SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Texas man whose body was found in Utah’s Arches National Park is believed to have died of heat stroke while on a trip to spread his father’s ashes, according to his sister.
James Bernard Hendricks, 66, of Austin, was hiking in the park and likely became disoriented from a combination of heat, dehydration and high altitude, according to Ruth Hendricks Bough.
Hendricks had stopped in Utah while journeying across the West to the Sierra Nevada region of Nevada and California to spread his father’s ashes, he said in social media posts prior to his death.
Rangers found his vehicle at a trailhead parking lot after Hendricks was reported overdue the morning of Aug 1, according to park officials. Hendricks’ body was found nearby off-trail and his water bottle was empty, Bough said in a social media post.