Monday, July 15, 2019 | 12:17 p.m.
BIG PINE, Calif. — Authorities were conducting an extensive air-ground search Monday for a woman reported to have mysteriously vanished shortly after arriving at a remote campground in California's White Mountains last week.
Sheryl Powell, 60, of Huntington Beach was reported missing Friday by her husband, the Inyo County Sheriff's Office said.
Joseph Powell told authorities that after they selected a site in the Grandview Campground she took their small dog, Miley, for a walk while he repositioned their Jeep.
"This took five minutes or less but when he got back she and Miley were gone without a trace," daughter Farrah Powell said in a GoFundMe campaign post that is raising money to assist in the search.
Powell's husband reported he searched for almost an hour and then alerted law enforcement via a satellite device.
The White Mountains lie east of the Sierra Nevada range and northwest of Death Valley National Park. Grandview Campground is at an elevation of 8,600 feet (2,621 meters) near the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, 230 miles (370 kilometers) north of Los Angeles.
"Challenges include multiple gullies, shale slopes, low shade, direct sun, and rattlesnakes," a sheriff's statement said.
It is prized by star gazers for sky vistas far from city lights, according to the Inyo National Forest. The nearest civilization is a 16-mile drive to the town of Big Pine down in Owens Valley.
A dozen search-and-rescue teams, a rescue dog association and aircraft from the California Highway Patrol and Naval Air Station Lemoore have taken part in the search.
The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest has trees that are more than 4,000 years old, the oldest in the world.
