Hiker Rescued From Quicksand in Arches National Park: ‘Thought It Was a Legend’

December 9, 2025

An experienced hiker found that out the hard way in Arches National Park on Sunday, when a normal day on the trail turned into a scary ordeal.

Austin Dirks, 33, was walking through the upper end of the park’s Courthouse Wash area just before sunrise when his left leg broke through what he assumed was solid ground. He was able to remove his leg, only to step more firmly onto the right leg, which felt like he “had stepped into concrete,” according to an interview with local news station Fox 13.

Once he realized he couldn’t escape on his own, Dirks used a Garmin GPS device to call for help. Grand County Search and Rescue arrived on scene and spent several hours trying to free him. They used ladders, boards, and shovels to create a safe path to Dirks, and eventually pulled him out of the dangerous predicament.

It’s a good thing, too, because the primary danger to Dirks wasn’t slipping all the way into the muck — that doesn’t really happen with quicksand. But if he’d been stuck there overnight, he would face the risk of hypothermia from the cold.

Dirks described how the “quicksand” wasn’t really like sand at all. It’s more like a sticky mud that kept his leg trapped, no matter how much Dirks tried to escape.

“After thirty minutes of digging and flailing, I had made no progress at all. My fingers were numb,” he wrote. “The water kept moving around my leg, cold as ice. I was exhausted and I made the decision I hoped I would never have to make. I called for help.”

The primary danger was not sinking in further, but being unable to escape the weather, which was in the 20s when he became stuck, Dirks wrote on Facebook. He also repeatedly thanked the rescuers, who he credits with saving his life. Gear Junkie