MOAB, Utah, July 13, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — A 52-year-old Wisconsin man and his 23-year-old daughter died Friday after getting lost and running out of water while hiking at Canyonlands National Park.
San Juan County dispatchers received a 911 text from a person at the Island in the Sky area of the national park Friday afternoon. The father and daughter from Green Bay, Wisconsin, had been hiking on the Syncline Loop Trail when they got lost and ran out of water, the National Park Service said in a news release Saturday.
The temperature at the time exceeded 100 degrees, according to the NPS.
NPS rangers and Bureau of Land Management officials responded and began searching for the hikers. Both were deceased by the time they were located, NPS officials said.
“While temperatures remain high this summer, park visitors are advised to carry and drink plenty of water and avoid strenuous activity during midday heat,” the NPS said in a news release.
The Utah Department of Public Safety also assisted in the search.
The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office and the NPS are investigating the incident.
The Syncline Loop is considered the most challenging trail in the Island in the Sky district at Canyonlands National Park, according to the NPS.
The 8.1-mile trail requires navigating steep switchbacks, climbing and scrambling through boulder fields, and features a 1,500-foot elevation change. The NPS website lists the hike’s difficulty as “strenuous.”
