A father and daughter perished from the heat while hiking in Canyonlands National Park late last week, according to the National Park Service (NPS).
The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office identified the victims as Albino Herrera Espinoza and his daughter Beatriz Herrera.
“San Juan County Dispatch received a 911 text from a person at the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park. The 23-year-old woman and her 52-year-old father, both from Green Bay, Wisconsin, had been hiking on the Syncline Trail, gotten lost, and run out of water,” reads a statement from the NPS.
NPS rangers and Bureau of Land Management Moab District rescue personnel scrambled in response to the text message. However, by the time officials located Espinoza and Herrera, the pair were dead.
Park officials reported that the air temperature when the two texted for help was over 38°C.
A massive heat dome has been hovering over North America for the last several weeks, smashing heat records across several western American states. The weather pattern is expected to continue.
Since summer began, at least 30 confirmed heat-related deaths have occurred in the Western United States.
