The next time you feel like complaining about how your summer vacation was marred by delayed flights, flat tires, crabby kids, and horrible hotels, consider the hell a Nevada mom endured while taking a camping trip with her 11-year-old son last week.
What started off as an innocent overnight trip with her son and their dog to Death Valley National Park, quickly turned into the worst summer vacation in Alicia Sanchez’s life. The 28-year-old mom was just released from a Las Vegas hospital where she was being treated for severe dehydration. Now Sanchez must return home to bury her young son Carlos, who died in her arms during their summer trip.
According to officials, the boy died in the intense heat after he and his mother became stranded in one of the hottest places on Earth. Sanchez told rescue workers that she hit an underground animal den with her Jeep, and landed in sand that buried her vehicle up to its axles. The resourceful mom says she and her son survived for several days on bottled water, Pop-Tarts and cheese sandwiches, but could do nothing to beat the extreme heat. Summer highs in Death Valley average about 120 degrees with lows in the mid 90s. Officials noted that the high temperatures on the two days Sanchez and her son were stranded were about 113 degrees.
Sanchez told rescuers that she was relying on her Jeep’s GPS to get to their campsite, but had to make an unexpected stop to fix a flat tire along the way. Unfortunately, Sanchez never made it to the campgrounds. Instead, rescuers found her vehicle in an isolated area near the China Lake Naval Air Station, just inside the southwest corner of the vast national park near the California-Nevada state line. (Note: The park covers an area nearly the size of Connecticut.)
Miraculously Sanchez and the family’s pet dachshund survived the ordeal. Sadly, Carlos didn’t. What’s more, officials say no one reported the family missing until three days after their Jeep got stuck in the sand. Police in California say they received calls last Wednesday from Sanchez’s family members concerned that they hadn’t heard from her since receiving a text message saying that she was out in the desert changing a flat tire. An air and ground search was launched shortly after the calls came in and within hours park rangers found Sanchez and her deceased son.
Sanchez told authorities she couldn’t get a cellphone signal, despite hiking to the top of a peak to try. The distraught mom also revealed that she didn’t pack a map or extra provisions.
Authorities are quick to point out that cellular service is spotty and global positioning satellite directions can be unreliable on deserted roads in and around Death Valley. Rangers advice to other parents looking to take a family vacation in the vast national park: “A GPS does not replace a map, a compass, checking in at the visitor center and letting people know where you’re going to be.”
Good advice, but it’s little consolation to a grieving mother who lost her son during a summer vacation from hell.
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