I searched hell on Earth for a story. What I found will haunt me forever

Curry, seen here resting in the shade at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park on July 25, had said he was accustomed to hiking in the heat. Photo: Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times/TNS

As a kid in Miami, the United States, I thought I knew heat.

In the mornings before school, the windows of my parents' house would be fogged with humidity, as if the swamp of South Florida were trying to press its way in.