"National Park Service rangers and an Inyo County deputy began a search and rescue operation about 2:13 p.m. A California Highway Patrol helicopter joined the search and located the man later that afternoon, approximately 1.5 miles from Badwater Road. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The Inyo County coroner will determine the cause and manner of death."
Aug 21, 2026, 9:49 PMLast Sept, I was letting my son navigate because he had phone signal and I didn't and we ended up turning onto West Side Rd by mistake while trying to head towards Devil's Golf Course.
I had been there before and quickly realized it wasn't the right route and *carefully* turned around.
If you go off of West Side Rd in a vehicle that isn't extremely capable, you're going to get insta-stuck. Built-up and loose on the sides, plus the playa base (see pic).
It was a mere 43C.
Aug 21, 2026, 9:50 PM@ai6yr I'm a geologist and used to reading maps and navigating sketchy terrain.
I turned around because I had a lot of alarm bells going off in my head.
Without experience and knowledge of how dangerous it is out there, it's *so easy* to fall into these kind of situations in Death Valley. People don't take it seriously enough.
@grajohnt for sure!
Aug 21, 2026, 10:09 PM@ai6yr I have good alarm bells because I've been in some seriously sketchy vehicle situations 😅
That's me pushing when we got caught in a thunderstorm while trying to drive across a 'dry' lake bed near Serdo, Ethiopia.
We were *racing* to get back to the paved road before it filled up more! Fortunately we made it, or it would have been a looong walk back and probably weeks before we could retrieve the vehicle.
@grajohnt yikes!
@grajohnt surprised you got out of that!!
Aug 21, 2026, 10:21 PM@ai6yr me too! It wasn't even the most dangerous part of that trip.
There's a good reason National Geographic later called the Danakil Depression the "Cruelest Place on Earth".
Imagine Death Valley, but inhabited by people who all have AK-47s plus famously big knives and don't like outsiders much. We were held at gunpoint by an angry Afar for one memorable afternoon.
@woodenmachines @grajohnt LOL parts of Northern California, I hear...
@woodenmachines @grajohnt I have heard that play out on wildfires in Northern California more than a few times, when some crew tries to protect property and somebody growing 420 jumps out of the bushes with an AR51 or AK47... lol.
@grajohnt Yikes!!
@grajohnt and...trusting phone signal on Death Valley 😬
@grajohnt I can't imagine being this remote.
Aug 21, 2026, 10:32 PM@Heidiknits I enjoy it, and have been lucky to have been able to go to some very remote parts of the world (and stay tuned for more - this year!).
Probably one of the least-visited but fascinating places I've been is the Moçâmedes Desert of southern Angola.
Lots of euphorbia, some welwitschia, rocks worn smooth from rhinos scratching on them, and all in a desert that has pea-soup fog almost every night.
@grajohnt that is breathtaking.
Aug 21, 2026, 10:43 PM@Heidiknits it's so wild. See the cobbles in the foreground? If you poke around on those terraces, it wouldn't take you more than a few minutes to find a stone hand tool from the "Earlier Stone Age" - dating from something more than 500,000 years ago (maybe up to 1.4 million).
They absolutely litter the ground there.
@grajohnt Wild. That would be a thrill of a lifetime.
Aug 23, 2026, 3:46 AM@grajohnt @Heidiknits @msbellows welwitschia is biologically fascinating.
@ai6yr "avoid hiking at lower elevations" does anyone know why?
@mdione Extremely, extremely hot at those elevations.