Sorry for long post, just rounding up some basic answers about the area.
Footprints are difficult to find in that hard pan Mojave Desert.
I have questions about his timing, as well. I know that it's easy for a 5 minute detour to take much longer. People estimate time in very different ways. Few people are accurate. I assume he had a watch, but I bet he didn't look at it.
If she went straight on the spur trail (and therefore didn't turn to go to where the RV was parked) she would still have hit Kelbaker Road within about a mile (a much longer walk, she would have been worried and frustrated at that point, hearing the road, but never quite getting to it). She'd have been about 1-1.5 miles south of their RV. She might even have thought the RV was stolen, since she would finally have arrived at a dirt pull-out (often, non-drivers aren't paying as much attention to turn-outs, etc; I assume he was driving).
She also may have realized she'd made a navigational mistake, but might not have been clear on how to fix it. What would she do then? Most of us would retrace our steps, right? But if she went 1-1.4 miles in the wrong direction, now she's out in the sun for at least another hour, without water and with mounting temps. If she then tried to find the "caves" (but from the wrong starting point), she would have been on yet another side trail (which may be why they searched eastward on the last couple of days of the search).
They were from Bullhead City. Arizona. No gambling, Henderson is in NV, gambling there.
Sheryl Powell and Barbara Thomas were reported missing, to two different agencies, at about the same time. Neither case got much media coverage until the next day. RT says he told police immediately of his abduction theory and we know that the Powell children said that was their theory within 24 hours of their mom going missing.
Not near at all. There's a ghost town (Kelso) about 15-20 miles away.
Essex (a real town) is about 65 miles away. Not that there's much in Essex. Amboy is closer. Still barely a town.
Yes, but if you look at google maps, if he had his back to the main trail while walking up and down that creek bed photographing things (there is a rock formation for sure), then he would not have seen her walk past on the main trail. He was off the main trail. You'd think she would have come to where he was (and could see him off the main trail, with his back to her - she could have yelled for him, I sure would).
OTOH, I'd be super super p.o'ed if I couldn't find the key to that darned (brand new) RV. And if I felt I had to stride out to find shade...I sure hope I'd have presence of mind to mark my trail somehow or find hubs to yell at him for hiding the key where I couldn't find it. We always take two sets of keys to everything when we travel, but if we are just here locally (at a park), we take one set but we keep it with us and naturally, whoever goes back first takes the key. The key-under-rock thing is so bizarre to me but people are all different.
If I thought I could travel a little eastward to some caves I might try it, but basically, if I found myself locked out of shade and comfort, half a mile from where I left my husband, and husband was supposed to following shortly, I'd go back on the trail to meet up with him and complain about the dumb idea of hiding keys under rocks. (I don't know that there are caves off Hidden Hill Road, but there are some further north - she might not have remembered exactly where the other caves/rock shelters were; but Hidden Hill Road looks like a wide dirt trail and goes for miles and miles and miles). She could therefore be almost anywhere. We just don't know what she was thinking or how well she was doing by then.
