Earlier this month the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Utah said in a Facebook post people should “watch out for quicksand at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument” after a hiker found themselves stuck in sand that they said was chest-deep.
“Rangers patrolled the rockfall dam in Bull Valley Gorge after receiving a quicksand report from a hiker,” the post read. “The hiker said the quicksand was chest deep and shared that they would have been unable to extract themselves from the sand if alone.”
The BLM also shared photos of a quicksand area that appeared to be surrounded by mud cracks. These mud cracks “give the illusion of stability” the organization warned, when in fact the ground is unstable.
The BLM also warned that quicksand can sap warmth from the body, posing another risk for anyone who falls into it. “Nights are still cold in the canyons, but even during a warm day—wet sand can reduce body temperatures causing a serious exposure issue.”
Quicksand refers to a region of sand that acquires the character of a liquid, meaning that it loses its ability to support weight. The sinister sand has often been depicted in films over the years, trapping unwitting explorers.
While it may now be regarded as a bit of a movie trope, quicksand can pose a genuine threat in some areas. The BLM’s warning this month was shared on Twitter by Rebecca Helm, assistant professor of biology at the University of North Carolina Asheville, who said that she once got caught in quicksand in Arizona and that it was “one of the scariest hiking moments of my life.”
Helm said she had been hiking near Grand Falls, Arizona, when she tried to cross a riverbed and stepped onto some cracked mud. She instantly sank up to her knee and kept sinking.
“The quicksand I fell into wasn’t so much sand as clay, holding my leg like a vice,” she wrote. “I couldn’t get free, and the more I tried the deeper I went. My buddy grabbed my hands and leaned his body back, and it took MUSCLE. My leg came out with an audible pop as we broke the suction of the sand.”
In 2019, search and rescue teams at Zion National Park in Utah had to be called to assist a man whose leg had become stuck in quicksand according to the National Park Service (NPS). He was in the quicksand for hours until his hiking partner got cell phone signal to call for help, and it was several more hours until he could be located and freed. The man was treated for hypothermia and extracted via helicopter before a waiting ambulance took him to hospital.
