ESCALANTE - The bodies of a California couple who drowned after being caught in a flash flood while hiking in a slot canyon have been recovered, the Garfield County sheriff's office said Thursday.
Gordon and Kathy Chapple of Walnut Creek, Calif., were hiking Wednesday afternoon in a Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument canyon known locally as Egypt Three or Egypt Slot Number Three, when it started to rain. Within minutes the water was rising extremely fast, pushing the group of eight farther down the canyon.
Garfield County spokeswoman Becki Bronson said the couple's hiking guides, Elizabeth Kleiman and Cody Clapp, told sheriff's deputies that the Chapples, both 60, were swept away when the flood hit.
The six others in the group - including the couple's son Chris and daughter Katie - were able to cling to canyon walls and climb out.
Searchers found the Chapples' bodies in a downstream drainage.
In a statement, Garfield County Deputy Ray Gardner said hiking the slot canyons is dangerous.
"A storm could be literally miles away, you don't even have to be able to see the storm for it to cause swift flooding in a slot canyon," said Gardner. "As far as I'm concerned, if there is even one cloud in the sky anywhere, I wouldn't go near a slot canyon, it's just too risky and dangerous."
Escalante-based guide Rick Green, who helped with the search, said hikers who enter the Egypt slot are essentially stuck. It takes about three hours of hiking through the canyon before reaching a place to exit safely.
Bronson said Liz Fries, 30, and Tom Schrupp, 33, who were also in the party were flown by helicopter to Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George in southern Utah to be treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.
