This summer season, we noticed frequent information of hiker fatalities in nationwide parks or Nationwide Park Service (NPS)-managed websites due to the heat. Sadly, warmth is probably going nonetheless enjoying a consider some hikers’ deaths in nationwide parks. In states like Texas, NPS warns that daytime temperatures can attain practically 100°F, even in October. A hiker’s dying this week in Texas’s Large Bend Nationwide Park underscored this message.
“On Monday, October 28, after an aerial and floor search by NPS rangers and U.S. Border Patrol supported by helicopters from the TX Division of Public Security and U.S. Customs Air and Marine Operations, searchers positioned the physique of a 24-year-old hiker alongside the Marufo Vega Path,” wrote Large Bend Nationwide Park officers in a press release.
Large Bend describes the Marufo Vega Path as a “spectacular but difficult 14-mile loop” that winds via rugged desert and alongside rocky limestone cliffs. There is no such thing as a shade or water on the path, which makes it a doubtlessly harmful trek throughout heat months—and, on this a part of nation, October continues to be a heat month.
“Though it’s late October, each day temperatures alongside the Rio Grande and desert areas of Large Bend stay excessive; near 100 levels every afternoon,” Large Bend warns. “Park Rangers want to remind all guests to concentrate on the risks of maximum warmth. Hikers needs to be ready to hold loads of water, salty snacks, and to plan on being off desert trails in the course of the warmth of the afternoon.”
Learn our tips for hiking in the desert here.