Floods threaten Uintas, eastern Utah

Warnings have been posted after flooding hit an area near the Boy Scout camp at the East Fork of the Bear River.

"Some places we're getting just a little rain, some places we're not," said Earl O'Driscoll, with the Wasatch-Cache National Forest in Evanston, Wyo. "We're just getting heavy area over the East Fork fire."

Mud, rocks, trees and water have come down mountainsides already devastated by a 14,000-acre wildfire that was started by a group of Boy Scouts in 2002. The fire killed most of the trees, forest service officials said.

Roads have been cleaned up twice now in the area surrounding the scout camp. The Forest Service has placed warning signs up in the area, warning campers to use caution and check with authorities to ensure it's safe to go camping in that portion of the high Uinta Mountains.

O'Driscoll was watching large, dark thunderstorms move in on Friday.

"I've never seen as many large ones like that after being so dry, and it's not unusual for the high Uintas to storm every afternoon," he said.

The U.S. Forest Service has also ordered an eastern Utah resort ranch to close because of the threat of mudslides.

The U-Bar Ranch, the Wandin Campground and the Smokey Springs trailhead have been ordered closed effective noon today because of mudslides from an unstable slope nearby.

"It's right there attached to that unstable slope," said Louis Haynes with the Ashley National Forest.

U-Bar Ranch employees will be permitted to go back to the resort during the day, but no overnight stays will be permitted. Clients accompanied by at least one U-Bar Ranch employee after sunrise and before sundown can enter the resort. Non-motorized use of the Uinta River Trail No. 044 after sunrise and before sundown is also allowed.

U-Bar Ranch has been hit by at least one mudslide in the past. In May 2005, a mile long, 100-foot wide wall of mud demolished a a guest cabin at the ranch. It also stranded a group of campers at the Wandin Campground overnight until Forest Service employees cleared a foot of mud from the road to reach them.

The National Weather Service said thunderstorms will be moving over northeastern Utah today, bringing with it the potential for heavy rain.

The U-Bar Ranch is near an area burned by the Neola North fire, a wildfire that was barely declared 100 percent contained last week. The wildfire killed three men and burned a dozen homes when it started in June.