Dealing With Flooded Camp Sites

Noah had advance warning and considerable time to prepare for The Flood.  Also some expert advice!  When we're camping, we usually don't get much advance warning.  In fact, if we knew bad weather was coming we probably wouldn't be camping in the first place. While completely avoiding situations where your camp site might get flooded is certainly the best approach, there may be times when you get caught in flood waters in spite of your best efforts.  Flash floods can hit from rain many miles away.

If you select your camp sites properly, you shouldn't have any problems with flooding.  But sometimes your options are limited.  Given a choice, set up camp (tent or RV) on a slight rise so that any water that may arrive doesn't flow under your RV or into your tent.  Never set up camp in a dry wash or a deep depression if there is any chance of rain.  Even if the rain is many miles away, flood waters may rush down dry washes with surprising force and speed.  Always avoid RV camping or parking on marshy ground where vehicles can sink in.  If the ground is already soft, a sudden rain can nearly liquify it, allowing tires and leveling jacks to sink deep into the mud and making it very difficult or perhaps even impossible to drive out  Getting towed out of a situation like that can be very expensive.  I've even seen would-be rescuers get stuck and have to towed out, greatly multiplying the frustration, delay, and expense.  In some places even extremely hard ground can get surprisingly soft when it rains.  I've seen places where rocks that were so gripped by the hard dirt around them when dry that a pick broke trying to dig them out, but the same rocks sank out of sight when stepped on after a moderate rain!  Marshy ground isn't a good place to set up your tent either.  Pegs are likely to pull loose and you will probably get a lot of water wicking up through the floor unless you have a really good ground cloth. 

I got surprised by flooding during one desert camp out.  We were on solid, gravely ground that was fairly level and we were in a frequently used parking area, not in a depression, sand wash or dry creek bed.  And, we were in the desert!  Even so, heavy rains one evening delivered water rushing down off the nearby hills and under and around our RV, bringing with it enough silt that our grass patio mat had disappeared -- it was completely buried under about an inch of mud the next morning.   Basically the entire parking area was in the path of runoff from not too distant hills, turning it into a broad, shallow river.  Further analysis showed the only way to have avoided the problem would have been to camp somewhere else entirely (i.e, totally different venue).  There was little we could do except do our best to avoid tracking mud into the motorhome, usually by leaving muddy shoes outside or just inside the door and wait for the sun to dry things out.  When we packed up at the end of the outing we shook as much mud and dirt off the grass mat as we could, then folded it up and stuffed in the back or our motorcycle trailer.  At home we hung in on a corral fence and used a power washer to restore it to usable condition.  We left it hanging on the fence and by the next day it was try enough to roll up and store back in its proper cabinet on the motorhome, clean and dry and ready to use again.

If you do get flooded out, sometimes your best bet it to just sit tight until the water recedes and the ground dries out enough for you to drive out.  Hopefully you won't be in water deep enough that it gets inside your RV, although that is a possibility if you are in a low enough spot and/or there is enough rain.  Attempting to exit over soft or flooded ground is likely to result in getting your vehicles thoroughly stuck.  If you must leave before things dry out, it is a good idea to walk the route you plan to take to see if there are any soft spots or unexpected obsctacles, or drop offs.  Driving through flood waters isn't a good idea.  You can't see obstacles and are likely to find yourself and your vehicle in a worse situation than you started. Flood waters often bring boulders and other debris than wasn't there when you drove in, possibly creating severe hazards to driving out.   Driving through water can also get the brakes wet and you will have significantly reduced stopping power.  Wet surfaces have 50% or less friction than dry ones.

Dealing with a flooded camp site in a tent can be lot more devastating.   Had we been camping in tents instead of RVs when the above mentioned incident happened, it would have been our tents and sleeping bags instead of a grass mat that were buried in mud!  It is CRITICAL that tents be set up on high enough ground so they won't ever be in the path of rising water.  Finding "high ground" when camping in the desert can be difficult and options will be very limited when staying in developed campgrounds with assigned spaces.  Hopefully, developed campgrounds will have been properly engineered to drain properly without flooding the pads intended for tents.  In dispersed camping areas, try to find the highest spot you can, especially if there is any chance of rain.

Stay dry!