Visiting Southern Utah With Monsoonal Patterns
Suppose you’ve spent time in Southern Utah. In that case, you may know that this area frequently sees a monsoon pattern in the summer: violent bursts of afternoon thunderstorms that can be a pleasant summer sprinkle or produce enough moisture to flood canyons, towns, and roads.
Monsoon is a magical time in the desert: deeper shades of green take hold amongst the desert’s vegetation, water pockets fill, and the unforgiving summer heat no longer seems quite so unforgiving. Rainbows are frequent visitors; if you are lucky enough to catch a fiery desert sunset framed by monsoon storms, it will surely burn itself into your memory.
Yet monsoons can make travel challenging. Powerful downpours make for difficult driving conditions, and they can trigger mudslides which regularly impact mountainous thruways such as SR-9 through Zion National Park. In addition, many visitors to this region enjoy recreating in areas that can only be accessed via unpaved roads. Those can be rendered impassable by a monsoon, either because the roads wash out or because the roadbed consists of bentonite clay – a prevalent type of soil in the region which assumes black-ice-like properties when wet.
Maybe the most well-known of those regional access roads is a 30-mile stretch of dirt called Houserock Valley Road because that’s how you access the trailhead for the famous Wave. Road conditions are reported by BLM field staff or by expert backcountry users like the guides of Dreamland Safari Tours, who travel Houserock Valley road daily for Dreamland’s sought-after tours to the Wave, South Coyote Buttes, Buckskin Gulch, and White Pocket.
“Is Houserock Valley Road passable for regular passenger vehicles?” may be a top question that rangers and guides receive from visitors during monsoon season. Answers are usually frustratingly inconclusive – here is why: Houserock Valley Road crosses Buckskin Wash, one of the biggest drainages in the area, which channels water from as far north as Bryce down to the Colorado River. Even if the drainage is passable on a given afternoon, flood waters produced by afternoon thunderstorms further north don’t reach the Houserock Valley area until several hours later. If the region receives enough rain to trigger a flash flood in Buckskin, the road that was passable at 6 PM despite rainstorms overhead may be blocked by a raging torrent at 6 AM, despite clear skies overhead.
Monsoon in Southern Utah typically lasts from mid-June through mid-September. If your adventure plans include traveling Houserock Valley Road during periods of unsettled weather, make sure you call the BLM or Dreamland Safari Tours at 435-644-5506 for important up-to-date information.
