Heavy rains quickly brought the Virgin River up over its banks in Zion Canyon on Tuesday/NPS
Floodwaters, not snow as at Glacier National Park, forced the temporary closure Tuesday of Zion National Park, where monsoonal downpours swelled the Virgin River from a tranquil stream to a raging torrent that flooded portions of Zion Canyon.
Park officials said flows of the river through Zion Canyon "rose from 174 cubic feet per second to 4,790 cfs in a matter of hours today. This was the seventh highest river level in more than one hundred years. Flooding and debris on both the Scenic Drive and the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway forced the park to close at 1 p.m. Visitors up Zion Canyon, except those staying at the lodge, were evacuated."
By 3:30 p.m. the river had receded to the point where the scenic canyon could reopen to the public. Park crews used heavy equipment to remove mud and debris where it had accumulated on park roads.
"A section of the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway was undercut by flood waters, but was quickly fixed," park spokeswoman Aly Baltrus said.
Comments
I sure hope no one was hiking the Narrows when that happened.
Look how green it is! These monsoons would make for some great timelapses, especially in places like the narrows. The North America series on Discovery channel from last year captured a few monsoon storms in their show on the desert, but I don't think any were from Zion, where it would be pretty darn amazing to witness. A few years ago, I was in Capitol Reef when a monsoon delivered a heavy downpoor that created a flash flood in the fremont river canyon area, and it was pretty awesome. I wasn't really under any threat or fear of my life during that time, but the amount of water coming off the canyon walls was impressive.