Death In Joshua Tree - The Story Of Paul Miller

This video covers the disappearance and search for Paul Miller in Joshua Tree National Park, California.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Hey there, folks. If you've ever visited Joshua Tree National Park,
then you know it is a pretty incredible place. Sure,
it's a desert environment, but the different cactuses, Joshua trees,
and rock formations make for a truly unique and enjoyable experience. Unfortunately,
it's also a pretty dangerous park, especially in the summer,

(00:37):
when temperatures regularly rise above one hundred degrees fahrenheit. It
seems like the heat and also sometimes the confusing terrain
are the cause of people getting lost or disappearing in
the park. The case I want to highlight in this
video is that of Paul Miller, a man who disappeared
on what otherwise appears to be a simple out and
back trail on the northern edge of the park. This

(01:01):
case stumped searchers for a couple of years, and I
was always curious why. When you're dealing with temperatures and
excess of one hundred degrees, a person can only go
so far before hyperthermia and dehydration get them. So if
someone disappears in such conditions, you might expect the search
area to be somewhat smaller than one that takes place

(01:22):
in a more moderate location. That's where things like terrain
come in. How easy has it to traverse the search
area in question. Some people might think that it would
be a whole lot easier to not have to deal
with the thick trees and brush of a forest, and
sure that's true in a sense, but Joshua Tree presents
its own challenges with endless boulders and rock formations, and

(01:44):
of course I already mentioned the heat, which affects searchers
just as much as anyone else. As we have learned
in the past from other cases in Joshua Tree, like
that of Bill Owasco, this park can be a bit
deceiving and hide the location of remains for well for
a decade, as was the case for mister Owasco. So
let's find out exactly what happened to Paul Miller on

(02:07):
his last hike in Joshua Tree National Park. But real
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(04:27):
old Paul Miller and his wife Stephanie were residents of Ontario, Canada.
Paul was an avid outdoorsman who loved kayaking, camping, hiking,
and traveling in general. He was known to his family
to be a strong hiker and fast on the trail.
He could sometimes get distracted easily taking pictures of nature,
which was another hobby of his. Both Paul and his

(04:49):
wife had this adventurous outdoor spirit, with Paul even proposing
to her from within a canoe, then later celebrating their
wedding by parachute jumping the day before the ceremony. By
twenty eighteen, they had been married for twenty six years.
They had children by this time, Dryden and Tiana, whom
Paul raised to appreciate nature in the same fashion that

(05:10):
he did. He was, by all accounts, a man who
surrounded himself with his family and friends. July of twenty
eighteen is the pivotal point in this story, as Paul
had recently turned fifty one, and he and his wife
had recently celebrated their twenty sixth anniversary, and Stephanie had
successfully secured a full time teaching contract. For September of

(05:32):
that year, the duo decided they wanted to take a
long vacation together, and it would also be the first
holiday without both of their children. The region they most
wanted to visit was the American Southwest, within which they
had a long list of desired locales to visit. Paul
always wanted to see the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion,
and Joshua Tree National Parks. So they set out for

(05:55):
Las Vegas with all of their camping equipment and plenty
of excitement. They hit all of these parks in turn,
with Joshua Tree being the last on the list. It
was to be a fitting end to the trip, as
Joshua Tree was also the one place Paul was most
excited to see. Together, Paul and Stephanie spent several days
hiking amongst the rocky desert trails of the park. They

(06:17):
hit Skull Rock, Hall of Horrors, Hidden Valley, Barker Dam,
and the Chala Cactus Gardens. Paul was particularly interested in
the big horned sheep and spent time taking pictures of
the animals with his nikon camera. Based on this recent experience,
it is safe to assume that Paul was well aware
of what it was like to hike in the park,

(06:38):
especially in the summer when temperatures are high. On July twelfth,
the couple booked a hotel room at a Motel six
in the town of twenty nine Palms, on the northern
edge of the park. They were just looking for a
place to clean up, relax, and pack before heading back
to Las Vegas and catching a flight home the next day.
On the morning of July thirteenth, Paul and his wife

(06:59):
were still in twenty nine Palms at their motel. They
had breakfast together at a Denny's around seven thirty am,
and Paul brought up the idea that there was still
time for one more hike on the forty nine Palms
Owasis Trail, as it was just up the road from
the motel six. The hike is a three mile round
trip with minor elevation gain. It has the typical Joshua

(07:21):
tree terrain of lots of rocks, boulders, and cactuses. A
highlight is a small spring oasis surrounded by palm trees.
It is considered a fairly strenuous hike, mostly depending on
the weather and heat conditions, and the average time to
complete is somewhere around one and two hours. Of course,
this always depends on the strength of the hiker and

(07:42):
the trail conditions. Paul estimated it would take him sixty
to ninety minutes, during which time he was hoping to
see and photograph more big horn sheep. Stephanie was not
particularly interested in joining Paul on the hike, however, instead
deciding to stay behind at the hotel and finish packing
their bag. At approximately eight thirty to nine am, Paul

(08:03):
left his Motel six room in twenty nine Palms and
traveled to the forty nine Palms Oasis trailhead alone. His
plan was to be back before the eleven am hotel
checkout time, and in his haste to get there and
get it done quick, he forgot to grab his wallet
and his cell phone. Though apparently this was not necessarily
an unusual thing for Paul to do. Paul did take

(08:26):
a backback with two to three liters of water and
a camelback. This is important because the temperatures in Joshua
Tree in July get dangerously hot and are regularly over
one hundred degrees fahrenheit. He also took some protein bars,
his camera, proper footwear, and a hat. He was wearing
a dark shirt and shorts and driving a tan Sedan

(08:47):
rental car. Roughly two hours later, around ten thirty am,
Stephanie was beginning to get concerned. She knew her husband
was a swift hiker who could normally tackle a three
mile trail with the ease. Still, she realized it was
not quite time to be seriously worried that something bad
had occurred that time came. As eleven am rolled around

(09:09):
and it was time to check out from the motel six,
she immediately had a feeling of dread and anxiety, which
eventually prompted her to head to the nearest park office
and report her concerns around eleven thirty am. Normally, park
rangers might not necessarily consider a hiker being overdue by
thirty minutes as a very serious situation, but Paul's case

(09:31):
was different for a few reasons. By twelve pm, temperatures
on the trail were already around one hundred degrees, which
is terrible to hike it. If someone gets caught in
temperatures like that, you need to get to them much
faster than you would in a more moderately temperatured area.
The Park Service also learned that Paul had a plane
to catch that day, so there was ample reason to

(09:52):
assume that Paul knew and would try to complete the
hike as fast as possible. So where was he? Everything
indicated that Paul being even a little bit overdue could
mean a serious situation was taking place. Park ranger Mo
would arrive on scene at the forty nine Palms Canyon
trailhead shortly after eleven forty five am. There were only

(10:13):
two cars in the parking lot, a tan Hyundai Sedan
registered to the Hertz Rental car company and a blue
Audi Sedan registered to a private citizen. The ranger checked
the interior of the Tan Sedan and noticed a partially
filled water container and a red hat on the passenger seat.
Park Ranger Ash then arrived and conducted a search urgency

(10:34):
assessment and concluded a measured response was required based upon
the information they had at the time. Basically, they were
not ready to call in every available resource just yet.
Rangers Ash and Moe immediately searched the forty nine Palms
Oasis trail from the trailhead to the trail's end at
the forty nine Palms Oasis. As the rangers approached the oasis,

(10:57):
they encountered a white male adult hiking in the other direction.
The man said that he drove a blue Audi Sedan
and he had not seen any other people during his hike.
The two rangers then continued on to the oasis, where
they conducted a brief search of the immediate area. Ranger
Ash then started heading back to the trailhead, while Ranger
MO went off trail down the forty nine Palms Canyon

(11:19):
to the park boundary, where Ranger ASH was going to
pick him up in a vehicle. After completion of their search,
the rangers requested a full search and rescue response. A
command post was set up in the trailhead parking lot
while they waited more personnel. More searchers would not arrive
until around four PM. This included search dogs and a

(11:39):
helicopter from San Bernardino County. It is very common for
the San Bernardino County Sheriff to show up and assist
the park. The search lasted until ten thirty PM. Rangers
were assigned to overnight security of the trailhead. Some search
notes from this day indicate that people were having great
difficulty with the terrain, noting that it was very rugged,

(12:00):
with too many hiding spaces and too many places to
fall or hurt yourself. They also found some fresh mountain
lion tracks. Search operations continued on Saturday, July fifteenth. At
five point thirty in the morning, search dogs ATVs Air
Resources and ground searchers from both the Park Service and
San Bernardino showed up. Additional personnel were requested from surrounding

(12:23):
parks like Death Valley and Mojave. Temperatures at the time
were in excess of one hundred degrees, so the actual
search operations were reduced during the hours between noon and
four pm to mitigate the risk of heat exhaustion among
the crew. So between Friday and Saturday, three heat casualties occurred,
which were either treated in the field or at the

(12:45):
command post. None of them required hospitalization. On most days,
searchers were only allowed to be out in the open
for two hours at a time due to the heat.
Paul's wife was interviewed to see if they could glean
anything useful in the search. She said it was for
Paul to hike by himself and it was not unusual
for him to leave his phone and wallet behind. She

(13:05):
said he is adventurous and would follow a big horn
sheep off trail in order to get a good picture.
He is good at land navigation and has experienced hiking
in remote locations. She said that the longest distance her
husband had ever covered in one day of hiking was
around twenty miles, which is pretty good. She added that
Paul was not overly familiar with the desert terrain and

(13:27):
would probably keep walking if he was lost in order
to find his own way out. Rangers were able to
get in touch with Paul's son as well, who added
that he knew of two times in the past that
Paul got lost on a hike. His son believed that
Paul would capably handle the rough off trail terrain of
Joshua Tree. Rangers also spoke with some of Paul's friends
to get a better idea of his state of mind

(13:49):
leading up to the disappearance. None of them reported any
issues or red flags. Everything seemed perfectly fine leading up
to that last day in Joshua Tree. Eventually, a potential
witness contacted the park Service stating that they thought they
might have seen Paul in the forty nine Palms Oasis
trail on July fourteenth, the day after he disappeared. And

(14:13):
I have to think that this is either a typo
or the witness did say the fourteenth, but actually meant
the thirteenth. Obviously, the day after the disappearance, the trail
was most likely closed and crawling with search and rescue personnel. Anyway,
the witness said they arrived at the oasis at eight
thirty am and started hiking back to the trail head.
Around eight forty five, The witness said that he saw

(14:36):
a man hiking on the trail by himself, and that
it appeared to be Paul Miller. The witness reportedly saw
that Paul was hiking quickly, as though he was a
man on a mission, which would fit because he did
have a flight to catch. He said that Paul looked hot,
but was otherwise in good shape. They spoke for a
brief moment before continuing on the time at which this

(14:57):
encounter took place was around nine am plus or minus
fifteen minutes. This timeframe would fit with the time that
Paul likely arrived at the trailhead. The location was about
three quarters of a mile from the trailhead itself. The
witness said that the man had a smaller, dark backpack
and a dark baseball cap. He said he also saw

(15:18):
a group of two males and two females hiking into
the oasis as he was leaving. When he made it
back to the trailhead around nine thirty am, he remembered
seeing two vehicles in the parking lot, a large van
and a sedan that he thought was either black or gray.
After five days of searching in extreme temperatures, the operation
was officially ended. This occurred mostly because of safety concerns,

(15:42):
but the search would have also turned into a recovery
rather than a rescue, as Paul did not have the
means and resources to survive the one hundred degree heat
for five days. Wherever he was, they were almost certain
that he was deceased. The conditions on this search were,
without a doubt terrible. Anyone who has gone hiking in
such heat would know this. Having to do that hiking

(16:04):
and off trail in Boulder Strown areas makes it all
the worse. While much of the searching did take place
in the early morning before the sun came up, that
would also present certain challenges due to the lack of light.
So the search was called off and Paul Miller was
still out there somewhere. On July twenty sixth, with the
search turning out to be a complete failure, a report

(16:25):
was issued that outlined the disappearance and search efforts, but
also listed likely scenarios for what could have happened. At
the top of that list with a high likelihood was
a scenario where Paul traveled off trail around one mile
south of the trailhead in order to photograph big horn sheep.
He then fell while not paying attention and was injured

(16:46):
to a degree that he became immobile or unconscious. He
then succumbed to the extreme heat. They believed that photographers
were more likely to take chances and enter risky terrain
to obtain the perfect shot, a sentiment that I actually
tend to agree with. The area where Paul disappeared was
steep and dangerous, and they note that a standard camera

(17:06):
can disorient the operator and cause them to fall while
using it. They also note Paul's propensity to move off
trail based on prior testimony from his relatives. Another scenario
that they believed had a medium likelihood was one where
Paul did not turn around at the oasis and instead
continued south into a drainage and went further southwest before

(17:27):
dying from heat related illness. The lowest likelihood scenarios were
foul play and despondence due to a relationship event. There
was simply no evidence to support either of those theories.
The report also outlined three areas where Paul would most
likely be found. Those are area segments E one, F one,
and F two. This is mostly just an educated guess

(17:51):
based on all of the available evidence. You notice that
it mainly singles out segments on either side of the
Oasis trail about three quarters of a mile to a
mile from the trailhead itself, which is roughly the area
where the one and only witnessed saw Paul hiking. The
case file shows that some additional searching took place in
the months after Paul disappeared. It almost always involved only

(18:14):
a handful of personnel with limited resources, but still there
were attempts. Let's go over some of these efforts. On
August fifth, a search began early in the morning with
support and advice from Nevada State Search and Rescue. Ground
searchers and canines began at the oasis and started working
the trail back to the parking area. A nearby hill

(18:35):
area was searched because ravens and buzzards were seen circling
the area. Nothing was found at the time. The only
thing of note was some canine interest about a quarter
of a mile up the trail from the trailhead. All
units were done searching by nine to thirty am on
August sixth. Five searchers and a canine were used to
search the area a quarter of a mile from the

(18:56):
trailhead where the dogs had shown interest the day before.
No further clues were found, but the canine continued to
show interest in this particular area. Search efforts continued on
August twelfth, early in the morning to once again follow
up on the clues found during previous searches. Once again,
despite skilled personnel unseen, nothing was found that helped further

(19:18):
the investigation. On September ninth, a small group of searchers
decided to take a new direction and look into some
shelters and caves that were known to be in the
region in case Paul had found one and decided to
take cover there. Due to a lack of personnel, only
five people were available and nobody was able to complete
their assigned search segments and no clues were found. Beginning

(19:42):
in November of twenty eighteen, it was pretty much only
family members and friends who went into Joshua Tree to
search for Paul. They were accompanied by some members of
Joshua Tree Search and Rescue, but in an unofficial capacity
they donated their time to the cause. They were able
to use GPX of the areas that had already been
searched by the MPs and other authorities. This allowed them

(20:05):
to focus on new areas of interest, but being on
the ground in the area just made them more aware
of what a difficult task it was to conduct searches
in this kind of terrain. Still, they pressed on putting
up posters around the park and nearby towns and doing
their best to alert hikers to be on the lookout
for any clues. On December sixth, an individual contacted the

(20:28):
Park Service regarding an unknown rib cage that had been
found in the forty nine Palms Oasis. When a ranger
arrived in the area, he was shown photos of a
spinal column. The following day, authorities would hike out to
the location of the discovery. Photographs were taken of the bones,
which were then sent out to a coroner to be identified.

(20:48):
It was later determined that they were not human. Paul's sister,
Dawn went on a podcast and did everything she could
to bring media attention to her brother's disappearance. She did
not want the case to be forgotten. Her efforts appeared
to work, as it brought the Sierra Madre SAR team
into the area to perform a search. As a training exercise.
Don had been pushing the park to allow a drone

(21:10):
search of the forty nine Palms area because it was
so difficult to get around and there were other places
that seemed inaccessible. It is illegal to fly drones within
a national park, but you can get permission to do it. Unfortunately,
it seems to be a very rare thing for the
Park Service to grant such permission. Don describes her effort
to get drones involved as a uphill battle, but she

(21:32):
eventually found a team of SAR drone operators known as
Western States Aerial Search. This organization applied for a special
use permit and was able to get their request expedited.
It was granted in November of twenty nineteen, well over
a year after Paul's disappearance. The plan was to fly
three to four drones for three days, which would cover

(21:53):
a vast area of land. What the drones are doing
is flying over the search area and taking thousands of
high roads pictures. Once they do that, a difficult and
tedious task begins in which people comb through the photographs
looking for anomalies. Though these days I've increasingly seen that
organizations can use AI to comb through these photos looking

(22:14):
for anomalies, which probably expedites the process by a great deal.
In Paul's case, it was December of twenty nineteen when
one of these technicians found an anomaly amongst these drone photos.
On December nineteenth, twenty nineteen, the Park Service was contacted
about following up on a lead discovered in a drone
photograph provided by a private group. The aerial picture appeared

(22:37):
to show a light colored object which appeared to be
a human femur bone. Unfortunately, the actual photo is not
included in the park file. The object was photographed near
the forty nine Palms Oasis and was well within the
search area for Paul Miller. For reasons I cannot comprehend,
the actual coordinates of the find are redacted based on

(22:58):
exemptions that clearly do not apply. I think this is
actually the first time I've received redacted coordinates. In fact,
the inconsistency of the Park Service is somewhat astounding at times. Anyway, Instead,
we're going to use the description of house searchers got
there to build a pretty clear idea of the location.
This will be based upon the report the Park Service

(23:19):
issued and also a description written by Paul's sister Dawn.
The park personnel hiked out to this location on December
twentieth at two pm. They say that they started at
the forty nine Palms trailhead and made their way toward
the coordinates. They later decided to hike down a drainage
from the ridge line on the trail and go downhill

(23:40):
towards their target. This drainage reportedly went in a southeasterly direction.
While in the drainage, around three point thirty PM, they
located a pair of dark colored cargo shorts which were
under several large rocks and also partially buried in sand.
The shorts were covered in dirt and tattered and torn
in several locals. They were a size thirty two and

(24:02):
the maker's tag indicated they were manufactured in Canada. Nothing
was found in the pockets. The rangers put the shorts
in an evidence bag. Further down the drainage, around three
forty five PM, one of the rangers located a boot
under several large rocks. The boot was very worn and
appeared to be a military style size nine. The shoe

(24:24):
was tan and there was no identifiable marks on it.
The coordinates of the boot are redacted. As well. They
then put the boot in an evidence bag. As the
team approached the lower section of the drainage near the
coordinates they were en route to, they observed what looked
to be a partial human spine lying in the desert sand.
The time was roughly four pm. Okay, so that was

(24:47):
the description from the Park Service, so let's compare that
to Don's description. Dawn says that Paul was found hidden
in the back of a crevice part way down the
mainwash leading from the oasis and towards town, and town
would be twenty nine palms okay, So while that's not
a lot of information, it's still very helpful. There is

(25:07):
a very clear drainage or wash heading from the forty
nine palms oasis and going north northeast up toward town. Basically,
Paul was still close to the end of the trail.
There are two branches that lead into the wash, and
based on the NPS report, I would think that the
rangers started finding the clothes and boot along this drainage

(25:28):
as it heads in a southeasterly direction. I think they
then connected with the main wash here where they found
the rest of the remains. So while the exact location
is unknown. We do have a general idea he was
probably found in this drainage. The bones that were initially discovered,
which included a spine and femur, were photographed by the

(25:50):
recovery team at around four ten pm. They found a
human skull lying on the open ground. The mandible was missing.
A purple and gray osprey back pack was about ten
feet from the skull and in an upright position. The
backpack contained the Hyundai rental car keys, the nikon camera,
a roll of toilet paper, a sandal, a cliff bar,

(26:12):
and about a half lead to one leader of water
in a camelback style water bladder. Unfortunately, they either didn't
take many pictures of the area or they just decided
not to give me all they had. Both are possible.
Still we can get an idea of this crevice that
Paul's remains were found in. After rangers inventoried the backpack,

(26:33):
they continued searching the area and found several other bones
which appeared to be human remains. After reporting into the
Chief Ranger and also contacting San Bernardino County, the team
left the area around four thirty pm. The case was
then transferred to the San Bernardino County sheriff, who returned
to the scene on December twenty first with a coroner

(26:55):
who documented the scene and removed the remains. A reason
I don't have any information from them is because San
Bernardino is the least transparent county I have ever encountered
in the entire country who blatantly violate California's transparency laws
and then challenge you to take them to court because
they know you won't and can't afford it. But that's

(27:16):
just my opinion, not gonna lie. California in general is
absolutely terrible when it comes to releasing records, which is
kind of funny when you think about it, but San
Bernardino County just takes it to another level. Anyway, I'll
end this rant. We probably wouldn't have learned much from
them anyway. There is actually a lot more to be
learned outside of what authorities had. For example, according to

(27:38):
Paul's sister, Don, his camera was found inside his backpack
and intact the photographs on the camera actually helped piece
together some of Paul's journey. Unfortunately I do not have
the photos themselves. Don said that the photos showed that
Paul did make it to the oasis itself, and that
he was on his way back to the parking lot

(27:58):
when something happened. Paul decided to go off trail. Maybe
he saw a big horned sheep, or maybe it was
some other reason. Don said that when she went to
the oasis herself, she noticed hikers sometimes accidentally following an
animal trail down the main wash, But she said that
most of the time these people turned around after the
trail petered out. This is a fairly common thing. Sometimes

(28:22):
a wash or a ravine can appear to be a trail.
Sometimes animal trails can appear to be a trail. These
things sometimes throw people off, but usually just for a
little while, as people typically discover these things are not
built or maintained by human hands. Still, Don was confused
because Paul's last photographs show that he was well past

(28:43):
that section of the actual trail, but she surmises that
he might have gone back to it. That's a bit
of a sticking point. If Paul was in a hurry,
would he really delay himself so much that he would
backtrack on the trail. I suppose it's possible if he
really wanted to get a picture of a certain animal,
but it feels a little unlikely. Dawn states that the

(29:04):
coroner found no evidence that Paul had fallen from the
cliffs and ridges above the wash. Instead, it appeared he
had sought shelter from the sun in the only shady
area he could find, a rocky crevice. She goes on
to state that she believes whatever happened to Paul happened quickly,
as there was still quite a bit of water in
his camelback. She believes that he might have had some

(29:25):
kind of medical emergency, like a cardiac event, and then
died from the heat within the first few hours. Whatever
drove Paul off trail will never be known. Don wonders
if he might have already been experiencing confusion from hyperthermia.
I think all of her points are absolutely valid. I
was thinking about all the exact same things before I

(29:45):
encountered her online post about Paul's death. If he died
with a leader of water still on him, then it
seems like there was something else going on that we
don't quite know about. The fact that they only found
a few bones means that determining a cause of death
is pretty much impossible. I mean, he probably died from
the heat, but if there was some other factor like
a heart attack, we would never know. At this point,

(30:08):
Don states that the only reasons that drones were able
to locate him is because scavenger animals had pulled some
of his remains away from the crevice where he was sheltered.
The unfortunate part is that Dawn and probably many others
passed within sixty feet of this spot during the mini
searches that took place. The issue was that everyone's greatest
fear that he was in some rocky crevice was true.

(30:32):
Even if they put up drones right off the bat
it probably wouldn't have helped. There was just too many
boulders and too many crevices for people to search on foot. Now,
I actually went to Joshua Tree National Park because I
was interested in walking the trail and finding out what
could have happened to Paul Miller. At the time, it
was the summer of twenty twenty four. I had a
lot of information from the NPS about the disappearance in search.

(30:55):
The problem was nothing in their files said anything about
Paul ever being fed. I got that information after my
visit when I petitioned the NPS once again for that
very specific information, So when I went to Joshua Tree,
I knew that Paul had obviously gone off trail somewhere,
and I was curious to see what the trail actually
looked like and how easy it would be to get

(31:17):
lost on it. Unfortunately, for this hike, I was running
on a tight schedule that day. I had just come
from Arizona. The plan was to stop and hike in
Joshua Tree and then drive out to Los Angeles, so
sadly I wasn't even in Joshua Tree for a whole day.
I really want to go back someday because it is
a beautiful park. Anyway, I wasn't too concerned about the

(31:40):
time constraint because I was planning on doing the trail
really fast, kind of like Paul. The thing I was
most concerned about was the extreme heat, which I was
fully anticipating to be in the high nineties, but more
likely well over one hundred degrees. I was expecting it
to be dangerously hot, like it often is in the summer.
Would it have been awful driving to La drenched in sweat? Probably,

(32:04):
but sometimes I don't consider things like that at the time.
I know this is kind of a long preamble to
the footage, but it is necessary. Initially, I thought I
would not actually be showing any of this footage. Why
because my hike to forty nine Palms Oasis was an
utter failure. How can that be, you might ask, Well,
an event occurred during the tiny space of time that

(32:27):
I even planned to be in the park, an event
I never even considered or imagined. This is why I'm
going to include this footage in the video, because it
is a perfect example of how you can plan and prepare.
You can come with GPS and a personal locator beacon
and all the necessary water, everything you would think you
would need, and somehow still wind up in a dangerous

(32:50):
situation that could ruin your day or God forbid, take
your life. So I'll let the footage speak for itself
and play out exactly as it happened. As I was
driving up to the forty nine Palms trailhead, something unexpected happened.
It started raining a bit, but just a little. It
was really only a sprinkle. By the time I got
to the parking lot itself, it was pouring rain. It

(33:13):
was around this time that I started to notice the
rain drops were rather large as well. Being from Washington State,
I'm very familiar with rain. The size of these drops
were like five times bigger than Washington rain, so I
had to go back to my vehicle to put a
plastic bag over my camera for my mic. There really
wasn't anything to be done for that reason. I figured

(33:34):
I would wait in the car for a minute and
see if the rain would stop suddenly. Sometimes these types
of showers just go away almost as soon as they
show up. But the rain continued. Being used to rain,
I figured, the hell with it, We're just gonna get
wet on this hike. Why not, right? Doing the hike
in the rain while it's like sixty degrees is pretty
much like hiking in Washington on any given day, except

(33:56):
it's usually not even that warm. It was also around
this time that I ran into a park ranger who
had just arrived in the parking lot. He surprisingly recognized
me from this channel almost immediately. I think he said
he was watching one of my videos like right before
he arrived in the parking area. So a big shout
out to you, my friend, if you're watching this. I
also love and appreciate meeting any park ranger, and you

(34:18):
were super cool. Anyway, I'm not mentioning him for no reason,
because just in the time I was talking to him,
the rain started getting real bad, like there was so
much water pouring off my brow it was getting hard
to see him standing there in front of me. I
asked him if this was normal and if he had
seen anything like it. He said he hadn't, and that
it was very unusual. We parted ways there as we

(34:39):
were both completely soaked to the bone, and I got
back to my car and the ranger just up and
left the area. Frankly, I probably should have taken a
hint from him, because he had obviously come there with
a plan to do something, but he got out of
there almost immediately. Me being the stubborn bastard that I am,
I didn't want to leave without getting something more from
this place. This kind of rain was not something I'd

(35:01):
planned for, so after waiting a minute, I figured I
would just get back out there and do this thing
in the rain on the ground that was quickly turning
into an absolute mud pit. Fortunately for me, the rain
died down quite a bit. The sky was still cloudy,
but the temperature was shockingly moderate compared to what I
was expecting. Everything seemed to be looking up. I began

(35:23):
doing my usual thing, taking some photographs, giving some b
roll of cactuses and signage. I figured things were going
to go even better than I had anticipated. Well, this

(36:17):
is not the video I thought I was going to
make today. Here at the forty nine Palms Oasis trailhead,
actually out on the trail a little bit. When I
was in town, it was like one hundred and three
degrees sunny, way too hot, and I thought I was
gonna have to come out here and not go very
far because just when Paul Miller was here, and the

(36:39):
heat is probably what killed him, almost certainly, and I
didn't want my fate to be anything similar to that.
But I get out to the trailhead here and I
meet a kind ranger by the way. Shout out to you, sir.
I won't say your name, but it was good meeting you,
and I'm sorry our conversation was cut short because a
dark cloud suddenly made its way overhead, and then a

(37:03):
monsoon just started showering this entire area with so much water.
I was drenched in a second. And this whole area
is cooled off now. It's actually really nice to be
out here, and the dark cloud is still here, but
the rain has kind of stopped. There was a lot
of thunder. I didn't see any lightning, so I'm not

(37:25):
too concerned at the moment, but absolutely wild. I mean
the moment I get here to this trailhead after getting
into Joshua Tree and twenty nine Palms, a monsoon just
starts showering this place, and I mean, this whole area
is drenched. There's puddles in the desert. Unbelievable timing, really,

(37:47):
So I decided to just kind of wait around until
I found a good gap in the rainfall to kind
of come out here and do some filming and hopefully
not get too drenched myself. And there's some thunder again,
go to play it by ear and kind of see
what I can get filmed out here. And it's kind
of nice to have to not worry about it being

(38:08):
so hot, but you know, when you got storms, it's
a kind of a worry of another sort. So we'll
see what's happening. So as we know Paul Miller, he

(38:42):
was with his wife visiting numerous national parks in the Southwest,
got Zion, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, and he was really
looking forward to Joshua Tree, and he did numerous hikes
in this area with his wife. Everything went well, the
whole tree was going well. This is something he had
wanted to do his whole life. And the last day,

(39:05):
the day he was supposed to leave take a plane
back home, he decides to do one last hike in
Joshua Tree. This hike, this trail I'm on right now,
forty nine palms oatis trail and as you can see, yes,
there's a now puddles in the desert. Wild weather today,

(39:27):
really wild. Anyway, he came out on this hike, he
knew it was three miles in and out, it was
close to his hotel. Should have been easy. He was
a fit guy. He was so confident though, that he
left his phone and other helpful items at the hotel.
He just took three liters of water and went out

(39:47):
solo on this hike. Hot day. Kind of a recipe
for disaster. But at the same time, I get where
he was coming from. He was close to the hotel.
This is a three mile hike. The trail's pretty obvious.
So what was there to worry about? Well, as we know,
something happened, and we know he made it to the oasis.

(40:11):
It's pretty crazy thunder happening, but I doubt you can
hear it on my mic. Well, he made it to
the oasis and started heading back, and at some point
he got off trail, and that's where this story stops
making sense, because there are areas that you can go

(40:32):
off trail here where it kind of looks like there's
a trail, and then it kind of peters out. Apparently
he had already passed those areas though, and so it
didn't make any sense why he had gone off trail
in the area that he did, And we're kind of
left with a bit of a mystery because all we
know is that he went off trail and got lost
and then found a crevice to hide from the sun

(40:54):
and died in there from something. Well, it already appears

(41:16):
that the rain is starting to come back, starting to
hit me again. It's funny. I thought the problem with
me being here today would be the heat. And I
thought I'd kind of have to jump out and do
this little bit on the trail and kind of show
you around and then get back in the car to
get to the ac. Instead, I'm escaping complete drenching of

(41:36):
myself and my equipment. So kind of funny how things
work out. But the real mystery here, as I was saying,
is that we don't know how Paul Miller got off trail.
Experienced hiker, this trail should be fagurely easy to follow.

(41:57):
It is classified as strenuous, but again it's pretty short.
The most dangerous part of this whole trail is the heat,
which again is what I thought I would have to
contend with walking on it today, but no, instead I'm
dealing with monsoon weather. Pretty wild. So, I mean, this

(42:19):
area is beautiful and it seems like it could be
really fun to kind of explore here if it wasn't
so rainy or hot or you know, apparently has to
be one of the other extreme I don't know. I
actually really like it here. The rocks and everything are great.
I'm sure it's a real hell to have to do
a search and rescue in. It's one of those where

(42:44):
I don't think we'll ever really know the full story,
you know, Did Paul Miller simply get lost? Apparently he
had water still left in his water bladder or whatever
he was using, which makes you wonder if he was
having some other sort of emergency, whether that be I
don't know, a cardiac or emergency. Who knows. That forced

(43:07):
him to kind of seek shelter somewhere in a crevice
where you know, apparently searchers had gotten real close to
looking in there or had walked near it, but no
one had really scoped it out real well, and they
kind of passed him up on numerous occasions, which is
kind of common. So and here I am. I'm trying

(43:28):
to not get my equipment wet as I'm starting to
get a little bit drenched out here again. I am
in the desert, Make no mistake about it. I'm sure
the cactuses out here are real happy with what's going on.
You know, when you do these things, they hardly ever
go to plan. I gotta say, something weird always happens,

(43:52):
but got to be prepared for it, you know. Being
from Washington, I certainly prefer the rain the heat. But
with a big storm up in the sky right now,
really loud thunder. Still haven't seen lightning, but I gotta
get out of this rain. I'll do my best to

(44:15):
wait again and hopefully get some more footage of this area,
but I got to rush back to the car. Now,
so stay tuned. But soon after the weather changed again.
That's when the hail came, large pepperine pieces of hail.

(44:36):
So I'm kind of taking cover in this little restroom
stall they got out here from the rain. Now, I'm
not hiding from the rain. I'm hiding my equipment from
the rain because when I came out here, I did
not think that water was going to be an issue
with the equipment I brought. I figured it was going

(44:56):
to be the sun, you know, things overheat, not my
stuff getting wet. So, you know, if I had a
little more forethought, I guess I would be out there
in the rain because I don't mind getting a little
soak one, but I really can't afford to have any
of this equipment ruined. My goodness, it's really coming down
right now. This is wild. To be honest with you,

(45:24):
I'm a little concerned because I did see a family
pull up here. They look like they were maybe coming
from another country, and they kind of walked off down
the trail here, and I'm not sure if they really
knew what to expect. At least, I guess they're not
dealing with the sun. They're dealing with this crazy rain.

(45:46):
But I don't know. Sometimes when I see people walking
off unprepared, no backpack or nothing with them, I go, oh, no, dear,
make a mental note of it, and kind of keep
an eye out for Its one of those things. But again,
I am going to try and wait this out because
I would like to get a little more footage here

(46:06):
of Joshua Tree, since I came all the way out
here to do it. But Goodness, wasn't expecting this, okay,

(46:31):
so I realized my plans could put the hike was over.
I was screwed. It was time to call it quits.
It wouldn't be the first time things don't go according
to plan on this channel when I'm out trying to
film on a trail. There was just nothing to be done.
I had to be in La later in the day.
I didn't have the time to wait and see when
this rain and hill would let up. It was just
one of those things that happens. I gotta say, though,

(46:53):
As I was leaving the parking lot, I wasn't too disappointed.
The brief time I had spent in Joshua Tree was
a blast. Other there was perfectly moderate. It was fun
running around up on those hills, and the rocks and
checking out the cactuses really made me want to come back.
It's probably because I live in an environment that's the
exact opposite of Joshua Tree, But as of now, Joshua

(47:14):
Tree is the park I would most like to revisit,
and this story is hardly over. It's a pretty short
drive back into twenty nine Palms, and at first everything
was fine. It was pretty rainy, but nothing I hadn't
seen before. Then it got much worse. The rain started
pouring so hard that the windshield wipers couldn't keep up
with it, and I started to notice that there was

(47:35):
something wrong with the asphalt on the road. It looked
all weird. It took a moment for me to realize
that I couldn't see the road at all because it
was just a river of moving water. That's when I
started having an oh damn moment. Mind you, the rain
and hail were hitting the car so hard that you
wouldn't be able to hear someone speak. Very luckily, I

(48:00):
made it into town and saw that the main street
was just a river as well. I saw tom I
right that there was like a vet or an animal
clinic building that was sitting on some higher grounds, so
I pulled into there to wait. A few other drivers
saw that and started doing the same thing because these
roads were just getting nuts. So a group of us
just kind of sheltered up in this bit of high ground.

(48:22):
It didn't get us out of the crazy rain and
massive hail, but the place had gone from a desert
town to a flooded town in an instant, it seemed.
And that's about the time I got an emergency alert
on my phone saying to get to high ground as
life threatening floods were taking place. I mean, that was obvious,
but getting the text just made it feel a little
bit more serious. Once I saw that I was safe

(48:45):
from the water and on high ground, I thought everything
was good. But then the hail started getting worse, and
the hill was about the size of a quarter and
my car started sounding like it was being hit by
a machine gun. I was certain that the windows were
going to break, but they didn't. They held, and the
hail did leave about a thousand little dents in the
body of my vehicle. Though you might ask yourself, why

(49:06):
don't I have more footage of this sudden monsoon. Well,
the fact is that while this was happening. I was
solely focused on either driving or what was going on
around me. I was seeing mailboxes and asphalt being torn
up by rushing waters that appeared out of nowhere. I
mean again, this place was a desert, dry as a
bone just minutes before, and all of the sudden, there

(49:27):
is a river going down Main Street and all of
the cars are just looking for high ground. Filming was
just the last thing on my mind during this emergency,
and by the time it had even occurred to me
to catch this stuff on camera, most of the danger
was gone and a cavalcade of sirens was heading towards
twenty nine Palms. This monsoon was apparently the worst this

(49:47):
town had seen in most folks lives. I haven't heard
of a person yet who had seen a worse one.
It came absolutely out of nowhere. I mean one moment
it was clear skies and ninety degrees, and then it
was suddenly fifty degrees with massive rain drops and eventually hail.
It absolutely destroyed parts of twenty nine Palms. I wasn't
sure if I'd be able to leave because the asphalt

(50:09):
on the road was so tore up and spread out everywhere.
Many people posted videos showing the damage it caused and
how bad the flooding was. It destroyed people's homes, the roads,
their cars. It was just crazy to me to be
there when this thing hit this poor town. When I
got back to the road and did some bobbing and
weaving to avoid all the debris that was on the ground,

(50:32):
I probably only went maybe ten minutes down the road
and made it to another town where they didn't even
know anything was wrong except for a line of police
and fire trucks and ambulances that were all heading towards
twenty nine Palms. This monsoon just swept in and wrecked
the place for a good twenty to thirty minutes or something.
I don't even know how long it lasted before heading
out into the desert again, but it was pretty incredible. So,

(50:55):
while on the trail, footage was severely lacking, and I
do apologize for that. I think this is actually a
good example of how quickly things like weather can change.
I mean, I was prepared for just about everything on
that hike, but a monsoon. I was just lucky enough
to win the lottery and get one. I mean, what
are the odds that me the missing Enigma who plans

(51:16):
to be in Joshua Tree for like two hours gets
there right when the biggest monsoon in decades hits. No
one is exempt, But in all seriousness, this kind of
thing happens to people and can often be the cause
of their deaths in one way or another. Obviously, it's
not the case that a monsoon got Paul Miller, but
he went to this same spot with the same confidence

(51:38):
that I had that everything would go according to plan.
But that's not always how things work out. If I
had been on the trail, things would have probably been
fine for me, but who knows. I stepped out into
the quarter hail for just a moment, and it was
pretty painful. It was relentless. I at least would have
gotten severely beat up by the hail if I had
stayed out on the trail, because there was pretty much

(51:59):
no where to run for cover unless you leave the
trail entirely. But either way, I'm glad I wasn't out
on the trail to find out what would have happened.
But the footage exists as its own sort of lesson,
So let's get back to the case at hand. Will
never be fully certain what made Paul Miller move off trail.
It's possible he did this to try and get a

(52:20):
picture of a sheep. Searchers in the area after he
disappeared reported that there was sheepscat pretty much everywhere. It's
also possible that he made his way off trail to
find shade. There really isn't many places to get out
of the beating sun while you're on this trail. Either way,
he went off trail, and I believe he probably had
some sort of medical event. Maybe it was difficult or

(52:41):
near impossible for him to keep moving. It definitely seems
like something incapacitated him. It's not all that common to
find someone dead in the desert in a shaded spot
with a leader of water. To me, that indicates some
likelihood of a medical problem other than hyperthermia. You can't
rule it out complete lately, because things like dehydration can

(53:02):
cause people to act rather strange in some cases. But
to me, if he still had his wits about him
enough to find shade, then you would think he could
still drink some water too. It's mentioned that Paul didn't
have a lot of experience in desert hiking, but I
think he probably gained quite a bit on this trip.
I mean he had gone on many hikes during this trip,
and in very hot weather. He even did numerous hikes

(53:25):
in Joshua Tree. He must have had some idea of
what he was getting into and how it would feel.
When all you have left is bones, You're almost always
left with some sort of a mystery as to the
cause of death. The fact is, this trail in the
summer is dangerous. Any trail in extreme heat is because
not only can it cause you to become hyperthermic, but

(53:46):
it can also increase the odds of you having a
sudden medical event. Unexpected things can happen suddenly in the
worst places. I think that might be the lesson of
this video. Still, I can see why a lot of
people ask me to cover this one when you look
at it from a basic sense, there's only one trail
in the area. It's not particularly long hike Paul was experienced.

(54:08):
How could this happen? Hopefully we've uncovered enough facts in
this video to lead to a reasonable conclusion. Let me
know what you think in the comments below, and until
next time, Thanks for watching, and don't forget to check
out cent Bird to get fifty five percent off your
first month by scanning the QR code on screen, or

(54:29):
by going to cent Bird's website and using the promo
code Enigma