The Magazine of The Sierra Club
Survive a Crazy Flash Flood in the Desert
The weather report warned of rain, but that's usually an afternoon event in Zion National Park. With an early start, my brother, two friends, and I figured we could get through Behunin Canyon in plenty of time. We were most of the way through the canyon when it started to drizzle.
Behunin ends high above Zion's main canyon, requiring two rappels down Nearly 300 feet of rock to reach the bottom. It began to rain harder, but we still felt no sense of urgency.
I made it down, but then There was a dull rushing sound, and a blast of water came pouring down—a flash flood. If the others didn't descend immediately, they'd be swept off a 165-foot cliff.
The others joined me at the bottom just before the flood turned into a waterfall. We found some shelter under a huge boulder, but there was no exit. We were trapped. Water was soon pouring over and around the boulder. I started to shiver, and my speech was slurred. If we stayed here much longer, we'd die of hypothermia.
After a long hour, the flood lessened somewhat, and we dashed for safety across a roaring river of mud. I couldn't believe we were alive.
Ask the Expert
Barry Morenz is chair of the Southwest Subcommittee of the Sierra Club’s National Outings program.
“As soon as the clouds started building, these men should have assumed it was raining farther up the canyon and found the closest protected piece of high ground on which to wait out the storm. That said, when the torrent came, they didn’t panic and found the best shelter they could. They reevaluated their circumstances as conditions evolved. And as hypothermia set in, they took action even though it was risky.”
