Eleven adults were stranded across four separate groups when flash floods swept trails at Bryce Canyon National Park on Monday afternoon, and two of them were hospitalized after showing signs of hypothermia. It was August 24 in southern Utah.
A severe monsoonal storm hit the park around 2 p.m., bringing heavy rain, hail, lightning, mudslides and a sharp temperature drop, and sending water down several of the park's most heavily used routes, including Fairyland Loop, Navajo Loop, Queen's Garden and Peek-a-Boo Loop. Severe lightning initially delayed responders. Fifteen to twenty first responders from the Garfield County Sheriff's Office, its search and rescue team, county emergency medical services and the park service reached the groups and walked them out between about 2:30 and 5:30 p.m., FOX 13 reported. No serious injuries were reported, and everyone was accounted for. State Route 12 was closed temporarily and has since reopened.
The two accounts of the medical toll differ. The sheriff's office said 11 adults in four groups were rescued; two were taken to a hospital with hypothermia symptoms, and the other nine were evaluated and released at the scene. The park's own account described approximately 11 hypothermia patients located in the Bryce Amphitheater, including one who was in critical condition when rescued. The two descriptions have not been reconciled publicly.
What surprises people is the hypothermia itself. Hikers cold enough in August to require a hospital is not a fluke, and the combination that produced it is common enough across the Southwest every summer that the park had warned about it earlier this month.
Cold Water and Wet Clothes Do Not Wait for Winter
Hypothermia means a core body temperature below 95 degrees. Air temperature is only one input, and often not the decisive one.
Three factors do most of the damage. Water pulls heat from the body far faster than air of the same temperature, and flash flood water in a canyon comes from higher elevations and arrives cold. Wet clothing keeps working against you after the water is gone, because evaporation continues to strip heat. Wind through a canyon accelerates it all.
Elevation compounds the problem at Bryce specifically. The park's rim sits between roughly 8,000 and 9,100 feet, high enough to run considerably cooler than the surrounding desert. A storm that drops the air temperature sharply in minutes, soaks a hiker who set out in a t-shirt, and adds wind produces a person losing heat much faster than they can generate it.
Exertion masks the early stages. Someone hiking hard may feel warm while their core drops, and the trouble often becomes obvious when they stop moving.
The Signs, in the Order They Arrive
Early hypothermia looks like discomfort rather than an emergency. Shivering, cold hands and feet, and a general reluctance to keep going.
The next stage is where rescuers focus, because the signs are behavioral rather than physical. Clumsiness and stumbling. Slurred or mumbled speech. Fumbling with zippers, buckles or a phone. Confusion, poor decisions, and unusual irritability or apathy. Mountain rescue teams use the shorthand of stumbles, mumbles, fumbles, and grumbles precisely because those four are visible in a companion before the person notices anything themselves.
Severe hypothermia is marked by shivering stopping, which is frequently misread as improvement. It is the opposite. It means the body has run out of capacity to generate heat by shivering, and it is accompanied by muscle rigidity, worsening confusion, and eventually loss of consciousness.
The field response is to get the person out of wind and water, remove wet clothing, insulate them from the ground, add dry layers and a windproof outer layer, and give warm sweet drinks only if they are fully alert and able to swallow. Handle a severely hypothermic person gently and get them to emergency care. Alcohol makes it worse, and vigorous rubbing of cold limbs is not helpful.
A Warning That Preceded the Rescue
The park had issued exactly this caution. In a news release earlier this month, the National Park Service noted that August and September bring monsoon conditions to the Southwest, that seemingly clear conditions can give way to intense afternoon thunderstorms, and that the resulting hazards include flash floods, debris-laden waterfalls, trail washouts and rockfall. It stated that visitors are responsible for their own safety and should check forecasts and flash flood potential before entering any canyon.
That is not a criticism of the eleven hikers, whose circumstances are not publicly known. It is an observation about how these events work. Southwest monsoon flooding is seasonal, forecast, and warned about, and it still catches people out because the storm that causes it frequently falls miles upstream under a clear sky overhead.
Anyone hiking in canyon terrain from July through September can check the National Weather Service flash flood page for the region and the park's current conditions and alerts before setting out. The practical rules are short. Do not enter a narrow canyon when thunderstorms are forecast anywhere in the drainage. Move to high ground at the first sign of rising or discolored water, or a roar upstream. Never try to cross moving water. Carry a rain shell and an insulating layer even on a hot day, because the layer that prevents hypothermia weighs almost nothing and lives in the bottom of a pack all summer without being used.
Older adults, children, and anyone who is lean, fatigued, underfed, or dehydrated lose heat faster. So does anyone who has been drinking.
One last point about group behavior. In each of the four groups stranded at Bryce Canyon, the people best placed to spot early hypothermia were the companions rather than the affected hiker, and that generally holds. Anyone leading a group in canyon country during monsoon season should check others for coordination and speech rather than asking whether they feel cold, because that question stops being reliable at exactly the point it starts to matter.
Key Questions Answered
What happened at Bryce Canyon? Flash floods on Monday afternoon stranded 11 adults in four groups on trails including Fairyland Loop, Navajo Loop, Queen's Garden and Peek-a-Boo Loop. The sheriff's office said two were hospitalized with hypothermia symptoms and nine were released at the scene.
Why do the accounts differ? The park service described approximately 11 hypothermia patients, including one in critical condition, while the sheriff's office reported two hospitalized. The discrepancy has not been publicly reconciled.
How can someone get hypothermia in August? Cold water pulls heat from the body far faster than air, wet clothing keeps stripping heat through evaporation, and canyon wind accelerates both. The Bryce Canyon rim sits above 8,000 feet, where it runs much cooler than surrounding areas.
What is hypothermia? A core body temperature below 95 degrees. It progresses from shivering and cold extremities to confusion and impaired coordination, and in severe cases, shivering stops entirely.
Which signs are most useful to spot in someone else? Stumbling, slurred speech, fumbling with simple tasks, and unusual irritability or apathy. These often appear before the person recognizes a problem.
What should someone do in the field? Get out of wind and water, remove wet clothing, insulate from the ground, add dry layers, and give warm, sweet drinks only if the person is fully alert. Seek emergency care for severe cases.
When is flash flood season in the Southwest? Roughly July through September, during monsoon conditions. Storms falling miles upstream can send water down a canyon under a clear sky.
