Christmas Miracle

[Mark Sedenquist]

Just about every year, we have reason to worry about those who ignore common sense and drive on closed winter roads. This year the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is ground zero for another such story. But this one is a Christmas miracle... Hat's off to the rescuers who saved the day on this one!

Mark

[glc]

Hate to say it, but you just can't fix stupid.

[Foy]

Nearly "death by GPS Version 1.XX", wasn't it?

For the life of me, I can't understand why people do such foolish things. They're all fortunate to be alive.

Foy

[keithg]

I don't understand why people take such risks. Road was closed for a reason. I have done some crazy things in my life but I wouldn't put my family at risk in those conditions.
I'm just happy they were rescued and get to see another day as a family.

Keith

[DonnaR57]

The state road is ALWAYS closed for the winter, and has been since I can remember! If the state road is closed for the winter, wouldn't it stand to reason that the forest road would also be a problem??? Of course, some folks have no common sense.



Donna

[Midwest Michael]

What I find amazing is that not only are these people idiots in every sense of the word, but they are getting the hero treatment, with appearances on the National TV morning shows. The mom's story is especially bizarre, she tried to "save her family" by hiking even farther away from civilization, with basically no supplies causing her to eat twigs, and that's somehow a sign of how great of a mother she is?

[Foy]

Through some off-road travel forums, I've been trying to identify what road(s) they were on (the road(s) they purportedly used to bypass the closed/gated AZ 67, where the car got stuck, where the mother walked to, and where the father walked to in order to catch a cell signal. No luck on any specifics. I assume they proceeded in a southerly direction in the process of skirting the gate on AZ 67 and that they got deep enough into the weeds such that her hike back out was to reach AZ 67 then follow it northerly back to the gate, where she broke into the ranger cabin.

Morbid curiosity on my part, I suppose. It took me a long time, but I finally pinpointed the spot where the lady from British Columbia was found clinging to life after 49 days in the Jarbidge, NV mountains back in 2011, in the last tragic "Death by GPS" I followed closely.

I don't get it--I just don't get it.

Foy

[DonnaR57]

The heroes should be the rescuers who risked their lives, and definitely their Christmas breaks, to go after these people. NOT the ones who did something so stupid as to try to visit the North Rim when it was closed.

My thoughts also ran to, "what would they have done if they had gotten TO the North Rim, found everything completely shut down, THEN got snowed in?" Still stupid!



Donna