State police released no details of the hikers’ identities or possible causes of death. Southern Nevada remains under an excessive heat warning; the high temperature Saturday was 114 degrees.
State police released no details of the hikers’ identities or possible causes of death. Southern Nevada remains under an excessive heat warning; the high temperature Saturday was 114 degrees.
If you’re ever in the Vegas area, I highly recommend going to the Valley of Fire State Park. I visited Red Rock Canyon, Death Valley, Hoover Dam, Zion - all of those were absolutely incredible, but valley of fire was otherworldly in ways those other places aren’t. It’s only about an hour drive from Vegas.
All that said, if you want to go to Vegas as a base camp for all these amazing things, don’t do it during the summer. Heat exposure is no joke. This article says there was a group of hikers who had encountered these women earlier in the day and noticed that they hadn’t come back, so they called the authorities at 3pm. They weren’t lost out in the desert for days, they went out hiking for a day and were dead in hours.
Visiting the desert in the winter is uncomplicated. You don’t need nearly as much water, you’re not in significant danger just for being out there. During the hot months, it’s another story. Unless you’re very experienced and extremely well prepared, it’s just not worth it. And even then, just go somewhere else in the world to hike while it’s 115°f/46°c in the desert.
It’s a dry heat though!!
That’s what the guy said who died in death valley last week
I would caution that, in winter, the deserts can get cold and hypothermia becomes a very real threat. To make matters worse, the temperature swings can be extreme enough that you will be hot during the day and freezing at night.
By way of example, camping in Joshua Tree National Monument, we were huddling in the shade during the day, sweating our asses off, then huddling in sleeping bags around the fire at night trying to keep warm while watching a meteor shower.
Know the conditions you are headed into and prepare accordingly.
Vegas is an abomination in the face of common sense.
I definitely get the sentiment. On a base level, building a city in the middle of the desert where it takes more resources to sustain the city than it should.
That said, when it comes to the primary scarce resource, water, one thing a lot of people don’t know is that the city is extremely efficient at recycling water and has taken significant measures to reduce water usage. 99% of water used indoors in Las Vegas is recycled, and they recently banned non-functional grass which has been a big contributor to water usage in the past.
https://adventure.com/how-las-vegas-conserves-water/
It’s easy to look at a city that is built on a culture of excessiveness and come to the conclusion “Las Vegas bad” but there’s definitely more to it than meets the eye and I think there are far more productive places to focus our attention.