Spent most of my younger life out in the southern U.S. deserts (used to be a reptile collector), always shocked the hell out of me the numbers of people who had no idea of how dangerous those places could be.
The Mojave, the Great Basin, the Sonoran, the Chihuahuan, all great places to visit, but only if you know what your doing and carry plenty of spare parts and water.
I don’t even recall how many people I had to help out of some really bad situations.
Pulled people out of drift sand, and changed a lot of tires.
The two I remember most are, one time I found and old couple (they were in their 60’s, back then they were old to me) out on a dirt road between Baker and Death Valley (husband said they wanted to take a scenic route), their fan clutch broke and overheated their car.
I was driving a GM 4 wheeler at the time (they were in a Caddy) and had a spare on board, so I fixed them up and filled their radiator.
They had no water, no blankets, no spare oil or fuel, no food with them.
Followed them back to Baker and told them to stay on the paved road.
The other one was 6 Swedish tourists (yes they were all young ladies, yes they all spoke english), they were coming out of Stovepipe Wells headed towards Panamint Springs.
Boiled every drop of water out of their car on the upgrade out of the valley.
They had 2 bottles of water between them in their car (the little bottles that you sip out of) and they had been running their AC on the way up the grade.
Had to wear gloves to pop the hood, it was 114 in the sun that day.
Took almost 4 gallons to get the block and radiator topped off, told them to head for 395 and don’t use the AC, open the windows if they got to hot.
I have noticed that people from the urban areas and especially foreigners have no idea of what they are doing in harsh country.
They all think that help is just around the corner and don’t realize that it is probably a hundred miles away on a road that probably only gets 2 cars a week on a busy week.
Those places aren’t Europe and they aren’t LA county, where if you go five miles you find a supermarket or a cop.
Where I grew up you could go a hundred miles in a straight line and just find more sand or more trees.
They all think that help is just around the corner and don’t realize that it is probably a hundred miles away on a road that probably only gets 2 cars a week on a busy week.
You are absolutely correct! I live in the Great Basin Desert and a few years ago, I ran into a British couple with a nine month old baby who wanted to drive their rental car from Big Pine on Hwy 395 into Death Valley along a dirt road in Summer! I have driven that rugged Jeep road and told them in no uncertain terms what danger they would be putting themselves into. They stubbornly insisted on going that route anyway. I then told them that if they were lucky, someone would find their skeletons in the Fall. I don't believe they attempted the trip after that, but I'm not sure.