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Zion in Flood
Zion National Park, Utah
Saturday, September 27
As I mentioned in the text for the previous day, a significant storm system was forecast to slide over the Zion area in the early hours of Saturday morning, September 27. This forecast persuaded Chris, Gillian, Sandra, and Alana to cancel their planned West Rim backpack - which would have seen them hiking down the West Rim trail into Zion canyon on the morning of the 27th.

For the rest of us, a significant storm system meant a significant chance of flash flooding. That meant that many potential routes and activities in Zion would be imprudent, to say the least. On the other hand, heavy rains in a desert locale can often be a wonderful and rare showcase of nature's erosive power at work. So, in one sense, we were a bit excited about it all. Or at least I was.
A Foreboding Morning
We had battened down the [fabric] hatches at our campsite the night before, expecting the system to arrive and the rain to start overnight. And, indeed it did, with distant flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder even before we went to bed. During the night we did notice a few waves of showers, but nothing heavy materialized.

When we got up in the morning, the scattered overnight precipitation had stopped. The air was unusually leaden, however, and the sky overhead was filled with foreboding: dark and full of wisps and tendrils, curling around the tips of the high formations rimming the canyon. It appeared as if something big was still brewing.
courtesy BConnell
West Temple Mists
Turbulence above Zion Canyon
Gloom above Visitor Center
We were a bit undecided about what to do. There was a common desire to avoid breakfast in the wet at camp, and pancakes in nearby Springdale seemed like a nice idea. But some of us were also quite interested in seeing the progression of the storm, and didn't want to miss the show.

Things seemed fairly calm for the moment, so we decided to go into town for breakfast, and go out in search of wacky weather afterwards.
Rain-obscured canyon
About 2/3rds of the way through breakfast, the heavens opened and the main street of Springdale was doused with heavy rain. Not long after, multiple instances of a harsh tone blared from multiple spots in the restaurant. It was quite unusual, and I was a bit perplexed until I realized that this tone sounded suspiciously like the tone one used to get during the "Emergency Broadcast System" tests on TVs decades ago. I looked down at my phone - it was emitting the same tone.

In a first for me, we experienced the usage of a cell-network initiated emergency broadcast message. Upon unlocking my phone, a message warning of imminent flash flooding had been issued for the southwestern region of Utah. The wacky weather had arrived!
courtesy JInnes
 Shrouded Watchman
Hurriedly paying for our breakfast, we planned what to do. We all agreed that we'd like to check out the canyon under storm conditions. We decided to drive through the park along UT9, heading up as far as just beyond the Zion-Mt Carmel tunnel, and perhaps also do a short hike to Canyon Overlook.

Lower Zion Canyon was transformed by the rain: the crags and pinnacles along the canyon's walls were only dimly visible through mist and driving rain. Amazingly, even after only a few minutes of this deluge, we could see tall streaks of white coming down the walls - waterfalls, some thousands of feet tall - had already started forming in several places.
courtesy JInnes
Different Flavour of Zion
The Waterfalls Begin
We entered the park and drove along UT9 to Canyon Junction - where the road leading off up Zion Canyon branches off from the highway leading up to the tunnel and the high land beyond. The rain had backed off to an occasional drizzle, making it convenient to pull the vehicles over and have a first-hand outside look.
courtesy PChen
 Glistening Walls
There were dramatic views everywhere. Up-canyon, each little col or saddle in the canyon walls was now a pour-off for a fairly big waterfall. Sometimes the water was white, and sometimes it was orange and filled with sediment - depending on the nature of the terrain above, I supposed.

Large expanses of flat slickrock (of which there is a lot in Zion) were glistening from the thin sheets of water that were coursing over them. Zion had been transformed from an arid landscape to something that felt quite tropical!
courtesy RHanel
 Swollen Pine Creek
We discussed the idea of going up to the Canyon Overlook trail - a short trail over safe, non-flash-flood prone terrain, and several seemed keen on the idea. We got back in the vehicles and headed up UT9 along Pine Creek, which forms a large side-canyon that drains into the main Zion Canyon. The normally small trickle of Pine Creek had already been transformed into an angry looking, swiftly flowing full-on river of orange water. Above, on the walls of Pine Creek's canyon, several large and angry-looking flash-flood waterfalls were pouring down, creating plumes of mist. After climbing up the switchbacking road to relatively near one of these falls, we got out and did a short walk to see it up close.

Many other people obviously had the same idea - to come and see the flash flooding - and there were many cars crowding the turnouts along the road.
courtesy JInnes
Pine Creek at full bore
Angry Orange Waterfall
Waterfall over Tunnel
The period of drizzle appeared to be ending, and the rain started increasing in intensity again. We returned to the van and continued higher, soon passing through the Zion-Mt Carmel tunnel. On the far side, traffic congestion had us slowly crawling along.
courtesy JInnes
 Next Bout of Rain
Many of us in the white rental van were quite enthused about this dynamic, exciting scene, but we didn't much like this stuck-in-traffic stuff. We did a U-turn and waited on the westbound side of the road for Chris' red rental van to do the same. We were directly across from Chris, who had himself pulled over to the eastbound side of the road.

There we sat for several minutes - us facing west and them facing east - while road traffic slowly crawled by between us. Eventually, Chris pulled out into the traffic and continued eastbound - to find a suitable place to turn around, we thought.

Rather than wait at a pullout for him, we decided to drive a few hundred yards to a bigger pullout with parking spots, and waited. Minutes passed, then tens of minutes. We began to wonder where the heck they were. Had they gone by and not seen us?

Not wanting to miss any more of the storm, some of us decided to go out and do the planned short hike along the Canyon Overlook Trail. Brian and Caroline stayed behind, partially to keep an eye out for Chris' red rental van.
Everything is a waterfall
We donned what raingear we had (although we knew full well that we'd likely get soaked anyway), and headed out. We walked the short distance down the road to the start of the Canyon Overlook Trail. Everything had water flowing on it - hollows, slopes, slabs, whatever.
Towards Pine Creek Canyon
After a brief switchback upslope, the Canyon Overlook trail traversed mostly on the level, on a constructed pathway partway up the north-side slope of Pine Creek's canyon wall. We were safely well above Pine Creek itself, which along this stretch is a technical slot and which was no doubt in super-deadly full flash-flood mode.
Watery Alcove
Several bits of the Canyon Overlook trail are cut into the wall of Pine creek, with planking and railing creating a walkway to allow passage. The trail also passed through overhanging alcoves along the the way, and in some places, we were completely in the dry, looking out through through sheets of water pouring down from above.
courtesy JInnes
Boardwalks behind falls
Tropical Alcove
View from an alcove
courtesy PChen
View from an alcove
The Heavens Have Opened
Beyond the second such alcove along the trail, we passed through a section of path where runoff from above was dousing the trail. Walking through this section was like walking underneath a row of showerheads in a locker room, when all of the showers were turned on full blast. One must remember, this trail was normally bone dry.
The Shower Path
Stephanie Approaches 'Shower Path'
Roland and Pu on 'Shower Path'
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[ Return to "The Checklist Edition" Home page | Introduction | Day 1 : South Kaibab to Clear Creek Trail | Day 2 : Clear Creek Tr to Cottonwood Camp | Day 3 : Cottonwood Camp to North Rim | The North Rim | Drive to Zion | Lady Mountain Redux | The Subway | Angel's Landing | Zion in Flood | Valley of Fire | Wind-up and Return | The "Short Report" | GPS Data ]


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