High Country Search For Ranger Called Off

After two weeks of probing the rugged high country below Mount Whitney, Kings Canyon National Park search teams have failed to turn up a single clue on the whereabouts of ranger Randy Morgenson, and on Monday afternoon they reluctantly called off their active hunt.

Park supervisor Randy Coffman, who headed the intensive search for the popular summer ranger who worked under his watch, said it was one of the hardest calls he has ever made.

“It’s a mystery, a real mystery,” Coffman said. “Sometimes I think I’m going to wake up and it’s all a terrible dream and Randy’s out at his ranger’s station near Bench Lake and nothing has changed.”

High country rangers working their normal duties will continue to look for signs of the 54-year-old ranger with longish hair and a mountain-man beard.

A photographer by profession, Morgenson spent 28 summers canvassing the treacherous but breathtaking High Sierra trails of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National parks. On July 20, he tacked a note to the door of his tiny cabin: “I’m going on patrol. Back on the 24th.” It was the last anyone has heard from him.

The treeless high country above Bench Lake is strewn with granite boulders that can lose their moorings. Park officials speculate that Morgenson may have taken a wrong step and suffered a fatal head injury or was pinned under a rock and died of exposure or dehydration. Foul play is not suspected.