It’s hot out there! Be careful. Let this report below be a lesson. It happened in Death Valley, where temps have been exceeding 120 degrees day after day. This is not hiking weather. On July 18, bystanders helped rescue a female hiker suffering from heat illness. Lucky for her they were around or she may have been a goner.
A man and a woman started hiking the Badlands Loop at 9:30 a.m., in temperatures around 110°F. The man later told park rangers that they got lost, which kept them exposed to heat longer than they expected. At some point, the woman was unable to continue walking, and the man returned to Zabriskie Point parking lot to get help.
There is no cell phone service in the area. A bystander drove five miles to report the medical emergency to rangers at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center around 11 a.m. The temperature was up to 115°F.
When park rangers arrived on the scene a few minutes later, the bystanders were carrying the unconscious woman toward the parking lot. Park rangers cooled her in the National Park Service ambulance and drove off towards a hospital miles away.
Helicopter blades produce less lift in hot air, and some cannot fly in temperatures above 115°F. Park rangers transported the woman to a landing zone at 3,000 feet, where it was cool enough for the air ambulance helicopter to land safely. Mercy Air transported the woman to Centennial Hills Hospital in Las Vegas. She survived.
Avoid the heat!
Park rangers offer the following advice for visiting Death Valley National Park in the summer: Avoid the heat; stay in air conditioning, or not more than a ten-minute walk away from it.
• Do not hike at low elevations after 10 a.m.
• Travel only on paved roads. If your vehicle breaks down, stay with your vehicle so you have shelter and can be found more easily.
• Know your limits and acclimatize to heat.
• Avoid the sun: Seek shade during the hottest time of the day.
• Wear a hat and consider carrying an umbrella.
• Drink plenty of water.
• Eat salty snacks.
This advice does not apply only to Death Valley, but anywhere were the temperatures are hot!
##RVT1167b
Maybe they should close Death Valley in the summer? Just like the winter closures in other parks.
Not a bad idea at all.
Interesting take on it. I believe winter closures are not implemented to save lives however. Apples and oranges. They do not close in the winter for fear of people freezing to death. They close them seasonally because demand is very very low.
Snow removal costs on the roads and sites in a campground with 1 or 2 campers per winter season is untenable when 8 feet of snow is on the ground, and temps of 15 F is not at all the same as Death Valley being hot.
I do understand your sentiment on it tho.
In that vein, should more parks be closed because of the dangers caused by wild animals that people get too close to, or stumble into hot springs, or fall off of cliffs because of their own uneducated choices?
Hmm, … maybe some parks should just administer an IQ test, Bill. If a specific score or above is made, then entry is granted. 😉 🤔😯😆😅😂
But then they would be only half full. 🤔
Oh wait, that might be a good thing 🙃
Yes, less full beats more full, eh Bill? 🙂
Or close parks to mountain and rock climbers, quite dangerous. No fishing, might fall overboard and drown. White water rafting…. very dangerous. No golfing in Florida, you know, Alligators and all. 😮
Right, Cancel. We MUST be protected from ourselves.
I am endlessly intrigued with people who flout and ignore danger signs just to say they did. In Yellowstone we watched a man step over the warning line onto the crust around several hot springs repeatedly so his girl friend could get a picture. He got away with it that time. I’m glad I didn’t see him crash through and get scalded.
How, precisely, would one close an area that covers 5270 square miles, with no fences, two state highways, hundreds of miles of dirt roads, and two towns in it? The problem isn’t the heat…it’s that hot in several cities all across the southwest US and very few drop dead because of it. The problem is folks who aren’t acclimatized to the heat thinking they are tougher than they are trying to do too much in a place with no shade, no water, and no air-conditioned buildings to take cover in if things go bad. Trying to close Death Valley would be like trying to close the states of Nevada, Arizona, and a third of California, Utah and New Mexico that all have the same outdoor temps in the summer.
Thank you, RV Travel! 🙂 Wow! That is HOT! ?! Probably was a bad idea to begin a hike if it is already 115° F even though it was still morning. Of course, getting lost just made matters worse. Thanks for the list of reminders regarding activity in extremely high temperatures! Have a great day, safe travels, and safe stays! 🙂