After a slew of rescues in Utah’s Goblin Valley State Park in early April, first responders are urging visitors to be cautious when venturing into the area’s slot canyons.
Officials told Outside that the recent spike in emergencies stems from two dangerous, recurring mistakes: Hikers are underestimating the remote terrain and failing to check the weather.
Goblin Valley is a state park in southeastern Utah, known for thousands of mushroom-shaped sandstone hoodoos and twisting slot canyons. The bizarre landscape makes for a popular tourist stop, but the narrow canyons pose a serious flash-flood risk. The repetitive, maze-like terrain can routinely disorient even experienced hikers.
Drew Sprafke, Goblin Valley State Park manager, told Outside that park rangers assisted with search-and-rescue incidents almost every day during the week of April 5-11.
“It really just comes down to not taking the canyon country seriously,” Sprafke told Outside.
Emery County Sheriff Tyson Huntington, whose search-and-rescue team responded to several of the incidents, explained to Outside that one rescue, on April 8, involved a lost hiker in Little Wild Horse Canyon, a slot canyon on public lands just west of the park. Another rescue occurred the next day, when a hiker broke her ankle in a cave-like area inside the park called The Goblin’s Lair.
“One of the biggest mistakes we come across is people just going too far before they call us,” Huntington explained. “We don’t get a distress call until 10:00 or 11:00 P.M., and because there’s no daylight, it really hampers our efforts.”
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Rescuers’ Tips on Calling for Help
Huntington said hikers navigating the Little Wild Horse Canyon must take a left-hand turn into another tributary, Bell Canyon, to return to the trailhead. On April 8, a man in his seventies missed that turn and wandered deeper into the canyon, becoming lost. The man had cell service and texted 911 as soon as he realized he was off-trail.
“One of our search and rescue guys owns his own airplane, and he flew over with our emergency manager and got eyes on the missing hiker,” Huntington told Outside. Huntington’s search-and-rescue team then used off-road motorcycles and four-wheelers to reach the lost man.
Huntington said that although the man should have been more careful about his route-finding, he made the right decision by quickly calling for help.
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In a rescue on April 9, a young female hiker fell while hiking in the Goblin’s Lair cave and broke her ankle. Search-and-rescue team members rigged a rope system to rappel down to her and extract her in a basket. Huntington said that the hiker wasn’t off trail, and that here, too, the victim called for help quickly, making the rescue simple. “She called us early, so we were able to get in there and get her out before dark,” he said.
But Huntington added that the biggest risk in Goblin Valley’s narrow canyons isn’t getting lost or breaking an ankle. It’s flash flooding.
A Storm Miles Away Can Signal Flooding
“The rain doesn’t have to be where you are,” Huntington explained. “The rain can be miles away, and that water just ends up where you are, because of the canyon system. Often, people will look up the weather, and there’s no rain in their immediate area, so they think they’re okay, but it’s raining 15 miles away, and that water’s coming. That’s the most deadly part.”
Huntington said that in late March, a husband, wife, and daughter were trapped by a flash flood in one of Goblin Valley’s canyons. Although they climbed to higher ground, they were stuck in the canyon for several hours amid a torrential downpour, while waiting for the floodwaters to recede.
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“They were soaked, the temperatures were in the 40s Fahrenheit,” Huntington said. He added that although the family was unharmed, when rescuers finally reached them, they were near-hypothermic.
Sprafke echoed Huntington’s warning. “The biggest issue we see here is ignoring flash flood potential or not checking the weather,” he said.
He also noted that hikers underestimate some canyons, such as Little Wild Horse, because online descriptions label them as beginner- or family-friendly.
“They’re still very serious canyons, and we have a lot of people who don’t take them seriously or don’t plan ahead,” Sprafke said. Because of this, Little Wild Horse sees more rescues than any other canyon in the region, even though it’s not nearly as complex or technical as many other nearby canyons.
“Please help us get a break and follow some simple safety guidelines,” his park wrote in a release shared to Facebook on April 11.
To prevent further emergencies, Sprafke urges visitors to carry the ten essentials and consult the daily weather forecast his team posts on the doors of the visitor center every morning. If the skies are clear, enjoy the park. But if there is even a hint of rain, the safest choice is to stay out of the canyons entirely.
Heading outside? Make sure you pack these ten essentials.
- Navigation tools like a map, compass, or GPS system.
- Sun protection, including sunglasses, sunscreen, and a hat.
- Insulation such as a jacket, hat, gloves, rain shell, and thermal underwear.
- Illumination like a flashlight, lantern, or headlamp.
- First-aid supplies and a first-aid kit.
- Fire to use as an emergency signal or for cooking, including matches, lighters, and fire starters.
- Repair kit and tools like duct tape, a knife, a screwdriver, and scissors.
- Nutrition and food.
Hydration, water, and water treatment supplies.
Emergency shelter, like a tent, space blanket, tarp, and bivy.