I don’t understand what happened to these people, did they just die of heat stroke or something? Were they out there for days? (That seems unlikely). How old is the child?
I state for the record that my greatest TV-inspired fear is dying in the desert. I went to Vegas once and I’d go there again, but I would never live there. I’d be too afraid I’d get car-jacked or something and end up dying in the desert.
But, that assumes some stuff, like getting lost (which believe me I can do going around a city block, well, a suburban “block” anyway), is that what happened here?
They were, by all accounts on the trail, less than 2 miles from the parking lot. It was 101 degrees, and the humidity here can be single digits, so you can sweat profusely and it dries so fast you get minimal cooling (especially in still air). Plus the heat is reflected off the sand. If you’re not used to it, and start hydrating well in advance, it can hit you quick.
The WSMR is 3000 square miles, about a third the size of NJ. New Mexico is 210,000 square miles with less than 2 million people. We have a lot of nothing.
ha, ha, that probably gives away your age. A staple plot of many old tv shows when I was growing up was cowboys or whomever stranded in the desert with no water. Another fear was the quicksand that was EVERYWHERE!!! That scared me more than the desert.
I actually love to drive through the desert with the wife on trips. I love the Southwest. It does get hot though.
These areas of the southwest can be very hard on the body, and deceptive so that a person doesn't realize they are in trouble until it is well past time to do something. In the heat and dryness your body can be sweating profusely, yet evaporating so fast that you think it is not that hot. A person can lose a lot of water thinking that they are not sweating at all and that everything is ok. Then the symptoms of dehydration and heat stroke take over quickly.