Stranded by a Flash Flood while Camping in southern Utah

I made a BIG mistake! I didn’t heed the warning signs, both literal and figurative. I went camping in southern Utah during monsoon season and got stranded by a flash flood. I documented the entire experience and show how I escaped and survived to live another day. It was almost dark when I found this free camping spot in southern Utah, so I had no idea how ominous the skies were until I begin to hear the rain in the middle of the night, that’s when the fear began to set in, and the warning signs started flashing through my head.

Please leave a comment below and let me know if you’ve ever made a similar mistake. You can read the entire story and see photos by visiting: http://www.mikesroadtrip.com/how-i-survived-being-stranded-by-a-flash-flood-while-camping/

all right so yesterday I was driving down scenic highway 95 a fantastic Road carved out of the canyons of southern Utah it’s simply a inspiring and I really lost track of time because I kept stopping to take photos and anyhow I the Sun had set and I really needed to find a place to camp so I only had maybe about an hour of Twilight left and I kept passing one potential road leading to a campsite after another and finally I saw one and I decided that I would stop and set up camp well as I was driving around this road the road meandered underneath Wow hang on I’ll show you in a second I’m and ‘red around this road that looked to be going on to the other side of the highway and I’m thinking how is that possible there’s no bridge here well there’s actually a tunnel that fits just is wide enough just to fit a vehicle so I drive through and I kind of make this little drop down I’m like oh that’s a a wash thinking how you know I’m hoping that it doesn’t rain because I would be trapped on the other side and then I start going up this hill and it’s very steep and I see a sign that says impassable when wet I’m like oh boy I sure hope it doesn’t rain hey I’ll make it up to the top and I find an amazing campsite I have just a little bit of light left to set up a tent I do so and just as I’m finishing I start hear the pitter-patter of rain like oh boy well it’s just really light it’ll be okay well maybe an hour to well maybe two hours later I am trying to go to sleep and the rain is really coming down quite steadily and it kept me up I must have been up for hours and it just was raining non-stop and then the worry set in the sign that I saw that said impassable when wet and then my recollection of the wash that there was no way I was going to be able to pass if it rained Murphy’s Law it all came true about to show you that now ah yep I’m gonna be stuck here for a while I mean that is some seriously fast flowing water and it’s got to be pretty darn deep as well I’m actually going to make a marker so I can see where the water is now and then maybe come back in a couple and out a couple of hours that’s where I need to go if I’m leaving footprints like that imagine a truck tire well despite being stranded and some stupid study that says flossing is no longer necessary I’m still going to do it well it’s been a couple of hours I just had some breakfast and flew my drone around a little bit and I’m gonna go check the steak and see if the water has receded a bit but I am NOT very hopeful the weather has turned very gray and overcast it was looking really nice a couple hours ago when I woke up but that’s what the sky looks like to the east and that’s the way the river flows so if it continues to rain I might be stuck here for a couple of days and I’m really not prepared for that I don’t have enough water or food so we’ll go check the steak right now well in two hours this is how much it’s moved about a foot at that rate and given that no more rain occurs I think I’ll be here till tomorrow for sure my marker I set this morning at around 7 o’clock it’s about 11:30 and that’s as far as it’s gone the waters gone down a little bit but not enough to cross although I always travel quite well-prepared and I have straps and I even have a come-along so I’m tempted to try and walk across while bringing my truck down here tying a rope off and around my waist just in case I get swept away and see how deep and swift it is and then maybe fasten a strap on the other side of the river and just in case anything happens I could jump out and attach my truck so it doesn’t wash down river so something I’m contemplating I may give it a little bit more time and see if it goes down a bit more I am just very fearful that more water will be coming down this stream later this evening the clouds have not cleared it certainly could be raining yeast well since I was able to make it across with a rope with no problem I took the rope off so that it could go all the way across and see what it’s like at the very end and it’s it’s very deep water but my biggest concern is I almost lost my Keens they were submerged into that mud and I couldn’t get my foot out and I think the front tires are just going to get totally stuck I give this thing a 30% chance of success but I’m not sure what the heck to do because there are definitely storms looming and there’s nothing for me to tie the truck off to over there nothing sturdy enough and there’s just no way I don’t want to wait another day because this thing could float all day tomorrow with this potential rain and with no internet access I have no way of checking the satellite to see if you know what the percentage rain is definitely worried well I have an idea well or I had an idea right over there I was thinking I could shovel some of the material out of the way and that way where my tire tracks hit it I’ll get a little more traction unfortunately one of my survival tools my army retractable shovel is somehow not it’s missing I don’t have it I don’t know so I thought I would improvise and I used one of these plates so while I was over there my feet got so stuck in the mud that the momentum and the heaviness of the material I had in the plate when I went to throw it downstream it just came out of my hands and so the plate went downstream unfortunately this is the only one I have left so I’m hoping this idea will work well this is really not good I’ve been over there trying to dig out that sand and it is like it’s like quicksand with molasses built-in he is so thick and sticky I lost one of my Keens this is what my other one looks like so it was much easier to do a barefoot anyhow but I’m exhausted I’ve been working over there for like an hour and just as soon as I get it dug out there’s uh that what the water just washes more sand in there I just don’t want to be stuck here for several days I have no food left and on just a very little water I could probably filter some of this but it’s so dirty it’s going to clog up my filter and man it is looking looking very threatening I mean I just don’t have much time the good thing is the river keeps receding but it’s so deep over there I mean it is at least a foot thick of that sandy molasses stuff I know the truck is going to get stuck right there on the other end I think it’ll get right to the end but it’s going to get stuck and then if it rains it’s going to this will fill up and it’ll wash my truck right away so I just don’t know what to do well as they say necessity is the mother of invention and so I’m going to collect some flat rocks and since I can’t remove the debris I’m going to go ahead and put some flat rocks on the soft sand and hopefully that will give me enough surface area to get over that hump so we’ll see I got to find enough flat rocks yes I can’t believe it well I can’t believe it that I’m so excited I can’t believe it made it across so easily that is this is a 2000 f150 with a quarter million miles and it made it across like almost two feet of water with no problem at all and I have to tell you I even had the emergency brake on I completely spaced at its really started raining and I’m like it is now or never so I just got in the truck after I laid my last few rocks and just punched it and now I mean not too fast I started off slowly but then I gave it as much juice as I could and I really think those rocks at the end in the sandy area really made a big difference and I just got wet up and over no problem at all and I can’t believe I had the emergency brake on so I am so excited I mean I was really getting worried this was an epic camping adventure I highly do not recommend attempting what I just did I really thought this through I’ve been planning it all day thinking through all the logistics and stuff so it wasn’t just willy-nilly that I did this so anyhow uh well that’s it until next time we’ll see you on paved road you