A Wisconsin restaurant owner and his daughter died when they became lost during a scorching hike in a Utah park last week.
Albino Herrera Espinoza, 52, and Beatriz Herrera, 23, were trekking around the Syncline Loop in Canyonlands National Park on Friday when they lost their way and ran out of water, according to the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office.
The Syncline Loop, which is 8.1 miles long, is described by the National Park Service as the most challenging trail in the park’s Island in the Sky district.
Temperatures in the area soared above 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday.
The stranded father and daughter sent a desperate text to 911 — but the park rangers and helicopter crew dispatched to rescue them were too late.
One of the hikers’ bodies was found at 5:45 p.m. in the Upheaval Dome area, the sheriff’s office said. The other was discovered nearby at around 6 p.m.
Due to the treacherous terrain, the bodies had to be extracted by a helicopter team with the Department of Public Safety on Saturday, authorities explained.
The father and daughter from Green Bay were officially identified on Monday.
The deaths are being investigated as heat-related incidents, according to the sheriff and the National Park Service.
Albino Herrera and his wife Maria Carmen Herrera, own the El Sarape restaurants in Green Bay and Ashwaubenon, the grieving widow told the Green Bay Press-Gazette.
Albino last updated his Facebook profile on July 3, when he posted a photo of him and Herrera smiling in front of a rock formation.
On Father’s Day, he shared a snap of the two grinning in a go-cart.
“The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office thanks our allied partners for their assistance with this tragic incident and expresses our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Albino and Beatriz,” the official statement read.
Later on Saturday, a 30-year-old woman was found dead on a trail in Snow Canyon National Park — about five hours from Canyonlands, CBS News reported.
The woman — who has not been identified — was discovered when first responders were attending to two other hikers “suffering from a heat-related incident,” the outlet said.
