A filthy, slow-moving wall of soot, mud, and debris washed down the length of Pack Creek through Spanish Valley on July 25 after a monsoon storm hit the Pack Creek burn scar.
No one was injured in the slow-motion flash flood, which took several hours to make its way approximately ten miles through Spanish Valley and to the Colorado River.  

Falling water levels in Lake Powell leaves just one motorized entrance at the northern end of the lake.
In response to rapidly declining water levels in Lake Powell, the National Park Service has announced immediate work on two projects to extend a launch ramp in the Bullfrog area and rehabilitate a legacy ramp in the Wahweap area.

If you’d like to catch a fish in Utah’s beautiful outdoors but you don’t have a fishing license, Free Fishing Day is the perfect opportunity to give it a try. 
Free Fishing Day will is this Saturday, June 12, and allows anyone to fish at any public waterbody in Utah without a license.

Arches and Canyonlands national parks are preparing for a busy Memorial Day weekend, and are advising visitors to expect heavy traffic, crowded trails, and limited parking.
Visitors should plan ahead and have a back-up plan if they are not able to enter the parks during the busiest hours of the morning and early afternoon. 

Spring has arrived in the Canyon Country, and its arrival also marks a significant increase in visitation.
Because of a host of social distancing restrictions that have been implemented in Grand County due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual Moab Easter Jeep Safari is having a larger impact on northern San Juan County.

The International Dark Sky Association (IDA) has awarded International Dark Sky Park designations to Goosenecks and Fremont Indian state parks.
Both parks have exceptionally dark skies in beautiful and unique settings. These parks bring the total dark sky designations to ten within the Utah Division of State Parks system. This is more designations than any other state park system in the world.

The 2021 Rally on the Rocks event is re-locating entirely within San Juan County.
In December county commissioners put a halt to the event in Grand County.
The rally hoped to move across the county line to the old Spanish Valley Airport strip, but in January the San Juan County Commission voted 2-1 to deny the lease agreement.

Several days of storms and an apparent change from the dry and warm weather pattern were not enough to break San Juan County out of the drought conditions that have gripped the area.
In the end, January was another dryer-than-normal month in San Juan County.

First rays of a beautiful San Juan morning hit South Peak on the Abajo Mountains.  Mikel Moses photo
 

Wispy clouds lazily shrouding the buttes of Monument Valley.  Cherissa Dance photo
 

In the aftermath of last January’s tragic avalanche fatality in the La Sal Mountains near Moab, the State of Utah declared the first week of each December as Avalanche Awareness Week.
Utah state Congressman Phil Lyman (R, San Juan County) and state senator Kirk Cullimore (R, Salt Lake County, District 9) submitted HB 380 to Governor Gary Herbert which he promptly signed into law.

The Blue Mountains wear a necklace of clouds on a wintery November day.  Kay Shumway photo