No one knows why this family who were said to be out for a winter road trip chose to go the Denali HWY in winter despite the warning signs that the HWY was not maintained in the winter. The people at the lodge told me a few years ago that the family made it a long way before they hit the big snowstorm on the deserted HWY and then chose to walk the road looking for help in the blizzard and made it almost to the lodge that they did not even know was there due to the white - out at the time. Panic, hypothermia? No one will ever know.