KallMeKris

So it was just a recipe for disaster.

But nowhere on the map did it say any of this.

But the surface had deteriorated to the point where it was no longer a road in any meaningful sense.

It was a dry wash in some sections and a boulder field in other.

And throughout its length, it was the kind of surface that punished any vehicle that did not have the ground clearance and suspension to absorb what it was throwing at them.

And the minivan was already damaged from the attempt at Mengel Pass, and its tires, as we know, were the standard all-season highway tires that come on rental vehicles with no reinforcement against the sharp volcanic rock that lines the canyon floor.

So making what seemed like the reasonable choice to Egbert, he would turn onto Anvil Canyon Road and would just keep driving.

And the sand is what did it most likely.

Because canyon washes in that part of Death Valley accumulate deep deposits of fine sand between the rock sections and a two-wheel drive vehicle that hits a sand patch at low speed will often sink into it and stop.

And the instinctive response is to give it more gas to get out of the sand,

to try to power through the loose surface before momentum dies.

And in a front wheel drive minivan with all its weight over the wrong axle, what that more likely produced was spinning and spray and a surge forward just far enough to hit something solid underneath.

So the first tire would go and then the second tire would pop.

And by the time the third popped, the vehicle had been driven for approximately two more miles on just rims, grinding through rock and sand, the metal just eating into the canyon floor with every single yard.

And two miles on three flat tires is not carelessness.

It is the decision of someone who understood at some level that stopping was the worst case scenario, that as long as the vehicle kept moving, they were getting closer to something.

even if what they were getting closer to was unclear.

And eventually, even that calculation would break down, and the van, ground to a halt, buried to its axle in sand and the rims destroyed beyond any hope of being driven any further, in a section of Anvil Canyon that had seen essentially no vehicle traffic

in years the engine may have still run at that point and the family was physically unharmed as far as we know at that point but they were now stranded in one of the most remote locations in the continental united states of america in the middle of july with temperatures above 120 degrees fahrenheit and climbing with whatever water they had in the vehicle and no way to call anyone

And what Egbert did next was take out his map and try to think through their options.