Big losses and even bigger gains in Utah, Chapter 1: Nature's dark side

As much as we love Las Vegas Bay Campground, we were ready to leave after staying twice as long as planned. We braved the 90-degree heat and got a whole list of repairs and modifications done. We had high hopes that, as we left the heat and went north into Utah, that we'd also be able to chill out a little more.

We entered Utah with no plans. We had hoped to stay at our first dispersed camping site and learn the ropes of BLM camping, but after not finding a spot, we settled for a last-minute site at the KOA in Hurricane, UT. It just wasn't the vibe we wanted. The sites were jam packed, the weekend crowds were there, and the set-up of the KOA wasn't our favorite, being situated on a hill and having very unlevel, tight sites. We stayed for two nights but then figured out our next move. We wanted to get back to nature, but staying south near Zion wasn't what we needed. We weren't ready to brave the hoards of visitors in such a popular National Park. We also had stuff to do, to continue our endless repair list that we started in Vegas Bay. We decided to head north, to a little county park in Spanish Fork, Utah. After two months of searching, we finally found a guy to look at our axles, and his company was only about 20 minutes away from Spanish Fork. We decided to spend 3 nights at the park in order to get him out to take a look. It's a whole axle story which you can find here.

On our drive through Utah, I asked Anthony why they call it the Beehive State. We noticed during our days of playing Geoguessr that all the road signs have a beehive symbol on them. Does Utah have a lot of bees? Later I discovered that yes, they do, and they also seem to really like me. But, upon doing my research, actual bees have little to do with the state's nickname. The idea behind the beehive is that everyone works to achieve harmony, connection, and community. It's an idea that stemmed from the Mormons. Like worker bees, everyone bands together to create a working structure for life to flourish.

There weren't many options for RV camping that would put us near Garret the axle guy, but when we got to Spanish Fork River Campground, we immediately felt at ease. It was the nature feel that we wanted. Boondocking sites dotted the outside of the park, with a lovely day-use area in the middle. It was situated alongside a river and was surrounded by mountains.

We arrived to Spanish Fork River Park and found our site, a beautiful, large grassy area with a patio, grill, and firepit. The river was flowing rapidly about 30 feet behind us, and we saw a few small puddles of standing water around our campsite and in other parts of the park. Nothing we saw surprised us; snowmelt in the mountains was causing a lot of flooding in all parts of the country, especially out west. Anthony went to check in with the camphost and he told us to keep an eye on the US Geological Survey (USGS) website for flood levels. The river's height was supposed to peak that following Wednesday; we were supposed to leave on Tuesday. The website lists categories for flood watch and warning levels. Anything above 8 feet would bump us into action level, aka flood warning, aka remove yourself from the area. For river flow rate, we would be springing into action at 2200cfs.

You may recall, this was not our first flood watch at a campground. Back in late January, we were evacuated from a state park in Louisiana because the water levels were getting too high. Half our campground loop flooded and we needed to leave after dark and find our way to a different state park. It was stressful, and we both happened to also be sick at the time which made things worse, but we got out safely. Since then we've talked many times about the Louisiana State Parks and how their level of organization hindered communication to the campers on when to leave. Had we been left to our own devices, we likely would have left sooner, in the daylight. This time, at Spanish Fork, we had more information. We knew what to watch. In addition to the USGS website, I also downloaded a River Watch app that showed me the trajectory of river flow in different areas. We decided to take things a day at a time, and if at any point we needed to leave, we'd try our darndest to do it in the daytime! We didn't want another repeat of Louisiana.

We were incredibly diligent. We monitored the website, the app, and the actual vicinity every few hours at most. We spoke to some of our campground neighbors. On the day we arrived, our neighbor one site over told me she thought the flood predictions were "disconcerting." She was gone early the next morning. The day after, the neighbors behind us packed up and left. It was eerily quiet in our loop, a contrast to the loop across the campground, which was practically full. Did they know something we didn't? We didn't think so, considering the river flowed right behind their sites, and the county was already doing construction to dredge the river on that side to make it wider. There was also a fairly large puddle forming between that loop and the day use parking lot. And so, we continued with our due diligence. We at least wanted to hold out until Garret our axle guy could come and take a look. He came that Sunday, our second day at the park.

Garret has been in the area for a while, and he told us about a few floods in Spanish Fork's history. He asked us, "Aren't you concerned about the water over there?" and we answered yes, but we were keeping track of the levels very carefully. By that point on Sunday afternoon, we had decided that we would likely leave the next day, even though we had booked until Tuesday. Each night the water levels rose higher, and the peaks were in the middle of the night, between midnight and 4AM. We didn't want to risk an evacuation in the middle of the night.

Garret diagnosed our axle problem: one bent axle and another bent swing bar, which was welded to the second axle. Both would need to be replaced. That was the worst news we could get about our axles. They shouldn't have been anywhere near the end of their life. We only had the trailer for 18 months! And so, we added the axle replacement to the list of repairs that had started back at Las Vegas Bay. The good news was that Garret said it's not unsafe to drive on the axles. We were just getting faster, uneven wear on our tires. He gave us the name of a company that could build and install new axles for us, and in the meantime, he advised us to get an extra spare tire in case the uneven wear led to blow-outs during our travels. Then it was up to us to decide how quickly we wanted to get the axles done.

The rest of our Sunday consisted of basking in the sunshine on our patio and installing our new sun shade. We took a walk with Tanner around 8:30PM - sunset - and gauged the water levels. The puddle between A Loop and the day use area had gotten slightly larger. The river's flow looked the same. Two tent campers pulled into the park and we waved as they drove by. They set up camp in the site behind us. It felt comforting that we were no longer the only ones in B Loop. Next to our campsite, the standing water was surprisingly low. It would need to rise a couple of feet in order to reach ground level. The USGS website was showing levels around 6ft and they shouldn't rise much overnight. We were confident that we could make it through the night and leave the following afternoon, when the waters had receded the most. And with that, it was time to get ready for bed. We decided to tag team with our monitoring. I would stay up until 1AM and check the levels before going to sleep. Then Anthony would get up by 5AM to check the levels again.

At 10:30PM, Anthony took Tanner out for his last bathroom break of the night. I was already in bed winding down and getting ready for a night of blogging and reading until my 1AM bedtime. As soon as Anthony opened the front door, we heard the sound of rushing water. Our trailer is an all-aluminum tank, and so it blocks out sound fairly well. Any water we heard with the door shut just sounded like the river, but as soon as we had the door open, we realized that the water was way closer than it had been just two hours ago. I told Anthony to check it out when he was out with Tanner. We still had a good 2-6 hours of increasing levels before it would recede again, and we didn't want to get woken up in the middle of the night to a flooded campsite. Anthony came back inside and said, "Yeah, I think we need to leave now." I almost didn't believe it. The levels were still well in the provisional category, clocking at 6ft and only 1300cfs. But the rushing water outside was telling us more than the website ever could. So there we were, starting to pack up to evacuate after dark - the very situation we were trying to avoid. We had no idea where we would go, but we had made a list of options.

1. Stay in the campground but move to higher ground if we thought it was safe
2. Head 20 minutes back towards town, where there was a Love's truck stop, a Cracker Barrel, and a Walmart that all allowed overnight parking

We didn't know how drastic of a measure we'd need to take, and so I told Anthony, before we pack up, let's do an investigation around the campground and see what the situation is really like. Then we'll have a better idea if we need to do a full packing job, or if we can just throw the valuables on the bed/floor and drive only a short distance.

We went outside and were shocked at what we saw. Even in those few minutes, Anthony said the water levels had increased several inches. The campsite next to us (where our smart neighbor left early) was now totally impeded by the river. The current had reached the road and was heading toward us. At our site, the road was covered in water but only to an inch or so. But there was a dip between the road and our grass site, and all the water was pooling there. I went to step towards the road and my foot sunk into the mud. The water was already over my ankle.

At that point I noticed that our tent camper neighbors were seemingly unaware of the disaster unfolding. They were sitting outside by their campfire. I told Anthony that I'd go take the truck and scout for higher ground and I'd also alert the neighbors. Anthony went back inside to do a quick pack.

I grabbed my non-phone flashlight and my old sneakers and waded my way over to the truck. As soon as I turned the headlights on, panic set in. I saw a fuller scope of what I had only been able to see with my small phone flashlight. In the glow of the headlights, I could see the rushing water and erosion from the river to the right, and puddles rising to the left. I quickly took the truck and turned left, where the water hadn't quite submerged the road yet. With my soaked sneakers and pant legs rolled up, I pulled up to our neighbors' site and got out. I must have looked like a crazy person and could see the immediate look of concern on the girl's face. I told her and her boyfriend that the water was coming in fast and that we were going to try to evacuate with our RV. In true Utah fashion, the first thing out of the girl's mouth was, "Do you need any help?" I told her no, and advised them to pack up quickly. They thanked me for coming over.

While I talked to the neighbors, I saw that the other side of our campground loop was still dry. I took the truck over there and scouted out the ground. Everything was dry, and there was a flat grassy area. I drove further, over to the day-use area. The parking lot is gravel, and so I figured that parking on gravel would be better than grass, if we could help it. Unfortunately, the day-use lot was flooding and the gravel portion was already mostly submerged. I rushed back to our campsite to update Anthony.

We needed to leave our site immediately. Anymore water coming in, and I don't think the trailer would be able to get out. Thankfully, we had just gotten new tires on our truck (thanks, random nail!) and so we'd just trust the tires and 4-wheel-drive to get Buggy out of there. We threw the rest of our stuff on the bed and floor, grabbed our pets, and left.

The mud was so bad that I knew Tanner wouldn't be able to make it into the truck. So I kept him with me (and Lily on my back in her backpack carrier) and told Tanner to stay back as I guided Anthony back towards our tongue to hitch up. We had never hitched up so fast in our lives, and luckily we had no levelers to come off of, so we just hitched without our anti-sway bars, grabbed our wheel chocks, and got into the truck. Tanner needed to be lifted onto his seat, and we were all soaked and muddy when we got in. Anthony put the truck in 4-wheel-drive and we successfully got out of the flood, now reaching close to a foot deep in some places. I guided Anthony around towards our neighbors' site. They were still there, but they had moved their tent away from the puddle nearest them. I told Anthony that we could go to the other side of the loop and pull over so we could finish packing. Then we could decide where to go. We headed over to the grassy field by the road and found a spot that looked dry and level to pull over. I got out of the truck and turned back towards the trailer, and that's when my heart sank.

To be continued...