Dear Isaac, Maia, and Virtual Wanderers,

I thought tonight’s blog would be about the Frisson I felt last night seeing the Milky Way above while small thunderstorms flashed every on the horizon. Nope, it’s about tornadoes. I’m still shaking.

We awoke to a beautiful, sunny morning at Hovenweep National Monument. It out only 2 night stay this trip, so I slept in a bit. We got a late start hiking because of that. It was almost 11 when we started.

We take the trail enough to know time estimates. My phone looked like an early to mid afternoon thunderstorm. It’s monsoon season, so I was watching the sky. It was mostly blue with a few clouds building on the horizon.

We took our usual photos of the Three Amigas at Stronghold House and Hovenweep Castle. We stopped for treats. And we walked out to the Twin Towers. That’s when the thunder started to rumble. I thought we needed to pick up the pace to avoid the storm. (UPDATE: I later compared time stamps with the National Weather Service reports. This is about the time the first short tornado touched ground between Hovenweep and Montezuma Creek, UT. About 10 miles from where I was hiking.)

We were almost back to Hovenweep Castle when my phone alert went off. (I later learned the warning was sent at 12:46.) I’m thinking it’s a slot canyon warning as it was obviously going to rain. I looked at my phone and it said tornado warning. I thought “not here”. Then I glanced over my shoulder and there was a funnel cloud touching the earth. I was horrified!

We headed back to the Visitor’s Center, which was still about 1 mile away. Three senior dogs on rocky slick rock only move so fast. So do old ladies. As we passed Hovenweep Castle, there were a few other hikers. I asked if they had gotten the alert. “Yes.” But they seemed less bothered by the funnel than I was.

I continued on as quickly as I could. I remember I was afraid of tripping in my hurry, so I watched my feet a lot. I felt like I was running in slow mo from a monster. My brain processing what to do. It’s a blur. As we made the curve around the mouth of the canyon, the ranger was approaching. He told me to get to the Visitor’s Center quickly. He also asked if anyone was behind me. I said “yes.” The grandma and her dogs were not the last ones on the trail.

A couple people passed me. Eventually a wonderful couple for Tucson said they could help me carry dogs when I asked. He was calm and said the storm would break up but there would likely be more funnels and it was better to be safe. I own them a debt of gratitude for their help.

Once back at the Visitor’s Center, we watched the storm from the porch. The funnel that chased us broke up. We watched 1 more form and got updates on other funnels from the Rangers. Then the Rangers advised us to go inside. First, the dog people were in storage or restrooms. But, as the predictions got more concerning, they moved us all to the Visitor’s Center.

After about an hour, the shelter in place was lifted and we came back to camp. The Three Amigas did amazing. I think all the people scared them more that the storm.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at camp. The tent did great! The sun came out, then another windy thunder storm with hail came. We chilled in the tent. Eventually, it cleared up for dinner. The Rangers came by to see if we had any damage to our sire to tell us the ranger show for tonight was canceled. We joked about already having a sky show for today. They said there is a 20% chance of thunder storms tonight, possibly severe. They said the Visitor’s Center bathroom is the best place to hunker down.

I guess I leave my phone on tonight to listen for tornado warnings. Now, this is Frisson with a Capitol F. Maybe I should have named my trip something else.

Peace Out, GM Hartt

UPDATE 9.23: Here is a video I created that shows my photos and videos from the day with time stamps. According to the National Weather Service, there were actually 2 tornadoes between 12:30 and 1:45. The one I filmed from the Visitor’s Center starting at 1:28 is a third tornado. Before the Weather Service report, I thought I was seeing the same tornado between 12:45 and 1:45, but I was walking away from it so didn’t see the first one dissipate and the second one form. Here is the report from the <a href=”http://<iframe src=”https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FNWSGrandJunction%2Fposts%2Fpfbid02bXZm9ruzeFYkWwF2ZMjNuKzozKf9wzPoGUFeody6KRr1J1e6BE2w3xTuQGT3odAhl&show_text=true&width=500&#8243; width=”500″ height=”689″ style=”border:none;overflow:hidden” scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”true” allow=”autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share”>National Weather Service. The second tornado was classed an EF-2 with 120 MPH winds, but fortunately for us it didn’t move much. Unfortunately, some Navajo folks lost homes to this storm.