Flash Floods Turn Monument Valley Highway Into River of Mud

Muddy floodwater poured across a highway in Monument Valley as severe storms lashed the Navajo Nation, swallowing the roadside in thick red sludge beneath the area’s famous rock towers.

The Navajo Police Department shared videos of the scene on October 21, with the footage provided by a community member. Reddish-brown water gushes across U.S. Highway 163 at Milepost 1, carving channels through the dirt and leaving rocks and debris strewn across the asphalt as a car pushes slowly through the mud.

A second video, filmed in Rock Point, Arizona, that morning, shows dark storm clouds and curtains of rain sweeping over the desert highway and mesas, while a third, taken in nearby Oljato, Utah, at 2:45 p.m., shows the Oljato Wash running high with churning reddish-brown floodwater beneath the mesas. “Never drive through water covering washes or roadways,” police warned. “Your vehicle is not worth risking your life.” The department also warned of a risk of severe thunderstorms across the Navajo Nation that could bring damaging winds, large hail, flooding and even tornadoes, urging people to check road conditions and plan travel carefully.

The National Weather Service issued flood watches for northern Arizona through Thursday evening, warning of flash flooding in washes and at low-water crossings. The Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park Scenic Drive was closed until further notice because of flooding, the Navajo Nation Division of Transportation said.