DV Willow Canyon Lost Campers Found

I'm new to this board but I used to post on the old one, and I used to help people out on Usenet who were looking for information on Death Valley. I've made eight trips to the park since 1994. At one time I had a Death Valley page on a website.

This incident has made the national news. As a repeat visitor to Death Valley, and as someone who always stocks up with the best information, it's mind-numbing how easily this tragedy could have been prevented.

I always carry the Death Valley map issued by the Automobile Club of Southern California. It contains a wealth of information, including precise mileages between points. Before my first trip to death valley in which I went seriously off the main roads, I bought the Explorer's Guide to Death Valley by the Bryans. That book gives you very detailed information about what you can expect going down any of the roads in Death Valley.

So you can imagine my shock on Sunday when I heard that they had broken down with two flat tires in Gold Valley and were heading on foot to Mormon point. That is an impenetrable route. They must have had some sense of that before they got stranded. If they had had at least the two navigation aids I always carry, the automobile club map and the Bryan book, they would have known to take the longer but much safer walk back to the Greenwater Valley Road and there either wait for a passing car or walk either to Shoshone or to the Dante's View turn off. Doing any of that would have surely led them to safety.

I can't imagine going off of the main roads in the park without a satellite phone.

m.facebook.com/InyoCountySheriffsOffice/posts/1813368938845665

A follow up.
Not the ending we hoped for.
RIP Alexander.

www.ridgecrestca.com/story/news/2021/04/...underway/7162145002/