Grand Canyon Flash Flood Leaves Three Texas Hikers Missing

Aspen —Did you check the weather app before heading into the canyon?

It is a question that feels absurdly small against the scale of what happened this weekend, but it is likely the first thought racing through the minds of anyone who booked a trip to the Grand Canyon in July.

The answer, for John Giusti and two of his friends, is that they did not see the wall coming.

Giusti, 53, a chiropractor from Granbury, Texas, had been talking about this specific trip for years. He set out Thursday with Brent Rosenkranz, 42, a martial arts studio owner from the same town, and Timothy Smith, 53, a pilot from Wyoming. Their plan was simple: two nights at the bottom of the canyon, fishing and hiking. They called their families Thursday. They found their campsite Friday. Then the silence started, as reported by the Vail Daily.

The flash flood hit Saturday afternoon. It was not a gentle drizzle; it was a massive deluge that turned the Colorado River into a churning, debris-filled torrent. Hikers standing near the river described seeing huge pools of logs rolling down the water while they waited for helicopters. The rain shrouded the canyon walls, making visibility near zero.

Daniel Evans, a hiker in the area, described the panic of that 30-minute downpour. He had been planning to rest through the heat, but rangers who had earlier told him it looked safe suddenly ordered everyone to move.

“The entire time it was raining — the entire time I’m going through all this and packing — I’m just keeping my eyes upstream, just praying that a wall of water isn’t coming toward us,” Evans said.

He thought of the landslides in Nepal that had poured down mountain valleys just days earlier. He knew what water does when it has nowhere to go but down.

The flood’s impact extends far beyond the hikers who are missing. The Vail Daily reported that Saturday’s deluge severely damaged the only water pipeline into the canyon. That is a critical detail for anyone who has ever stayed at the lodges or hotels inside Grand Canyon National Park. Officials have barred tourists from staying in those facilities and issued emergency water restrictions for year-round residents. If the pipeline breaks, the plumbing stops. The coffee gets thin. The showers get lukewarm or nonexistent.

Park officials recovered the body of a 46-year-old man Sunday evening near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River. They are still trying to recover a second body. As of Monday, more than a dozen people remain missing. Searchers on the air and ground continue to look for Giusti, Rosenkranz, and Smith.

Their families released a joint statement Monday saying the three men had planned “several days of hiking, camping, fishing and exploring together.” It is a phrase that sounds like a brochure. It does not sound like a tragedy, yet it is the backdrop for three families now waiting on news that has not come.

Forecasters warned that more flooding was possible as heavy rain continued to shroud the canyon walls. The water is still high. The debris is still moving.

In Granbury, Texas, three families are watching the sky. They know what a 30-minute downpour can do to a valley floor. They are waiting for the next update, hoping it is a rescue, dreading that it is an identification. The canyon is vast and deep, and the water does not care about your itinerary.