Flagstaff resident Rob Decot had a front-row seat to the aftermath of devastating flooding within Grand Canyon National Park.
Decot said he was on a private river trip and was rafting just below Phantom Ranch on Aug. 30 — the day after flooding ripped through the inner canyon.
“Around mile 98, I was alerted that one of our boats was recovering a body,” Decot said. “We tied him to the boat.”
It was likely that of 46-year-old John Giusti, one of two Texas men confirmed to have been killed in the flood.
Decot says they pulled his body to the beach just above Crystal Rapid.
“It was a somber row down to the beach, but it was overwhelming — the knowledge that we were doing a service for the family and for the Park Service. We knew that right away,” Decot said. “Search and rescue showed up quickly with the helicopter, collected the body, and we had a moment of silence and a moment of gratitude.”
In addition to Giusti, the flooding also killed 42-year-old Brent Rosenkranz.
Search crews are still looking for one missing hiker who the Associated Press has identified as 53-year-old Timothy Smith. All three men had been hiking together.
The flooding also forced more than 80 people to evacuate and severely damaged miles of the pipeline that supplies water to the South Rim, plunging the park into a water crisis.
Decot said it left the river choked with debris.
“You could walk across every eddy,” Decot said. “Every eddy was chock-full of stuff. Cabinetry, freezers, freezers full of frozen Snickers bars and Uncrustables, personal items, a couple of refrigerators.”
‘The trail disappeared’
Decot said his party was at Boat Beach on Aug. 29. It’s an area close to Phantom Ranch and a popular stop for rafting parties.
Several members of the trip hiked to Phantom to mail postcards.
Then, the flooding struck.
“I saw a shipping container floating down Bright Angel Trail out into the river, burst out into the river with structures and these huge tumbles of organic debris. And the excitement started,” Decot said.
Videos provided by Decot show a violent, chocolate-colored flow out of Bright Angel Creek.
“The debris caused a dam here at the end of Bright Angel Trail, and Boat Beach, I don’t think we can call it Boat Beach anymore. It’s just not there,” Decot said. “Helicopters were coming in constantly to evacuate.”
They set off the next day, running the newly created rapid at the mouth of Bright Angel Creek.
Miles above Decot’s party, Flagstaff resident Michael Harrison and two friends were hiking down the North Kaibab Trail.
A video taken by Harrison depicts thunder booming overhead as dark brown water rushes over the trail.
Large rocks are scattered across the switchback, left there by a surge of water down the slope.
“Flash flood man; scared the s— out of me,” Harrison can be heard saying as the camera sweeps across a view of the trail and the canyon. “Super f—ing scary man. This is super f—ing scary.”
Harrison said they had set out on the trail mid-morning and intended to reach Cottonwood Campground, about seven miles above Phantom Ranch.
Harrison said he was hiking ahead of his friends and was just over a mile down the trail when heavy rain and flooding hit.
“I was about ready to make the left turn down the switchback,” Harrison said “All of the sudden the trail disappeared and I was in 18 inches of water. I ‘Spider-Man’d’ myself against the wall of the mountain, trying to find some roots to hold on to.”
Harrison said he scrambled back up the trail, clinging onto the roots of a tree.
“That's when I held on for dear life and the five-foot wall of water just came down, and rocks, and trees, and just went straight down into the other parts of the switchback,” Harrison said. “The sound was just so menacing. When it was all said and done, and the rain stopped, the boulders that I saw, the trail totally changed.”
Now back in Flagstaff, Harrison says he can't stop thinking about an older hiker who was a switchback below him.
“I pray that the gentleman is safe and sound,” Harrison said.
He says he doesn’t know if the man made it out and reported it to the sheriff’s office.
Park officials say they’ve received hundreds of tips from the public about day hikers who were in the area during the flooding.
They say park staff and Coconino County Sheriff’s deputies have worked to verify day hikers made it out and say they have no reason to believe there are missing day hikers.
