Ever been totally rained out?

RoyB wrote:
We was tent camping in the Smoky Mtn Natl Park in Gatlinburg TN one year setup near the banks of LITTLE RIVER flowing through the ELKMONT camp.

Got woke up in the middle of the night by the Park Rangers to evacuate the camp grounds as the LITTLE RIVER was overflowing its bank.

No time to break camp or anything - just grabbed a few things, got into the truck and headed for higher ground.

Got to go back later on after sunrise and found our site pretty much in tact but the whole roll of tents on the waterside got washed out. There was tents scattered for miles downstream...

No one hurt with many thanks to well alerted Park Rangers...

Roy Ken

I think we were down stream in Pigeon Forge that year! watched that stream go from easy flowing to raging river and 2 foot from camper. I had everything ready to bug out if needed. We were camped at Myrtle beach when Sandy came through..LOTS and LOTS of rain and local flooding..We spent most of our time in the malls at Myrtle just to stay dry.. Popup was the last time we left early due to rain..
Randy

We were almost driven out by bears at Waterton Lakes but never by rain.
Had snow in the UP of Michigan in August while we were in a tent with small children but we made it thru.

Years ago in my backpacking days, I awoke in the middle of the night in a 2" deep stream of water running through the tent. Ever try to get out of a sleeping bag under water, and then stand in a blinding rain storm? I can laugh about it now.

We was tent camping in the Smoky Mtn Natl Park in Gatlinburg TN one year setup near the banks of LITTLE RIVER flowing through the ELKMONT camp.

Got woke up in the middle of the night by the Park Rangers to evacuate the camp grounds as the LITTLE RIVER was overflowing its bank.

No time to break camp or anything - just grabbed a few things, got into the truck and headed for higher ground.

Got to go back later on after sunrise and found our site pretty much in tact but the whole roll of tents on the waterside got washed out. There was tents scattered for miles downstream...

No one hurt with many thanks to well alerted Park Rangers...

Roy Ken

You mean like the whole campground is under water and you have to cancel?

Yes, certainly. Our best campgrounds are on flood control reservoirs. Prime campsites are those at the shoreline for "storage" level. If the reservoir has to be raised to "flood" level to accommodate runoff from storms, those sites will be under water. Sometimes whole campgrounds will be closed because they are under water.

That's life. It rains sometimes. Be happy that you were not in the campground subject to flash floods, where if you could not get out in 15-30 minutes warning, you would drown. That happens too.

There are campgrounds well above high water levels, where you do not have these risks or inconveniences. But the campsites are not very close to the water.

I've also been in places (e.g. North Little Rock) where I've been so close to a stream with a storm system coming through, that I'v expected to be waked in the middle of the night with "you have to move, right now!".

didn't see the rain like that around kettle falls, but it was good enough to make us shack up for dinner in our TT for two nights...

I've never been rained out at Waterton but I've almost been blown away a couple of times :B
You are right though....nice place

That is alot of rain for sure. We once woke up to six inch standing water under our trailer and surrounding area due to a minor flood on the oregon coast at Devil's Lake state park. What memories. LOL