Flash Flood in Little Wild Horse Canyon 9/1/13

[Udink]

I ran across this in a motorcycling forum that I read occasionally (original thread here (http://motoutah.com/forum1/3-off-topic/124322-slot-canyon-flash-flood-caught-on-tape)). Pretty intense!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj7WnkgjhM0

[Scott Card]

:facepalm1: With kids????? :facepalm1:

[accadacca]

YouTube comments from poster...

"We were caught in a flash flood in one of Utah's most famous slot canyons. This is proof of how fast things can get ugly! We had hiked Little Wild Horse Canyon in the San Rafael Swell before always being cautious, there was a %20 chance of rain this day..this was a fairly light rain, hard to believe the results! We had hiked up further, this video is us running back to find the girls we left behind. We found them in an opening waiting out the storm. The lower slots are actually much narrower than these, luckily my wife knew to backtrack to this opening as soon as she saw the water coming. Not sure of the results had we not found them..always get to higher ground and wait it out, you won't outrun it..fun as it was to pretend for a while:)"

[owenfw]

"Adventure is a sign of incompetence." -Vilhjalmur Stefansson, a polar explorer who actually lived to a ripe old age.

[nelsonccc]

Holy crap. I would have been panicking. It was like that once when we were in Imlay. Sloughing off all of the surrounding walls, starting to run muddy at the bottom. It was very scary. We climbed up onto a little muddy bench the first opportunity we got and just watched as the water kept rising and rising. Very, very scary stuff and I can't even imagine what it would be like with kids in tow.

[Sandstone Addiction]

BRAAP seems like a nice guy and I've enjoyed watching his kids grow up in his motocycle adventures.

Glad they lived to ride and hike another day. :2thumbs:

[Deathcricket]

cool vid, cool adventure, thumbs up! :2thumbs:

[BruteForce]

I had a similar experience ~2 years ago. We were in Casto Canyon when a monster thunderstorm hit. Casto went from bone dry to more than 2 feet of fast moving water. Trees/rocks/etc. came rolling down and blocked the canyon. We had to use a winch to remove the debris to get out (we were on ATV's). I have great GoPro helmet footage from that. Exciting and scary at the same time..

[Sombeech]

I have great GoPro helmet footage from that. Exciting and scary at the same time..

Sweet, is it online?

[Bootboy]

:facepalm1:

[Glenn]

I'm a bit baffled at the guy leading out. He's seems to give no thought to the two kids at all.

(20% chance of rain) x (slot canyon) = Zero percent chance I'm in it

[BruteForce]

I'm a bit baffled at the guy leading out. He's seems to give no thought to the two kids at all.

(20% chance of rain) x (slot canyon) = Zero percent chance I'm in it

I was thinking the same thing. Seemed to me the guy up front was moving out without any care about the kids.

[phatch]

It seemed to me he was having the wife run sweep. They were more spread out than they should have been with the number of tweens they seemed to have along. Lead needs to set a more reasonable pace and keep the group together better. Of course, the sweep may have been closer, but backed to high ground before we ever saw them. Even then, too much distance between the head and end of the group.

As to the 20% rain thing, even with tweens this is usually a 4 hour loop hike. You've usually got the morning before storms build this time of the year. I would have wanted to be on trail by 7:30 at the latest and wouldn't have stressed much over the weather. Where he's only that far up LWH at noonish, they got a LATE start for the conditions.

[Sombeech]

I must admit, even with a 20% chance of rain, and if the sky looks ok when I'm at the trailhead, I'd still probably head up LWH.

We all know about the floods in the past where it washed the cars out that were parked in the waterway, but what was that rain forecast like?

[Sandstone Addiction]

I'm a bit baffled at the guy leading out. He's seems to give no thought to the two kids at all

Pretty sure the guy filming the video is the two boy's dad.

[Glenn]

Pretty sure the guy filming the video is the two boy's dad.

I gathered that. But still, the leader in this group didn't appear to have any concern about the kids or father. Not like he was testing out the path or calling out any issues.

OTOH, I'm guessing that if the dad felt comfortable enough to film all this with a hand-held camera (doesn't look like a GoPro or similar body-mounted camera), then it probably wasn't too bad.

I guess I'd like to think that if I were in that situation I'd be a bit more concerned for my fellow travelers.

[JONBOYLEMON]

I cant judge the group since I was not there, but I have taken Scouts up there with 20% rain once and knew there was a risk of getting wet. But we started @ 7:00 and the skies stayed crystal clear all day. I have never worried too much about it, and maybe I should be way more concerned, but LWH seems to have alot of escape routes which myself and my assistants are pretty familiar with.

As for the hustle to get out, I bet they were moving as fast as they could w/o causing panic and screaming "Were going to die!!!!!!!!!" Seems kids were moving quick and safe enough, last thing you want there is for someone to get hurt and have to stop.

But there, I will probably get flamed for all the errors of my thoughts, but glad it worked out and they got out ok.

It is a good example though, that stuff happens. Ive been dumped on with 0% chance of rain, so at some point, you will be surprised by the weather.