.



Most public land around an upper section of the Rogue River near Grants Pass has been closed since Sunday, a stretch popular for day trips that includes campgrounds at Almeda and Indian Mary county parks, as well as several boat launches and day-use areas. As the Taylor Creek fire continues to burn along the river, the Bureau of Land Management has also closed off Merlin-Galice Road, which outfitters use to access the lower part of the river.



Outfitters have been optimistic that the road will reopen soon, but fire officials said it could remain closed for several weeks as the fight to contain the Taylor Creek fire continues in the area.



But aside from taking 30-minute or hour-long detours around the road closures, rafting excursions on the lower Rogue River have so far been unaffected by either smoke or fire.



"Trips have been rolling out as usual," said Will Volpert, owner of Indigo Creek Outfitters based in Ashland.

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Scott Stoddard/The Daily Courier via AP

In this July 30 photo, flames from the Taylor Creek fire are reflected in the Rogue River at the Hellgate Bridge near Grants Pass.

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Meanwhile, just east, the Taylor Creek fire has burned more than 33,000 acres of forest along the river this week, and the nearby Klondike fire has grown to more than 23,000 acres. Smoke from the fires has choked Medford and Ashland, where the Oregon Shakespeare Festival so far this summer has canceled nine performances at its outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre.



"It's just impacting everyone, there's health concerns, air quality is poor," Joe Touchstone, spokesman for the Southwest Oregon Joint Information Center, said Monday. "It's kind of miserable down here, actually."



The poor conditions in the region – and ensuing news reports – have concerned customers who long ago booked rafting trips, several local outfitters said. None of the businesses reported any actual cancellations, but all said people have been calling this week, panicked about the fires.



"We do our best to calm people down, and once they're [on the river], they're happy," said Zach Collier, owner of Northwest Rafting Company.



Rafters can thank nature for sparing them the discomfort. Winds in the Rogue River Canyon have been blowing upriver to the east, keeping skies reliably clear. Outfitters said the geography of the area typically keeps smoke from nearby fires away, unless those fires happen to be burning directly in the canyon itself.



"We've got a bit of a buffer zone called the Pacific Ocean," Volpert said. "We're in a pretty convenient place."

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Courtesy of Bureau of Land Management

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This year marks the second straight summer of significant wildfires in southern Oregon, and although the Rogue River Canyon has so far been spared, local outfitters have started working on better internal and external communication to deal with the inevitable complications that arise.



"Honestly, the thing I spend the most time on during these wildfires is communication – it's not even close," Pete Wallstrom, owner of Momentum River Expeditions, said in an email. "There is so much information and confusion."



Volpert himself has been tapped as the "fire liaison" for the Wild Rogue Outfitters Association, a tight-knit group of local rafting businesses. He stays in touch with fire officials and relays information back to the group, he said, keeping a consistent and reliable flow of information.



The message he and other Rogue River outfitters want to make clear right now? The "wild and scenic" stretch of the Rogue River is open for business, with no fire, clear skies and some of the very best rafting in Oregon.



--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB

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Timothy Bullard/The Daily Courier via AP

The sun sets behind smoke from the Taylor Creek fire on Friday, July 21, 2018.