National Park Service Issues Quicksand Warning

Quicksand isn't just a movie trope at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area right now, according to a rare alert from the National Park Service. Officials say patches of quicksand may lurk near shorelines and in drainages across the 1.25-million-acre park, which spans northern Arizona and southern Utah and includes Lake Powell, the Weather Channel reports.

• "It can look dry and solid on top but may suddenly give way.," the NPS said "Watch for unstable, shifting, or unusually soft ground, and use caution when entering these areas."

While the agency notes quicksand is "rarely life-threatening," getting free can be exhausting. Their guidance: stay calm, avoid frantic struggling, lean back to spread your weight, and use slow, deliberate movements to work toward firmer ground. Sudden movement can cause a person "to sink deeper and mixes more water into the sediment, reducing buoyancy," the NPS says.

Recent incidents underscore the risk, the New York Times reports. An experienced hiker was rescued from thigh-deep sand in Utah's Arches National Park in December after he was trapped in below-freezing temperatures for hours, and a 20-year-old man died in 2023 after becoming stuck in tidal mud flats in Alaska and being overtaken by the tide.