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Lost in
Chen Su/Ocean/Corbis

4 Scholastic Scope • MAY 2015

 Nonfiction

Valley
The incredible story of three women lost in one
of the most dangerous places on Earth—and their fierce
determination to survive. BY KRISTIN LEWIS


scope.scholastic.com • MAY 2015 5
 having been twisted and mashed
AS YOU READ, How does the author describe the

D
THINK ABOUT: landscape? over hundreds of millions of years
by volcanoes and earthquakes.

eath Valley is the hottest place on Earth. Rocky snowcapped mountains

jut thousands of feet into the sky,
The searing heat sucks the air out of
while vast salt flats and sand dunes
your lungs and scorches the bottoms of
sizzle in the sun on the valley floor
your feet. It’s so dry that a corpse can below. Summer temperatures soar
shrivel into a mummy. Every year at well above 120 degrees Fahrenheit.
least one person dies here. (The record is 134.)
These extremes are brutal but
It was in this desert Nevada. Donna was also fascinating, which is why
inferno that on July 22, eager to show Jenny nearly 1 million people visit the
2010, 17-year-old Gina the spectacular sights park each year. Most come during
Cooper, her mother, of the West. Already the cool winter months. Donna,
Donna, and their they’d seen the Grand Gina, and Jenny knew that visiting
friend Jenny Leung, Canyon, San Francisco, in July meant extreme heat. But

Courtesy of Donna Cooper (Cooper and Leung); Shutterstock (Scorpion)

19, became stranded. Gina Cooper (left) and
and Los Angeles. Now it would be a short trip, mostly in
Lost, with no cell phone Jenny Leung Donna wanted to show Donna’s air-conditioned
service and very little her Death Valley. Gina car. So Donna
water, their chances of survival decided to come along, and packed food and
were slim . . . and getting slimmer the three set out for Scotty’s water for the day,
by the moment. Castle, a historical site and and stocked the car
museum from the 1920s. with maps, a roadside
Blazingly Hot Death Valley hazard kit, tools, blankets,
Like so many disaster stories, National Park
this one begins unremarkably: with is a place of staggering Scorpions are one of
a plan for a pleasant day trip. beauty and devastating many creatures that
manage to survive
Jenny, a student from Hong extremes. The more
in the hostile
Kong, was spending the summer than 3-million-acre park environment of
with Donna, who lived in Pahrump, is a geological wonder, Death Valley.

UNCONQUERABLE INFERNO
From coast to coast, the lower 48 states stretch across some 3 million square miles.
Little remains untouched by civilization. Yet places like Death Valley refuse to be
tamed. Of course, many people have tried. Starting in the 1800s, prospectors began
mining the area for gold and other minerals. The work
was grueling and dangerous. All supplies had to be
hauled hundreds of miles in and out, mostly by mule
teams like this one.

6 Scholastic Scope • MAY 2015

 phone chargers, and a first-aid kit. more lost. “Everything looked the when her mother failed to call and
Little did she know they would same,” Donna says. “It was awful.” check in, Sky knew something was
soon be in a fight for their lives. Only the park’s main roads terribly wrong.
were shown on their map. So they
What Went Wrong? turned on the car’s GPS. With Grim News
As planned, the women spent a cool certainty, the GPS delivered Around 6 a.m., Donna, Gina,
few hours at Scotty’s Castle. They directions: Turn right in 500 yards. and Jenny awoke from a long and
left for home around 3 p.m. On Continue straight ahead for 1 mile. frightening night in the car. Looking
their way out, they passed a sign To their dismay, it soon became around, they realized how truly
for the Racetrack—one of Death clear that the GPS was useless. Such desperate their situation was. Yet
Valley’s star attractions. It’s a large mapping systems are notorious for they remained clearheaded.
dried-up lake bed called a playa, leading travelers astray in remote They decided that Gina would
scattered with rocks that seem to places like Death Valley. The set out on foot to look for signs of
move on their own, leaving striking year before, a woman had gotten life. While she was gone, Donna
tracks in the dirt behind them. The lost there following her GPS. She and Jenny foraged for food. They
women decided they shouldn’t survived, but tragically, her 6-year- found some pine needles, which
miss the chance to see it. old son did not. are nutrient-rich, and some cactus,
They drove. Hours went by. The women though these proved too difficult to
And drove. had driven hundreds of miles. The eat, even using Donna’s knife.
Jim McMahon/“Mapman” (Map); Courtesy of Donna Cooper (Car)

And drove. fuel tank drifted toward empty, as Two hours later, Gina returned
They came to an intersection of did their supply of drinking water. with grim news: She had seen car
dirt roads called Teakettle Junction. Darkness fell, and a blaze of stars tracks but no people—only parched
That must have been where they tore open the sky. Around 10 p.m., and barren land. By now, only a few
took a wrong turn, because they the car sputtered to a stop. sips of precious water remained,
began gaining elevation, winding They were out of gas. and the heat was growing steadily
up into the mountains. They tried By now, their friends and more oppressive. Gina begged her
to head back the way they’d come, families were gripped by worry. mom to try starting the car again. It
but with each passing mile became Among them was Donna’s eldest seemed pointless—the car was out
daughter, Sky, 21, who of gas—but why not?
lived in Florida. Sky had Donna put the key in the
DEATH
VALLEY
just had surgery, and ignition and turned it. 
NATIONAL Scotty’s
Castle
PARK Visitor N E V A D A
Center
Teakettle The women left
Junction M OJAVE
D ESER T the car on the
DE

The
Racetrack
road, hoping
AT

it would be
H
PA

seen.
N

VA
AM
IN

L L E
T

Pahrump
RA
NG

Badwater
E

Basin
-282 ft
C A L I F O R N I A (lowest point in
North America)

U.S.
Area of the park 0 10
Scale of Miles

scope.scholastic.com • MAY 2015 7

 ground burned their feet through
their shoes.
The human body is not made to
withstand such high temperatures.
Sweat pours forth, leading to
dehydration. Heart rate speeds up.
The brain becomes addled, making
it difficult to think, much less make
lifesaving decisions. Heatstroke
sets in and organs begin to shut
down. Without treatment, death
will follow.
But Donna, Gina, and Jenny
Jenny walks to the
trees, where the were not about to give up.
camp (right) would They arrived at the trees and
provide desperately
needed water. discovered something incredible:
three trailers and a small covered
Vroom! after the other. Donna gunned the porch. “The chance of finding that
The car sprang to life. car up each one, then let gravity in the middle of Death Valley was
take them down. “If we got stuck one in a million,” Gina says.
The Search Begins between hills, I knew we were done The crude campsite would
Back in Florida, Sky, frantic for,” she remembers. “We’d never become their lifeline.
with worry, hacked into her mom’s be able to climb out.” Gina broke into one of the
credit card statement online, Gina gripped the passenger trailers, using tools she doggedly
hoping for some clue as to her handle in terror; on one especially retrieved from the car. They found
whereabouts. She saw that her violent bump, it ripped right off in stale oatmeal, cans of beans,
mom had purchased a T-shirt at her hand. beer, and some jerky so old it had
Scotty’s Castle the day before. And then they saw it: Off in the turned white. It was slim pickings,
Immediately, Sky contacted the distance was a stand of trees—a but Donna was over the moon. “I
California Highway Patrol (CHP) splash of glorious green in a sea of thought, OK, I can keep us alive for
and a search was launched. desolate brown. They’d actually two weeks on this,” she says.
Scouring the 5,200 square miles glimpsed the trees the day before, They found two mattresses and
of Death Valley—a region the size after they’d lost their way. dragged them out to the porch.
of Connecticut—is a slow and Now, their lives depended on That night, any sleep was hard-won
painstaking process. Already, the making it back to those trees. in the unrelenting heat.
Courtesy of Donna Cooper (Both Images)

women had been missing for 24 Because where there are trees, In the morning came what
hours. Finding them as soon as there is water. would prove to be the best find
possible was critical. They drove until they ran out of of all: On the back of one of the
Meanwhile, Donna, Gina, and gas, this time for good. Thankfully, trailers was a hose.
Jenny found themselves on a road, the trees were only a short hike They turned it on, and to their
if it could be called a road, that from the car. But every step was utter joy, hot water gushed out. “It
was utterly insane: a series of steep agony. It was at least 125 degrees. was the worst water I’d ever tasted
hills that rose and fell sharply, one The superheated rocks on the but also the best,” Gina says.

8 Scholastic Scope • MAY 2015

 That day, the women had a Down in the camp, Donna was anyone unfortunate enough to
lot to do. They explored the area, helping Gina bathe when they get stuck there. In fact, Lee had
looking for anything they could heard Jenny screaming. Gina spotted the women days earlier but
use. They broke into the other two sprang from the water and, wearing had lost track of them.
trailers and found a radio. Gina a towel, ran outside to see Jenny Giddy joy overtook the women
hooked it up to the car battery, but wildly waving a yellow blanket. as they raced out of the park. When
the heat was too intense There, in the sky, a they pulled into a gas station, it
to stay in the sun long helicopter was flying was as though they’d arrived at
enough to raise anyone straight toward them. the finest restaurant in the world.
on it. They were saved. Gina and Jenny tore through the
By then, Gina was When Johns and aisles, grabbing nachos, hot dogs,
sick with dehydration Steele landed, they chips, ice cream, soda—anything
Donna learned
and exhaustion and survival skills from were overjoyed to find they could get their hands on—
felt unable to eat. a teacher she had the women alive. The and shoveling the food into their
when she was 8
Donna coaxed her into years old. She pilots arranged for a mouths with wild abandon.
swallowing a few bites of credits him with man known as Lizard
saving their lives.
oatmeal. Lee, who lived up in the Looking Back
The day wore on, and the mountains, to bring gas and show It’s been five years since that
women prepared for another night them back to the main road. Lee, terrible ordeal in the desert. Today,
in the wilderness. the only resident for hundreds of Gina and Jenny are both in school.
miles, is a volunteer for the park Donna still sends Christmas cards
Rescued! service, patrolling the region for to Johns and Steele. She has also
On July 25, two CHP become friends with the
pilots, Tyler Johns and Scott owners of the campsite that
Steele, were scouring the saved their lives.
area from their helicopter. Gina looks back on what
Their mission had been happened with a sense of
reclassified. It was no longer pride. She says it changed
a rescue. It was a recovery— her, made her more
li jingwang/Getty Images (Cactus); Courtesy of Donna Cooper (CHP pilots)

there was little hope of confident.

finding the women alive. Having survived
The pilots were about to something so horrible, she
give up when they decided says she’s prepared for
to take a final pass over one anything life may throw
of the most remote parts of at her. “You have to be
From left: Tyler Johns, Gina, Donna,
the park. And that is when Jenny, Scott Steele. thankful for every day you
they saw it: Donna’s car. get,” Gina says. •
writing contest
What makes Death Valley so fascinating? What makes it so dangerous? Answer both questions in a
well-organized essay. Support your ideas with details from the article and, optionally, the video.
Send your essay to DEATH VALLEY CONTEST. Five winners will each get a copy of Lost in the
River of Grass by Ginny Rorby. See page 2 for details.
Get this
activity
Online

scope.scholastic.com • MAY 2015 9