Man stranded by rising river in Zion National Park found dead the next day

[accadacca]

ZION NATIONAL PARK, Utah

[jman]

Yikes. Just saw this :cry1:.

I was up in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone this last weekend and it was nothing but rain for 3 straight days.

I wondered how canyon country held up......not good, apparently.

[Scott P]

Very sad, but I still don't know why people are going into the narrow canyons with such terrible weather forecasts. This seems to be more and more common.

[Don]

" so one hiker decided to try and exit the Narrows and reach the trail by swimming down the river."

And that worked out for him!? Wow.

[GueroSteve]

I'm curious, how does the park service measure the CFS? Are there meters at various locations?

[Scott P]

The USGS has water gauges along the river.

[Glenn]

I'm still dumbstruck that the guy who did the incredibly stupid thing of swimming downstream survived but his hiking partner - who had stayed in-place (presumably) - was the one who died. Perhaps he thought he could swim down as well.

In any case, weather reports were already indicating flash flood potential and neither should have gone in at all.

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By the way, here are links to the USGS Gauges (I keep these on my smart phone just to keep track):
North Fork Virgin River (http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/ut/nwis/uv?site_no=09405500)
East Fork Virgin River (http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/ut/nwis/uv?site_no=09404900)

[Byron]

I probably would have said goodbye to my swimmer friend, figuring never to see him again and stayed put myself.

I wonder how far up the river they were? Up by Big Spring or just a turn or two up? I can't believe the swimmer would be able to go very far AND get to shore in the fast water. Maybe there were eddys? IDK man, I'd like to hear the details on this one.