On the morning of Friday, November 3rd, members of a multi-agency search team were able to locate and evacuate a park visitor whose vehicle had become disabled in an extremely rugged and remote area. The woman, nearly 70 years old, had driven her Volvo sedan across extremely rough, two-track backcountry routes in the Cerritos de Jaspe area of El Malpais National Monument and BLM’s El Malpais Conservation Area under the mistaken belief that she was on a commonly used park touring road. The search team received weak and fragmented cellular telephone calls from the woman that only added to the difficulty of finding her. She remained lost in the park through Thursday night, during which time the temperature dropped to 22 degrees. Following 17 hours of fruitless ground searches, a New Mexico Department of Public Safety helicopter was requested. The helicopter’s crew quickly located the woman. She had reached country so rugged that few patrols are generally attempted in the area since damage is likely even to four-wheel drive vehicles. The woman was in excellent condition, having spent the night in her car. Rangers and officers from the New Mexico Department of Public Safety assisted her in returning to her vehicle, which was then towed out of the area for repairs. Participating in this operation along with park staff were the Cibola County Sheriff’s Department, the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, the Civil Air Patrol, and the Mount Taylor Search and Rescue Team.
