Teen and stepdad die while hiking in near-record heat in Texas
A teenage boy and his stepfather died in Texas’s Big Bend National Park when temperatures there rose to 119 degrees Fahrenheit — the second-highest number ever recorded in the state — during a triple-digit heat wave that gripped much of the region .
The man and his two stepsons were hiking late Friday afternoon, park officials said in a rack over the weekend, when the younger stepson, who was 14, lost consciousness. His brother, 21, attempted to carry the boy back to the trailhead as the stepfather raced to his vehicle to find help.
By the time park rangers and Border Patrol officers reached the boy, he had died, officials said. The 31-year-old man was later found dead in his vehicle, which had crashed.
The three had been hiking on the Marufo Vega Trail, which “winds through extremely rugged desert and rocky cliffs in the hottest part of Big Bend National Park,” the officials’ statement said. It added that hikers on the trail have no access to shade or water, making it “dangerous to attempt in the heat of summer.”
The park is located near the United States border with Mexico.
Hikers have succumbed to extreme conditions during several other United States heat waves in recent years. The 2021 deaths of two veteran hikers and their 1-year-old daughter in the Sierra National Forest of California puzzled investigators for two months, until officials determined they had died from the effects of heat stroke and possible dehydration in 110-degree weather.
Last July, a 22-year-old man died, reportedly from heat exhaustion, after running out of water while hiking in the Badlands of South Dakota. In September, another hiker died and five others were rescued after extreme heat in Arizona. A man in April died on a hiking trail in Lakeside, California., after suffering from heat exhaustion symptoms.
Big Bend park officials said they received a call for help around 6 p.m. Friday and reached the teen at 7:30 p.m. The crash remains under investigation.
Authorities said the three hikers were from Florida but did not give their names. The 21-year-old brother who survived has returned home, officials said Monday.
The dome is expected to slowly shift eastward during the week, extending the brutally hot weather into Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Forecasters say the pattern could continue through the July 4 holiday.
The afternoon temperature of 119 degrees in the Big Bend area on Friday, the day the boy and his stepfather died, came within one degree of the state’s previous highest temperature for any date of 120 degrees Fahrenheit, first recorded in 1936 and matched in 1994, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
John Keefe reporting contributed.