On April 13, Arizona Hot Springs and Goldstrike Trails in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area announced the closing of several trails after one death and the rescue of several hikers under extremely hot temperatures. The incident showcases the dangers that National Parks and similar wilderness areas pose to visitors, especially those who come underprepared. Unfortunately, events like this aren’t uncommon in U.S. National Parks and National Recreation Areas. About 19 people die each year at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, which is popular for boating, tragically leading to drowning deaths also. Deaths in the area over the years have been a mix of drownings, boat and traffic accidents, medical problems, suicides and even homicides. The Grand Canyon National Park is seeing an average of 12 deaths a year, which can occur due to falls, medical problems, heat, traffic accidents and drowning, among others.[...]
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50 sats \ 1 reply \ @0xbitcoiner OP 6h
If I didn’t mess up checking, @gnilma was only at one of the parks on this list. Am I right? Is how dangerous the park is one of the things you look at?
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55 sats \ 0 replies \ @gnilma 3h
I've been to 2 of the parks in the list, Yosemite and Grand Canyon, but you are correct, I only wrote about Yosemite and not Grand Canyon. Maybe I should write about that one this Sunday.
Generally the parks in the States are very well maintained and very safe. At least that's the case for the ones we've visited. We never look at deaths that happened in a park and that's never part of our decision to whether visit a park or not. We visit a park because we want to visit it, and that's pretty much our whole decision making process. That said, we usually travel as a family, with young kids. So we tend to stick to more easier hikes and activities with less risk, because the kids are not physically capable of doing very physical challenging activities. I mean, if you go to Yosemite and free solo El Capitan, and if your name is not Alex Honnold, chances are you will fall and die. I think knowing what you're capable of and don't do something you know you can't do is a great way to stay safe.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Turdinthepunchbowl 3h
I'd like to see this as a per visitor metric. Like, North Cascades National Park in WA is the least visited park, so it's going to be super low on the death total, where as these get millions of more visitors probably. Also, Lake Mead is a big area that people go not just because it's a park but because they want to go boating and shit, drinking alcohol, and you'd expect more deaths there for those reasons than someone going to just see the scenery in Grand Canyon and such.
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