Zion Rockfall near Canyon Jct

[ratagonia]

Zion National Park road reopens after rockslide forces closure
By Roxana Orellana

The Salt Lake Tribune

First published Jul 02 2011 05:27PM
Updated Jul 2, 2011 11:56PM
Crews cleared boulders and debris from a road in Zion National Park after a rockslide Saturday afternoon.

Park spokesman Marc Neidig said the rockfall affected the area just east of the canyon junction and the area known as the switchback. The main road was closed for about four hours, affecting traffic to and from the east side of the park.

The slide caused some damage, but no injuries were reported. The scenic drive to the canyon was not affected.

Neidig said drivers are asked to use caution while driving in the area.

Roxana Orellana

[TonkSnatcher]

We got caught in the traffic due to the slide. Here is a pic from up top.

[tdoughty]

We were in canyons upstream all day and remarked on the swept-aside rock fall and road damage. Quite a difference between what we drove across in the morning v. the afternoon!

[qedcook]

Hopefully this didn't take out any established climbs.

[scubabryan]

We were up in East Zion camping all week, off the North Fork Rd. Had a few friends coming up to join us on Saturday that had never been before. One of them made it through the park before the slide. The other two cars were stopped at the gate and told they would have to go around, they could not drive through the park. Since they had never been there before, they didn't know how to "go around". The ranger at the park told them that "going around" would be to drive to Cedar City, and come back by Navajo Lake to make it to the North Fork Rd!! When I told them how much shorter it was to go through Coral Pink State Park to access SR9 on the back side by Orderville, they were pretty dang hot, not to mention pulling their quad trailers getting about 8 miles to the gallon! Why on earth the rangers told them to go through Cedar is beyond me!

[tanya]

That's a mess! It's amazing no one was hurt!

[deathtointernet]

A group of us were in Spry when it happened. Near the end of the canyon we could see the dust billowing up the cliffs above Pine Creek, and we were wondering what it was. Didn't find out until we were retrieving the cars. Thankfully they let us through... having Bo leading the group might have helped with that one, otherwise it would've been a much longer drive to get to Oscars! Ditto on the rangers... we were going to ask the one posted at the tunnel if they were letting traffic through and instead he asked *us* if we knew what was happening. I guess they weren't all on the same radio frequencies or something, but pretty funny.