Steve Curry, an experienced and inveterate hiker from Sunland, is believed to be the second person to die in Death Valley's searing heat this year.
A 71-year-old Los Angeles man died in California’s Death Valley National Park on Tuesday, likely due to heat, as the afternoon high recorded in the park was 121 degrees, officials said. The Inyo County Coroner identified the deceased as Steven Curry.
Curry fell to the ground outside the restroom at the Golden Canyon trailhead, the Inyo County Sheriff’s Office and the national park wrote in a news release.
Before collapsing, Curry had been interviewed in the early morning by a Los Angeles Times reporter at Zabriskie Point; he had hiked about 2 miles from Golden Canyon to the point.
It sounds like he really did want to hike that hike, and it sounds like he made it till the end. Then died.
It's brutal on family and friends but he was 71 which is a pretty good life... He probably didn't want to die, but there are plenty of worse ways to go.