WILDFIRES, FLASH FLOODS, MUDSLIDES, OH MY! Disasters from Arizona to Utah

Sometimes Mother Nature is just in a bad mood.  She will take out her bitchy attitude on everyone who is in her path.  There is nothing we can do but just hold on and try to enjoy the ride.  Sometimes we can anticipate these mood swings, but we go on the trip anyway, travelers like to play Russian roulette with the weather.

We have made some stupid mistakes while on some of our trips.  Are we talking about trying to pet a bison stupid, uh no.  But we have planned a trip to an area that is prone to fires, and flash flooding.  We also chose to go during monsoon season like true dumbasses. To be fair, we are not the only ones who make these plans.

We decided to tackle some big names in National Parks for our July 4th vacation last year.  We were going to do a loop and start in Arizona and then head to Utah and Nevada.  Sounds great right!  We were hitting the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and Zion as our main events and anything else we encountered was just a bonus.

We were plagued from the start.  Arizona was encountering terrible wildfires.  We did try to cancel because of this, unfortunately the cabin in Utah would not allow it with a refund, so being the broke bitches we are, we pressed on.  We flew to Phoenix and worked our way north, planning to make a stop in Sedona before staying in Williams.

Wildfires basically closed Sedona.  All state forests closed as well, so we bypassed it and headed straight to Williams.  You could smell the smoke and there was  haze as far as you could see.  By the time we made it to Williams, there were evacuations taking place around Flagstaff and we were in the “Ready” phase to evacuate.  The scariest thing was going inside a restaurant to eat and when we came out the wind had shifted and the entire town was filled with smoke.  The locals didn’t feel threatened by this so I chose to try to remain calm. Luckily we were only staying 2 days, so the worst we encountered was smoke filled streets. Even though I was pumped about the Grand Canyon, I was relieved to leave.

The next phase of the trip was Utah.  This was what we were the most excited about.  We were staying in Orderville, it was on the other side of Zion National Park. We would have  to go over the mountain to get to the visitors center, which is where the shuttles were to take you to the most popular trails. The drive through the mountain was also filled with overlooks and other trails if you are lucky enough to snag parking.

If you are not a religious person, stay with me, I am a person of faith.  Whether you believe in God, the universe, or some other higher power, most of us give credit to something or someone for events that prevent us from being involved in disaster.  I credit God.

On Day 1 of Zion, we were heading to the visitors center so we could get on the shuttles to get our must-do hike completed.  However, when we came upon the Overlook Trail, where there is little to no parking, there was a spot, so it looks like we lucked out and are going to do this one first.  Victory!   We took about an hour pit stop to do this hike.  Afterwards, we pressed on to the visitor’s center, where the good parking is for the shuttles.  We needed to get on the shuttles to get to The Narrows, it is a slot canyon hike that is very popular and is partially in water. When we got to the visitors center,  there was no parking so we had to go into Springdale.  The first parking lot was $50 bucks, cheapness would not let me pay that so we pressed on even further.  We ended up two miles away and found parking for $15 dollars.  We then could ride the bus for free to the visitors center. I will do many things to save a buck.

When we made it to the visitors center there were a few clouds that looked a little sketch so we opted to do The Watchmen hike. This was walkable from the visitors center and allowed us to keep an eye on the weather for a bit. If needed it was a quick jaunt back to civilization.

Once we started climbing up on the trail we heard our first clap of thunder.  The sky was starting to get dark. That is a hard NO for me so we decided not to finish and climbed down as a line of people continued going up.  When we made it back to the visitors center the weather was turning worse.  We decided to find a restaurant somewhere to wait it out and started walking instead of waiting for the bus. We did not make it far.

The rain hit with a vengeance.  We were stuck outside in the elements.  At first, it was not that bad.  Then all hell broke loose.  We found shelter under a canopy of a coffee shop. I guess most places close in the mid-afternoon and reopen for the supper crowd, wish we would have known this nugget of information.  There was no place for us to go.  We were stuck with another family who had an elderly lady and small children.  The kids were screaming at this point.

We found a brick wall and a balcony at the side of the building we took refuge under.  The family went further down into a garage, which seemed like a bad idea to me, due to the amount of water coming down.  My eye was on the balcony, we may need higher ground. We stayed there for quite a while, through angular rain, hail, and wind. Here is where I prayed that God would help see us through.

When it finally eased up we emerged from our hiding spot.  I was not prepared for what I saw.  There had been a mudslide along with the rain.  I am so thankful we were sheltered from the view of the mountain.  If I would have seen that mud coming Korey would have had to bitch slap me just like in the movies.

Other than shock we were fine.  The visitors center was flooded and had rocks and boulders that fell.  The Watchman trail was closed, there was heavy damage and The Watchman campground was flooded and people were trying to get out.  The $50 dollar parking lot was hit by the slide. There was search and rescue dispatched to The Narrows.

The streets were filled with mud and debris, but other than being soaked we were ok.  We had to walk through 2 miles of mud and mayhem to the car, and amazingly it was absolutely fine. Here is how I credit God.  All the little inconveniences or roadblocks and open doors for us caused us to veer from our original plan.  We could have been at any of these places that were destroyed by the mudslide. Or even worse, we could have been in the slot canyon like we planned that now has a search and rescue being executed.

Besides God being our saving grace, we improved our situation by remaining calm.  Or if we are talking about me, calm-ish.  We identified what our threat was and found a safe spot to shelter in place.  We also looked for ways out if that shelter was compromised.  We came prepared.  We had a backpack with food, water, waterproof cases, and rain gear.  I will say my water resistant pullover that I bought at Sam’s Club for ten bucks was no match for the water capacity of monsoonal rains, but it could have been worse.

In the end, after we walked through the mud soaked streets two miles to our car, we got to see the devastation and how quick the response was for a clean up effort.  There were people carrying all the belongings they could gather from the evacuated campground.  There were a couple of businesses that were heavily damaged from the mud, and will have to be rebuilt.  Debris, people’s belongings and even industrial dumpsters were littered across the area.

The park was closed and the mountain pass on the way home had also suffered damage.  We had to drive back into Arizona and around the mountain into Utah to get back to our cabin in Orderville.  I was never so happy to call it a day in my life. 

Just remember when traveling to always be prepared.  Even if it is a small hike, a looksie loo at a waterfall or some other attraction take the backpack, it could save your life.  Always be weather aware and never think “It will never happen to me”.  And finally, always take advice from the Park Rangers.  They have valuable knowledge of the park and potential threats.  If they are advising not to go, you might want to listen.  If you don’t, you could end up on the next episode of I Survived or When Vacations Attack.