Wow. What a great story. I feel terrible for mr ewaskos friends and family, but I find it almost reassuring that you can still dissapeared in the age of cctv, the Internet and phones, not that I think this was his intention. I spend time every year in se Utah, often alone and it occasionally occurs to me that one false step and I could become the Everette Ruess of the 21 st century. That tiny chance is a risk worth taking for the rewards that spending time in the natural world provides. Better that than being another nameless traffic statistic in a big city.

"...definitive Big Data"? Not so much. That ping located the phone, not necessarily the man. Cell phones ≠ self. See https://twitter.com/amymaxmen/status/960933817405005824

The very first rule of hiking was infuriatingly not followed by this man. You learn it as a Cub Scout. Never hike alone.

I may have missed it, but I am surprised such a lengthy article does not even consider the possibility that Ewasko, for whatever reasons of his own, decided to disappear and is living elsewhere. Yes, hiking in Joshua Tree can be a risk, but so is driving on most roads, as 40,000 or so dead Americans each year would testify. I happily accept the risk of driving to Joshua Tree so that I may take the risk of hiking around Joshua Tree. "Everett Ruess: A Vagabond For Beauty", (William Rusho, ed.) is a must read for anyone interested in disappearing "explorers" of the desert Southwest. If you bookend that with Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang", you might get an inkling why those of us who believe life is to be lived would choose such a place to search for the meaning of life or, at least, our relationship to it. As to technologically removing the risk of hiking in Joshua Tree: why bother? Prudent, common sense preparedness, as well as respect for the unanticipated, is one thing. If you want risk-free, if you do not really want to immerse yourself in the visceral and spiritual aspects of one's own smallness in sublime vastness, then stay home with a gadget and watch movies of the place or, if you really want to go hi-tech, there's always the Holodeck on the Enterprise.

I may have missed it, but I am surprised such a lengthy article does not even consider the possibility that Ewasko, for whatever reasons of his own, decided to disappear and is living elsewhere. Yes, hiking in Joshua Tree can be a risk, but so is driving on most roads, as 40,000 or so dead Americans each year would testify. I happily accept the risk of driving to Joshua Tree so that I may take the risk of hiking around Joshua Tree. "Everett Ruess: A Vagabond For Beauty", (William Rusho, ed.) is a must read for anyone interested in disappearing "explorers" of the desert Southwest. If you bookend that with Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang", you might get an inkling why those of us who believe life is to be lived would choose such a place to search for the meaning of life or, at least, our relationship to it. As to technologically removing the risk of hiking in Joshua Tree: why bother? Prudent, common sense preparedness, as well as respect for the unanticipated, is one thing. If you want risk-free, if you do not really want to immerse yourself in the visceral and spiritual aspects of one's own smallness in sublime vastness, then stay home with a gadget and watch movies of the place or, if you really want to go hi-tech, there's always the Holodeck on the Enterprise.

I'll post again to stress a major point that this article MISSED teaching in it's focus on the "mystery". NEVER HIKE ALONE! This man, the guy who had to cut off his arm in the James Franco movie, the woman who was found dead yards from the trail in Maine, the young man from the "Into The Wild Book". - all of these people broke the CARDINAL RULE of hiking- they all were HIKING ALONE and Mother Nature let them know it. To those who bring up the couple who also died in Joshua Tree - it isn't fail safe to hike in pairs or more - but any Park Ranger will tell you it greatly improves outcomes. Cheryl Strayed (ironic name given what could have happened to her) made it cool - but it's still not cool. Never hike alone.

Not much mention of carrying one of those electronic hiker locator beacons. My question to these types who wander off unprepared into dangerous wilderness is simple - "How long have you been suicidal?". A couple of years ago here in NH, a young woman from New York City decided to hike over a couple of mountains in White Mountains. She and her husband were successful investment bankers - high achiever types. Her husband dropped her off at a trail head and planned on meeting her at the end of the day at an agreed upon location. It was in February and was a sunny, windy day. I was driving in that area that day and noticed a big Ski area, Wildcat, had no cars in the parking lot. It was Washington's Birthday weekend and it should have been packed. I pulled into the lodge where a couple of clerks were behind the counter. I asked what was going on. "There are winds over 100 mph on the mountain today - we had to close it". The next I saw a big news story about the woman hiker being missing. She called or texted someone to say the winds were so severe she couldn't move on the mountain. They sent out a rescue helicopter etc. but couldn't find her. Her frozen and dead body was finally recovered the next day.

I personally know of one case where a man just got up and left his life. I have also read of other instances of this happening, most famously Olivia Newton John's companion, I think. It wasn't mentioned as a possibility which, if true, means he succeeded in disappearing.

Travelers in remote areas can use a service such as SPOT to send tracking signals to specified recipients. However, it's a one-way signal and you have no way of knowing if the tracking or SOS signal was received. Two-way communications can be assured by renting a satellite phone, which are relatively inexpensive now.

For anyone who found this story fascinating, here's one that you may find more fascinating because the mystery was finally solved: http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-de... It's about a group of German tourists who were lost in Death Valley. A very persistent, smart and committed man finally tracked down their path and found their remains in the desert. I think it's more common now than in the past, that people with little experience or understanding of wilderness are going into wilderness, with sometimes tragic results. Though the standard advice is "dont' hike alone", this is impossible advice for many of us, myself included. I ALWAYS hike alone. When I have vacation, it's not possible to find a friend with the same interests and available time to join me hiking. And even if I found a person who had time and inclination to join me, I would not want them along as I go out into the wilderness for a silent meditation experience, not to spoil the pristine wilds with yakking and more yakking. However, to minimize risks, when hiking alone it can be a good idea to stick to trails which are well traveled by other hikers, and I mostly do that now in my older age. But when younger I hiked and backpacked in places where I saw not a single other person for days. When visiting Joshua Tree, there is so much fascinating landscape to see close to the roads that I have found that sufficient.

A fantastic piece of journalism. I (foolishly) summer hiked solo in Joshua Tree - the blistering heat induced something like an altered state. I carried enough water but can see how decisions can be impaired there, easily and irreversibly.

After reading "Into the Wild" and watching the movie, I made doubly sure that my bike trip along YTNP and the Mojave Preserve went without issues. I had extra food, extra water, extra bike parts. I even had an ice axe. Whatever for? To clear under brush and check for snakes and to use as a weapon when night fell. I hated the idea of bringing people in to look for me or help me because I was unprepared. Raw nature is unforgiving. A snake or a coyote is only doing what comes naturally to it when we enter its space. I really have no sympathy for Mr. Ewasko. Before I left Needles, California, I asked a mail man if I was going in the right direction for Route 95. He paused, looked at my bike and said "Yes, but be careful of the truck traffic." His words prepared me and I am forever thankful. Again, near 29 Palms, a couple told me, to be careful of a mountain that was coming up on my route. They most of all, saved me from being unprepared and even prayed for me. I am sorry, but if you go unprepared into nature and traveling, you are seeking a painful end.

One hell of a story! On the other hand there goes my solo trip to Big Bend. Thanks NYTimes.

Getting lost in the wilderness can happen in a forest too. In 2013 a 66 yr old woman walked off the Appalachian Trail in Maine to relieve herself and couldn’t find her way back to the trail. She kept a diary of her unsuccessful attempts to reach her husband by text and apparently survived for 26 days. Her body was found in her tent two years later.

I read somewhere that the absolute maximum life span of a human is in the neighborhood of 400 years. Why? Accidents. Nature is unforgiving. Very. So are traffic, gas poisoning (See NYT today re: Family in Mexico), etc. There's a human element in most of them. In this one, it's prominent. You have to be alert, and do not put yourself in this kind of situation. Ever.

The article states that distance measurements based upon Ewasko's cell-phone ping were shown by Mark Melson to have "sizeable margins of error." However, in his blog, Tom Mahood writes that Melson found that his pings quite accurately measured the distances to the Verizon tower, subject to a possible signal bounce off a rock, which in the "most outlandishly worst case" might add two miles to the actual distance.

Google "laura bradbury" to learn of a case in the same park from 1984.

Nature is not forgiving. You make a mistake? Sometimes you pay. Sometimes you get lucky...and walk out alive.

Many years ago, I drove to Joshua Tree, from Palm Springs where I was vacationing. I just wanted to drive through the park to see if it was a place I would want to come back to visit. It was a weekday and quite empty. I (stupidly) decided to pull off the road to take a quick walk into the desert to look at the trees. I meandered for awhile and when I turned around to go back to the car, I couldn't see it. I couldn't see any distinguishing landmarks. It was the same in all directions. No footsteps or sounds. I knew immediately how foolish I had been. I didn't have water or a phone, was wearing tennis shoes and no one knew where I was. I didn't even know if I had walked in a straight line. I reeled in my panic and chose a direction, walked slowly and methodically and made it back to the car, albeit very shaken. Two of the many lessons that experience taught me is how easy it is to get lost and how easy it would have been NOT to get lost or at least be able to have been found. I can picture how easy it would be to get off a trail out there and have no idea how to get back.

"Everett Ruess: A Vagabond For Beauty", (William Rusho, ed.) is a must for anyone interested in disappearing "explorers" of the desert Southwest. If you bookend that with Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang", you might start to get an inkling why those of us who believe life is to be lived would choose such a place to search for the meaning of life or, at least, our relationship to it. Yes, hiking in Joshua Tree can be a risk, but so is driving on most roads, as 40,000 or so dead Americans each year would testify. As to technology removing the risk of hiking in Joshua Tree: why bother?

"Everett Ruess: A Vagabond For Beauty", (William Rusho, ed.) is a must for anyone interested in disappearing "explorers" of the desert Southwest. If you bookend that with Edward Abbey's "The Monkey Wrench Gang", you might start to get an inkling why those of us who believe life is to be lived would choose such a place to search for the meaning of life or, at least, our relationship to it. Yes, hiking in Joshua Tree can be a risk, but so is driving on most roads, as 40,000 or so dead Americans each year would testify. I will appreciatively accept the risk of driving to Joshua Tree so that I may take the risk of hiking around Joshua Tree. As to technology removing the risk of hiking in Joshua Tree: why bother?

Those of us who live in the SoCal desert know how unforgiving it can be at any time of year. The wildness of Joshua Tree is dangerous and it’s proximity to LA should not provide comfort to those venturing out. The local San Gabriel Mountains adjacent to LA are incredibly rugged and easy to get lost in. Carry more water than you think you’ll ever need and some basic survival gear. I think the best rule of thumb if you’re hiking is leave a note in your car (where you expect to go, time, date, etc.) and if you get lost stop moving. You’ll almost certainly be located after and uncomfortable day or two.

This is one amazing park that people must visit both during the day and also at night. Last August in 100+F heat my 24 year old daughter and I thought we might go for a hike in the park in one of the short canyon trails a friend had recommended. Checking on one of the excellent blogs on the park the response came back "not advised." I'm in very good physical shape but that ended that. Instead, we decided to drive through the park. At the entry station where you buy entry park passes, my daughter noticed the posters for the missing "murder suicide" couple. I had a sudden realization of the hidden danger that was here - I naively wondered how two hikers could get lost. (FYI, I think the case was ruled a mercy killing and suicide after they got lost.) As we drove through in our air conditioned car, I realized that if we broke down, all we had was coffee and the goodwill of strangers and the park rangers. Not prepared at all for an emergency. The park was very deceiving. That night we went back at dusk to view the Milky Way starry night in the pitch black of Joshua Tree. It was spooky but also amazing to say the least. We didn't stay more than 20 minutes and I was looking around us in the dark constantly before I said, let's get out of here. At first glance, the park doesn't appear to be much. But when you pay close attention, you realize that it is far more complex, challenging and dangerous than any urban setting. If you go, especially in the heat, be very careful.

I am uncommonly moved by this parable of life and death in an antagonistic natural environment, and I feel that it will remain with me as a very personal object lesson for the rest of my life. For Mr. Ewasko, if deceased, did not die in vain. Instead, he has left here a cautionary tale of extraordinary power. Or rather, Geoff Manaugh and the editors of the New York Times have magnificently memorialized Bill Ewasko by advising us of the dangers of entering hostile terrain without fully assimilated experience, an appropriate array of life-sustaining equipment, and unwavering concentration. Whatever mistakes, if any, Mr. Ewasko committed to speed his own demise, the lessons of his disappearance remain vivid. My great hope is that all those who loved Bill Ewasko will take consolation in his construction, inadvertent as it may be, of a signpost that warns all of us to proceed with step-by-step care into areas that offer exquisite beauty but also contain hints of tragic denouement. Tennyson wrote that nature is 'red in tooth and claw.' That is fair enough. What seems less acceptable is that nature-as-desert can passively lead us into terrain where we are all too likely to be immobilized by fractures and concussions, by dehydration and deadly heat, or by the venom of poisonous snakes. Whatever happened to Mr. Ewasko might happen to anyone. We would do well to bear that truth in mind as we remember his final journey with respect and sorrow.

Recognizing the pain of the loss of Mr. Ewasko felt by his loved ones, and intending no disrespect, I must say that in a world in which both people and technology are ubiquitous, there is still something romantic about the notion that there remains enough wilderness for one to still set off on a journey and become irretrievably lost.

As a former extreme camper I know how easily it is to get lost. One thing most hikers, especially inexperienced or ego-driven, fail to know or recognize...is the idea that all "I have to do is turn around" is a myth. Hikers rarely look behind them as they forge forward. They don't learn to see the natural markers from the reverse. As anyone who pays attention on the return portion of a simple hike knows, they see things they didn't see when heading out. A rock formation, or plants that were hidden going out, now come into view on the return. Going up/down a hill in one direction doesn't look the same going in reverse. Compounded by fatigue, temperature change, a setting sun, etc - it can look like a completely different landscape. The same thing can be noticed in regular life. How often has someone gotten lost in a populated area, only to hang a u-turn, then notice nothing looks the same as it did before turning around. Street and business signs, etc gone unnoticed before the u-turn are now confusing markers. Hikers, especially casual ones, are mostly focused on a destination point, don't have the mental skills to draw their own landscape map that could save their lives, or prevent injury. Rarely if ever turnaround to see where they just came from. An idea that came out this comment; "An incoming rush of voice mail messages and texts would have crashed the battery before Ewasko could place a call." Why isn't there an option to turn that off? Seems like a simple idea.

In the past 6 years my wife and I (in our 60s) have hiked 400 miles in Joshua Tree NP, and about 2800 miles in other areas of the country. 90% of our hikes are "off trail" (no established hiking trail). We prefer hiking in the desert to hiking in mountain areas because it is difficult to get lost in the desert. You can die from a fall or from hiking in 100+ degree weather without adequate water, etc., but nobody should get lost. Except in rare circumstances you can climb a hill to see where you are and virtually always you can follow your footsteps back. And that assumes you are not carrying any type of GPS device or a compass. Joshua Tree NP is no different from any other southwest desert area we have hiked in. It is not particularly treacherous or dangerous. One is safer hiking in the desert like we do than you are in driving to the desert to hike. This article makes Joshua Tree NP and other desert areas sound much more dangerous than they are. With only a day of adequate preparation, anyone should be safe. Have a GPS, compass, trekking poles, a Personal Locator Beam and water. And NEVER hike alone. Go see our beautiful country and deserts. It's very safe. Our blog about our hikes in our country is written to inform people about our public lands, as many people don't seem to realize what we collectively own, and what is under threat from Trump: http://dan-lifeonwhidbeyisland.blogspot.com/

In 1967 I spent two weeks in Joshua Tree. I hitched there with a friend from San Francisco in search of a commune. At night the sky was so crowded with stars that I had a feeling of other worldliness which persisted into the day light. Big Bear hosted an annual gathering of UFO believers which seemed to be just another manifestation of the eerie quality of the place. Pioneer Town built as an Old West tourist attraction quickly became a real Old West ghost town. Through the article and photographs I relieved my experience in and impressions of Joshua Tree. I marveled at the boulders in the distance. Admired the dead trees decorated with old bottles, and squinted in the bright sun. Thank you

(Tragically, it turned out to be a murder-suicide.) From what I read about that unfortunate couple's disappearance, it seems they were hopelessly lost without food and water and the young man performed a "mercy killing" on his girlfriend then took his own life.

I've seen no reference to the police having combed the abandoned car. Did they fingerprint it? Search for signs of blood -- Bill Ewasko could have been surprised at the trailhead by thieves or drug dealers, killed, stuffed in the trunk, dumped and the car returned to the site...any number of nefarious possibilities. Not having given the car a good detective's once-over seems pretty shocking -- if that, indeed, is what happened.