HikeArizona.COM

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Really incredible.

I saw that yesterday on the Edward Abbey Matters FB group page. Definitely intense. Interestingly, the best thing any of those folks could have done is stay at the parking lot and ramada area. But when caught in the middle of something like that, it is so easy (and normal) to freak out and make wrong decisions and want to flee the scene. Certainly glad nobody lost their life. The dude making the video stayed pretty focused and made good choices. Mother nature rules.

RedRoxx44 wrote: ↑Jul 14 2022 7:21 pm [ youtube video ]

Really incredible.

Wow! Since I was just on that road eight months ago, it's still pretty fresh in my mind. Since there was rain on one of those days, flooding was definitely on my mind and it was clear how vulnerable that canyon is, although I wouldn't have expected all those waterfalls off the mesas.

It looks like the family ended up at the Capitol Reef Resort, where I stayed on that trip.

@rwstorm
I disagree that he made good choices, he really just got lucky that he didn't make it 100 yards further up the road. If I see waterfalls coming off the side of the cliffs like that, the last thing I'm going to do is get in a vehicle and start driving across previously-dry washes, I'm going to start looking for how to get to higher ground. Considering he had to drive in on that road, he should've known that the canyon gets narrower, and that there wasn't enough time to avoid an imminent flash flood.

@ShatteredArm
I agree that he should have stayed at the parking area, and I imagine he realized that in retrospect.

In the comments the poster mentions there will be a follow up video on lessons learned. I've made good, poor and dicey choices in my encounters with flash flooding so I can relate.

ShatteredArm wrote:I disagree that he made good choices, he really just got lucky that he didn't make it 100 yards further up the road. If I see waterfalls coming off the side of the cliffs like that, the last thing I'm going to do is get in a vehicle and start driving across previously-dry washes, I'm going to start looking for how to get to higher ground. Considering he had to drive in on that road, he should've known that the canyon gets narrower, and that there wasn't enough time to avoid an imminent flash flood.

Those were my thoughts. The road crosses the stream at a handful of paved fords before the parking area and the canyon is narrow in many places. Seeing the waterfalls coming off the mesa would have stopped me from trying to get all the way out.

However, I also note that the parking area itself isn't exactly high ground and people probably felt like staying put was also risky. I would have been tempted to leave my vehicle and scramble up anything away from pouroffs to get higher.

I don't know about the evacuation plan, but I would have edited the video to be about 20 minutes shorter.

Also I'll show my bias. "Some" people, of which I was at one time one, are "city" people who tourist areas like this. They have no idea about how weather, rockfall, heat, cold, sudden changes, etc can rock their world. They deal with city things, like traffic, road rage, and weird neighbors or ahole co workers. But life for them is narrowly defined to the world they are used to. Put them in a different scenario and they have no way to deal. They have seen stuff like this on the web but until it happens to you; you might think of how you'll react but what you do is different.

chumley wrote:I would have edited the video to be about 20 minutes shorter.

Yeah, it shouldn't have been over 10 minutes.

RedRoxx44 wrote: "Some" people, of which I was at one time one, are "city" people who tourist areas like this. They have no idea about how weather, rockfall, heat, cold, sudden changes, etc can rock their world.

Yes, I don't blame city folks for being unaware of the risk, although there are signs posted. I think most people are reasonably careful, or there would have been more fatalities. (Although the people in the car that washed away were lucky not to have been pinned underwater by the boulder at the turn in the stream)

@chumley
This one's shorter but in a different area I've backpacked before. The start is reminiscent of my encounter many years before in Paria narrows.
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Interesting video, the car washing down, wowsers! Mom, with the mom very concerned look, dad hoping to be social media influencer. The best, the boy gaming with headphones on. Still a great reminder of how quick nature can change from Disney to Irwin.

@big_load
Yeah, the parking lot didn't look high, but based on google street view, there's an easy 20 foot berm on the south side of the lot that would've been easy for anybody to just walk up, and one could get even higher with minimal effort if necessary. Absolute safety would've been easy to achieve there, however people often have things like property and insurance on their minds, and fail to prioritize personal safety.

Thought for sure the blue car was going to get stuck against the boulder - that was intense. Those people are so lucky. I’d be soiling my pants for sure.

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Last one I promise! Features Badass Toyotas' with the Overland Group. 3:54 is what I refer to as my rock, every 4 wheel drive vehicle I've had has been photographed under that rock. 6:32 I think is the big flood surge. After that it's 4 wheeling in a torn up canyon bottom so ya might want to nix that, but the overall scenery is really nice. One of my favorite areas near Escalante Utah.