CATALINA STATE PARK, Ariz. (KGUN) — Inside Catalina State Park, rushing water pierced through the calm scenery. The wash that runs through the center of the park was flooded after a rainy weekend in Tucson, leaving nearly 300 campers stuck on the other side of the wash.
"People can't get in and can't get out, but every one is safe in the camp ground," Steven Haas, the manager of Catalina State Park, said. "They just can't drive a vehicle across the road until we can clear it out."
Haas said they've been working on clearing the area so that people could drive out by the end of the day Thursday.
"It's not the water that stops people it's the sand so we are in the process of trying to remove all that sand," he said. "And there's about 5 feet of sand just sitting in the road."
But two campers didn't let the mud stop them from wading through the wash. Grace Templeton and Gabriel Schirn originally planned to camp for one night at Catalina State Park. They ended up having to stay an extra few nights due to the flooding.
"I have a recital for the desert song festival that I'm supposed to play in tonight and it looked shallow enough that we could give it a try," Templeton said.
Schirn said it was easy to get stuck in the mud in the area.
"We felts some sinking into the sand and Grace expertly led us to a more stable path on the road," he said.
Haas said this flooding is common during the summer, which is the off season for the campsites. Now, the campsites are full of people and he said it's less common for this flooding to happen during this time.
"So state parks has funding for a bridge," he said. "They're working with ADOT but that's probably going to be a 2 or 3 year project, which would solve the problem."
----
STAY IN TOUCH WITH US ANYTIME, ANYWHERE
- Download our free app for Roku, FireTV, AppleTV, Alexa, and mobile devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Youtube
