Severe Flooding Causes Damage, Closures

Heavy rains on the evening of Sunday, January 27th, and into the following morning led to the rapid melting of the snowpack in the Gila Wilderness, causing the West and Middle Forks of the Gila River to rise to the highest levels in over a decade. Flooding has isolated the park’s cliff dwellings unit and washed away the approaches to the West Fork bridge. The visitor center and housing area are also currently isolated, with waters over the bridge at Little Creek just north of the village of Gila Hotsprings. The cliff dwellings unit will probably be closed for at least a month, as happened when the same bridge washed out in February of 2005, but it is hoped that the Little Creek bridge has not sustained significant damage and that  Gila Visitor Center will be reopened in a couple of days. That determination was to be made after flood waters receded. Forest Service and NPS staff continue to work to evacuate a family trapped above the West Fork bridge at the Forest Service’s Upper Scorpion campground.