Interesting story about some German tourists lost in Death Valley

[willtel]

If you have the time this is a great read.

The Hunt for the Death Valley Germans

In the morning of October 21, 1996, Death Valley National Park (DVNP) Ranger Dave Brenner was aboard a military helicopter somewhere in the skies over the southerly part of Death Valley. He was part of a routine aerial surveillance looking for clandestine drug manufacturing labs in the backcountry. Around 11 AM, he saw something unexpected: A vehicle in the wash of Anvil Canyon, approximately 2.4 miles downstream from Willow Spring, the head of Anvil Canyon. This was extremely odd for several reasons.

First, there wasn’t a real or legal road down Anvil Canyon any longer. At one time Anvil Canyon had been the only route into Butte Valley, and used by the area’s miners. But with the opening of the talc mines in Warm Spring Canyon to the north, and the creation of a good, well graded dirt road to the talc mines for heavy trucks, the Butte Valley miners pushed an extension of the Warm Spring Road westward into Butte Valley and the Anvil Canyon route relegated to a seldom-used byway. Then, in October of 1994, with the passage of the Desert Protection Act, Anvil Canyon was designated as part of an official wilderness area, thus prohibiting vehicle use in it. Not that the few locals seemed to adhere to the prohibition, as Anvil Canyon still received occasional, if illicit, use.

The second piece of oddness in what Brenner was observing was that the vehicle appeared to be a standard passenger van. While Anvil Canyon could still be travelled by a competent four wheel drive vehicle (if illegally), a passenger van was totally inappropriate and couldn’t be expected to get far in that canyon. Yet there it was...

[Joeaksa]

Very interesting... well worth the read when you have time!

[Skytrooper]

Quite a story !

[porsche newbie]

really interseting reading

[widebody911]

Well, there's two hours of my life gone by!

[Rick Lee]

That was a decent read. I have to wonder what the author does for a living, since he seemed to have a ton of personal time to devote to the mystery/adventure.

I struck up a conversation (in German) with some German tourists in a saloon in Page, AZ shortly after that woman and her son got stuck out in DV, as mentioned in the article. It was big news here. The Germans told me they were headed to Vegas and then DV. Having been to DV in July and several times since, I told them about that recent tragedy and how remote the place was. They didn't seem to grasp it, but assured me they'd bring lots of water.

The last time I used a pay phone and the first time I had done so in about 10 yrs. was at the ranger station in DV three yrs. ago. I had decided I was gonna make it to Mammoth Lakes that night on my bike and so I needed to cancel my hotel reservation in Lone Pine by 4pm. The park ranger told me the next cell reception area was 150 miles that way and pointed northwest. So I broke a dollar bill to get coins for the pay phone.

[Seahawk]

Great read.

I have spent a lot of time in DV and the surrounding areas and I've also flown over everyplace discussed except DV....that is a no-no.

The desert is, to me, amazingly beautiful.

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

I have spent a lot of time in DV and the surrounding areas and I've also flown over everyplace discussed except DV....that is a no-no.

You're now allowed to fly over DV?

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by widebody911

You're now allowed to fly over DV?

You can at altitude, but that's not where the fun is

I have to admit I geeked out a bit while reading the story...tracked where he was on Google Maps, etc.

[Rick Lee]

I stopped to take a leak at about 5000' near the nw edge of the park and saw two F-18s shoot by at full left bank in the canyon below me. I just about sheet myself after that. It was amazing, though I could never have caught it with my camera.

[daepp]

Very enjoyable read. It's hard to comprehend the vastness of DV and how desolate it is. Even as an international tourist destination I would guess less than 1/1000 of 1 percent is habitable, let alone occupied. It is, however, high on my list of favorite places to visit - esp. when the weather is crappy in LA.

From a 1/09 trip I took with my 12 year old son:












Better than a tent in that weather - rented RV!

[widebody911]

His stories about hunting down the A12 and the 71 year-old suicide guy are pretty good, too.

[Rick Lee]

I was standing near the edge here when the F-18s fly by below.

[RWebb]

horrifying! the Germans were drinking “Bud Ice”!

[varmint]

being plodding and meticulous is good when conducting a search.

not that great when telling a story.




i used to ride around death valley a few times a year. would always run into german tourists around the pool at the furnace creek motel. you could spot them easily because germans sunburn a unique shade of pink.

they were without exception overly confident about their backpacking abilities. i would try to explain that a lifetime hiking in the tyrolian alps is not preparation for death valley. they did not seem to comprehend.

[MT930]

Yep I too was caught in the trap, Interesting read. Pretty inhospitable country for the unprepared.

We have a few missing tourists in these parts also, I'm a sucker for these stories.

[aigel]

Great read. Thanks for sharing.

Eastern Germans. Growing up in a communist nanny country with limited travel ability doesn't sharpen your sense for danger. I did however read that these guys were adventure seekers - the lady had gone across the USSR in her Trabant before the iron curtain fell, something you could only do if you were an apparatchik. Different climate to deal with there too, if they hadn't been to the central Asian part.

The whole story has a bit of a "Into the Wild" flair to me. Apparently these people had done some crazy trips before and gotten away with it. Now they were pushing it further - did they take the risk on purpose?

Terrible to think of what these parents did to their kids and the possibility that the parents perished first ...

Author / search guy is retired and apparently a former SAR pro. Great hobby - both physically and mentally challenging while fairly inexpensive hobby. Check out his meteorite search!

G

[GG Allin]

Having a 4 year old of my own, I'm troubled by the fact that those kids died a terrible death due to no fault of their own.


That said, I'd love to get out west and do something stupid like explore that area.

[Rick Lee]

Yes, that must have been a very bad way to go, especially if the adults died first. Kids could have also been taken by coyotes. Just awful. That is such an unforgiving place. Count on this kind of thing happening about once a year though. Folks will never learn.

[motion]

I've been stuck in the sand in the Mexican desert without water on my BMW bike... no fun at all.

Interesting read, thanks for the link.