ARCHES NATIONAL PARK — A flash flood stranded 73 people at Arches National Park Wednesday.
The individuals, and their 22 vehicles, were stuck for about eight hours after water hit the Salt Wash around 5:30 p.m., said Denny Ziemann, chief ranger of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.
The wash is on a small road that leads to the Delicate Arch viewpoint.
"It's not one of our washes that floods often," Ziemann said. "(The water) comes from points 40 or 50 miles away. It's kind of the last point it builds up before it gets to the Colorado River."
Ziemann said that while park visitors couldn't drive across the wash, they could walk across a nearby footbridge to make it over the water.
Park officials, concerned it could take some time for the water to recede, sent a bus to retrieve people and supply food and water. Most people, though, opted to wait it out.
"About 2:30 in the morning it receded enough they could drive out," Ziemann said.
No one was injured in the flood, which hit when skies were clear and sunny.
"They were never in danger, it was more just being stranded," Ziemann said.
— Emiley Morgan, Twitter: DNewsCrimeTeam