ZION NATIONAL PARK, Utah — There is an absolute beauty and majesty to places like Zion National Park, but there are also hidden risks. Especially when any rain is in the forecast.
Rangers say that even on a beautiful day, hikers should prepare to deal with same-day changes to the weather like a flash flood watch. It can go from a beautiful with a small trickle of a river to a raging flash flood.
This can be tough for people who have traveled from afar for a once-in-a-lifetime trip.
“I’d be a little disappointed trying to see something that probably we won't come back to see again,” retired Sandy resident Chuck Babbel, visiting the park on Monday, said.
Babbel was making what he said was a once-in-a lifetime visit to Zion with his sister from Wisconsin that had always been on his bucket list. With as much as a lifetime of planning, it might be tough to allow something like a flash flood warning get in the way.
But rangers warn that Zion’s famous slot canyons like the Narrows and The Subway could become a torrent of deep water in minutes when a summer monsoon passes through the area.
“Well, just looking at, you wouldn't think you'd have to worry about a flash flood, but I guess when you get in those narrow canyons and slots, it floods pretty quickly,” Babbel said. “Water has nowhere else to go. It just runs down these rocks. So it can be dangerous just like Angels Landing. Beautiful but treacherous.”
Viewers have seen Dan Pope and other meteorologists on Fox 13 warn people coming to visit Zion or aiming to hike other slot canyons in southern Utah that they should reconsider.
Even so, visitors to Zion National Park may assume that if a slot canyon is open, that means its safe to hike no matter the forecast. But Amanda Rowland, the park’s visitor services manager said that isn’t always the case.
“When you come to Zion National Park, pending the activity you're doing, there is a risk,” Rowland said. “We want to ensure that folks are not just thinking about the risk, but thinking about how they're prepared for that risk.”
There is a National Weather Service link visitors can look at to see whether a flash flood in Zion or other southern Utah slot canyons is not expected, probable or expected. And there are updated signs at the start of trails that also say the same. But cell phone signals do not reach deep into the slot canyons.
People may be able to make outgoing emergency calls but they probably can’t receive flash flood warnings or incoming texts or internet. Rowland said the park’s policy is to advise and recommend, but adds visitors are ultimately responsible for their own safety and should fully plan in advance.
“ If there is going to be a flash flood in an area, we would definitely recommend folks not do certain activities,” Rowland said. “And then that being said, we want to make sure that again, their safety is their number one priority. Because those decisions in the end are their decisions.”
On hikes like The Narrows, where a part of the hike can already be in waist-high water. Those couple of feet of water from inches of rain in a half hour could sweep you away.
And even the most experienced outdoors lovers might underestimate it, like in 2022 when an expert studying flash floods in Zion died after she was taken away in one. Or earlier this month when four people, including a pregnant woman, had to be rescued during a flash flood in Zion.
Rowland said the key is to be prepared before you hike. The most the park is going to do is warn hikers, but they’re not always going to close the canyons.
“You want to have a plan,” Rowland said. “There's a couple different things to be thinking about with your plan. One, know the weather, know what resources are available in that timeframe, in that space. Know what's opened and closed for example. But also make sure your family knows your plan."
