The woman, who hasn’t yet been identified, had been hiking the Brim Hall Double Bridge Trail when she started experiencing medical problems, according to Garfield County deputies.
The woman’s husband drove to the nearby town of Boulder, Utah, to seek help, but his wife had already died by the time emergency crews found her. Officials say it appears she died of heat exhaustion, but her body was sent to a medical examiner to determine an exact cause of death.
It’s the latest in a series of hiker deaths in the region. The streak began on the Fourth of July, when a California couple was found dead just off The Wave, a popular hiking trail on the Utah-Arizona border that’s only accessible to people who win a permit in an online lottery. Ulrich Wahli, 70, apparently died while seeking help for his ailing 69-year-old wife, Patricia Wahli.
Temperatures had reached 106 degrees on the day of their hike.
Also on the Fourth of July, 35-year-old Denver resident Cindy So succumbed to the heat near Spooky Gulch in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
Mesa, Ariz., resident Elisabeth Bervel, 27, died July 22 during a hike in The Wave with her husband. The couple was celebrating their fifth wedding anniversary and had won coveted hiking permits a few months earlier.
Most recently, retired University of Missouri professor Grant Welland was found dead in Canyonlands National Park. He was reported missing Aug. 2, five days after he failed to leave the canyon. His exact cause of death wasn’t immediately known.
The deaths have prompted officials with the Bureau of Land Management to review their policies, especially as it relates to restricted-access hikes at The Wave.
The agency plans to post a new trailhead sign, step up warnings on a BLM website, show an online safety video at the Kanab Visitor Center and translate safety brochures for foreign visitors – many from Germany, France, Japan and China.
Officials already give a safety orientation at the Kanab Visitor Center, where they dole out 10 hiking permits to walk-ins on a daily basis. The BLM uses an online lottery to award 10 other daily permits.
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