This article was originally published on Backpacker

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Hiking permits to Havasu Falls are very difficult to obtain. However, the area is prone to flash floods, so hikers sometimes have to evacuate this special sacred area at short notice. go to higher ground.

That’s what happened around 9:00 a.m. on March 17, when rangers told campers they had 20 minutes to pack up camp and hike to the top of Havasu Falls. A flash flood is coming and will soon wash away the bridge to the campground. Campers usually stay between Havasu Falls and Mooney Falls, which are completely surrounded by canyon walls that are hundreds of feet high. After just an hour, all the bridges leading out of the town and the area were flooded or washed away, leaving hikers stranded.

Campers Deanna and Ian are currently spending the year in a converted school bus. Share your adventures on Instagram, two of their evacuees filmed their experiences. The video shows the normally turquoise Havasupai Falls smeared with mud and violent floodwaters sweeping down the trail.

Around 4pm, the stranded hikers were told they would have to climb up the side of the ravine to escape, and members of the local Havasupai tribe arrived in four-wheeled buggies, at higher altitudes than the campsite and windy conditions. I drove to the spy village, which was unaffected by the . flood. From there, hikers waited for helicopters to arrive that night and the next morning.

By the next morning, the floodwaters had receded, and on March 20, the Havasupai Tribal Tourism Board posted on Facebook that the tribe was “working hard to repair and replace the footbridge.” “How wonderful it was that the local tribesmen of Supai village helped us evacuate,” Deanna said in the caption of the video.

Flash floods occur regularly in the area and are devastating. In December 2022, President Joe Biden authorized a fund to help the Havasupai tribe repair damage caused by the disaster. Flood occurred in October of that year. At the time, flooding had destroyed several bridges and caused a tree to fall in the middle of an important trail.

Take care: If you get caught in a rapidly flooding area, move to higher ground immediately. Even if it’s not raining heavily nearby, you’ll have to move because floods can come in from other areas. After a flood, do not return to the area until the authorities are fully aware of the situation.

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