With tourists flocking to Moab and surrounding areas for summer vacation, search and rescue groups and recovery teams have, unfortunately, been busy. The Grand County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue oversees the public safety of those who recreate in Grand County, including 2.5 million annual visitors.
On June 8, motorists located a Grand Junction man who said he had been lost near the Dolores River for several days, whose wife was also missing. GCSAR was dispatched to the area, and after a search utilizing a GCSAR boat and helicopters from Classic Air Medical and the Utah Department of Public Safety, rescuers recovered the woman’s body.
Rescue personnel — including GCSAR, Arches National Park Rangers, Classic Air Medical and the DPS — recovered the body of a 68-year-old man from New Mexico on the Fisher Towers hiking trail on the morning of June 15. East of Moab, the Fisher Towers is a four-mile hiking trail frequented by tourists and locals alike. The man was reported overdue from his hike on June 14, and after a ten-hour air and ground search, his body was found shortly after midnight on June 15. He had fallen 75 feet and succumbed to his injuries.
