Posted on 09/18/2026 7:12:48 PM PDT by xxqqzz
A French tourist died this month after becoming stranded in California's Death Valley National Park amid sweltering temperatures.
The National Park Service (NPS) announced the death of Pierre Michel Formosa, 68, on Aug. 21.
Park officials said Formosa and his travel companion, also a French national, were driving on West Side Road along the Badwater Basin on Aug. 17 when their vehicle "became stuck in mud."
"With no other vehicles in the area, the men began walking across the salt flats toward Badwater Road to seek assistance," park officials said.
Temperatures were as high as 116°F — and eventually Formosa was "unable to continue."
The Death Valley National Park welcome sign A 68-year-old tourist died recently during a visit to California's Death Valley National Park in August. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Formosa's companion continued on and eventually was helped by a passing motorist — who alerted officials at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center at around 2 p.m.
NPS rangers soon began searching for Formosa, along with an Inyo County sheriff’s deputy.
A California Highway Patrol helicopter later joined the search and found Formosa later that afternoon, about 1.5 miles from Badwater Road.
"He was pronounced dead at the scene," NPS officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I don’t think they have that kind of heat much in Europe or areas that are so isolated without nearby villages, etc. That may be partly why Europeans have trouble understanding the danger.
AI Overview:
In Death Valley, you need at least 1 gallon (4 liters) of water per person per day,
Water Needs by Time and Temperature
Standard Warm/Hot Conditions: Drink and carry 1 gallon (4 liters) per person daily, or roughly 1 liter every 1 to 2 hours of active movement.
Extreme Summer Heat (>120°F / 45°C): Requirements can spike to 5 to 6 liters (1.5+ gallons) per day, even for moderate activity.
What rules are you using to decide which words to capitalize?
Who taught you to write this way?
I think the French translation is “Pleasant Valley.”
A friend and I drove through the Valley of Fire, near Las Vegas. It was summer and we were in a Jeep CJ-5, with the top off. It quickly was put back up, but it still had no air conditioning. Hot, hot, hot.
...and Death Valley isn't in Nevada.
If you are acclimated and hydrated you can make two hours of slow walking, more if you are young. 29 Palms, Fort Irwin, and Yuma Proving Ground hit these temperatures fairly often, and experimentation, testing and critical training still occur.
Words Mean Things
some More than others,
You Know that FRiend.
.
Brevity is the Soul of Witt.
.
I Blame FRepublic.
I suspect your experience might have been somewhat different if you’d needed to walk 15-20 miles.
Of course, but the original poster said minutes, not hours. No one can walk 15 miles in “minutes”.
“I go out into the country in Nevada and...”
...and Death Valley isn’t in Nevada.
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Yup - Right next door.
And if you go in the north end you can hit Scotty’s Castle.
Ubehebe Crater is pretty neat too.
Take Care.
Yes it is. There’s a small section of this enormous national park in Nevada just west of Beatty. I’ve been there a couple of times doing bird surveys. It was spring, but it still got hot at midday. I also remember finding some long-eared owls there, so that made it fun for me.
They also see a dotted line on a map and assume it’s a driveable road by a rental sedan when it’s really an abandoned old mining track that might be passable in good conditions in a 4x4.
Death Valley (Panamint: Tümpisa [tɨmbiʃa])[3] is a desert valley in Eastern California, United States, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Valley
At left, outline of Death Valley. At right, outline of Death Valley National Park.
There is in fact a tiny sliver of Death Valley at the northern end that's in Nevada.
However, you were factually incorrect as well because there is NO DEATH VALLEY in the part of the national park that extends into Nevada (just west of Beatty, once famous/infamous for the Fran's Star Ranch brothel).
park ≠ valley
You're right about that, at the beginning of the road the British couple wanted to take, a sign says: "Pavement ends ahead, no services for 100 miles."
I’m calling it a push, as we were both right, though maybe not talking about the same thing.
Stay well, FRiend.
I don’t even go to the grocery store without water, blankets, a cook stove, and some MREs. That whole dessert is merciless. Be prepared especially in a place that is designed to kill you.
I got lucky when I worked for the National Forest and got stationed in Sierra NF beat. We would cruise the logging roads looking for people and clearing roads from fallen trees. (I loved that job). People didn’t die from heat, but occasionally they would break down and freeze to death. I can’t imagine visiting Death Valley again, (or any of the deserts out there) without gallons of water, food, blankets (120 in the daytime and 30 at night) shelter, and a CB.
Mother Nature is a cold hearted bitch and does everything in her power to kill us.
Prepare accordingly. Always.
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