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Tag: flash flood

River Flowing from the Sunrise: The San Juan River

Friday – Monday, May 10-13, 2019

Over the years I have floated the San Juan River between Sand Island and Mexican Hat a couple of times with a small group of friends and we almost always have had a great time on this stretch of the river. I say ‘almost always‘ because the temperature was way too hot out during our last trip in 2017 and the water was moving very fast which turned out to be a bad combination for us. We ended up cutting that trip a day short and heading home early. After taking last year off for a Labyrinth Canyon trip, we decided to get a permit for the San Juan again this year to make up for that last trip. This year I was hoping for much better weather since we were going in May again, but I was still a little worried when we drove down to Bluff on Friday afternoon through rain storms and cold temperatures even though the forecast for the rest of the weekend was looking good. I certainly had my fingers crossed and hoped that the rainbow I saw as we drove over White Mesa was a good sign! And for anyone wondering, River Flowing from the Sunrise is a translation of the Ute name for the San Juan River, and I think it’s a pretty fitting one.

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Flash Floods & Fall Colors

Southern Utah Wanderings 2015
Monday, October 5, 2015

After a night filled with thunderstorms, I woke up shortly after sunrise on Monday morning to more rain! While I stayed in my tent waiting for a break in the rain, I realized that the rainfly on my tent cot was no longer waterproof. Water had leaked in on both sides of the tent and got a few things wet inside. It looks like I’m going to have to do something about that before using this tent in the rain again. Laying in my tent I was able to hear the sound of rushing water coming from the nearby wash and I could tell that it was flash flooding. As soon as Jared was out of his tent we hopped into my Jeep and went to check out the flash flooding nearby. While many of the drainages around us were flowing, the wash that flows through Horse Canyon was flooding pretty good.

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The Lower San Juan River

Mexican Hat to Clay Hills Crossing
Tuesday – Saturday, May 12-16, 2015

For the past two years a few friends and I have floated the upper section of the San Juan River from Sand Island to Mexican Hat during the month of May. It’s a very nice section of river, but this year we wanted to do something different, so we attempted to get a permit for the lower section of the San Juan River from Mexican Hat to Clay Hills Crossing. My friend Jackson was lucky in the permit lottery and we received our first choice of dates on the river, plus we were even able to secure our preferred reserved campsite, too. For once our plans came together nicely and easily!

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Waterfalls & Rainbows Around Moab

Thursday, October 10, 2013

What a crazy day! The weather was all over the place which made for some great dynamic conditions- perfect for photography! My camera sure got a workout today. It started out by raining all night. My tent kept me dry and the rain actually stopped when my alarm went off so I could get up and photograph the sunrise. I hopped in my Jeep and drove up the Sand Flats Road to the Castle Valley Overlook but the sunrise never happened. It was just too cloudy and another storm rolled in while I was up there.

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Flash Flood in No Thoroughfare Canyon

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Shortly after getting home from work today, there was a flash flood warning issued for the east side of the Colorado National Monument because of heavy rain from slow-moving storms. I grabbed my camera and headed out the door to see what I could find. I drove around the Monument for a little seeing waterfalls everywhere and then decided to hike along No Thoroughfare Canyon to see if I could make it to the first pool/fall. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos in this report, but I only took my phone with me on this last minute hike.

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