Flooding in Oak Creek Canyon has stranded about 65 campers and camp hosts at Cave Springs Campground since Sunday.
Flooding and debris made the creek impassable to vehicles.
Coconino County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Jon Paxton said deputies are in contact with those trapped on the western side of the creek.
“We were able to see them across the way. They seem in good spirits; they were coming down, waving at us,” he said. “Everybody's fine right now, and they've been very patient and waiting for the water to go down.”
Paxton said the sheriff’s office is working with the Arizona Department of Public Safety and the U.S. Forest Service to respond.
A DPS helicopter dropped two days' worth of food for the stranded campers on Tuesday. But Paxton said it was mostly precautionary and that the group is otherwise well-provisioned.
A deputy and member of the Coconino County Search and Rescue team accompanied the helicopter and spoke with campers.
“It’s just rare that something like this happens,” Paxton said. "You'll see that water come up due to rain and go over those low-water crosses, but generally it's just a couple hours. You’ve just got to wait for that water to go down. It's pretty rare — I've probably seen it twice where it's been sustained for this amount of time."
He said officials expect the water to subside by Wednesday afternoon.
After the levels decrease U.S. Forest Service crews will clear the crossings of the boulders, logs and stumps deposited by floodwaters.
The National Weather Service says nearly 4.5 inches of rain have fallen across parts of the Oak Creek watershed since Saturday.
Oak Creek peaked at more than 2,500 cubic feet per second Tuesday morning — about five times its average flow.
