A true test of survival! 64 year-old Amos Richards is lucky to be alive after spending four days crawling across the Utah desert with a broken leg before being rescued on Monday. More details after the jump!

Wendy L.

(AOL)–Richards was camping in Canyonlands National Park and went for a hike in the Maze district, an area of narrow canyons that is about a 4 to 5 hour drive from the national park, said Paul Henderson, the assistant superintendent of Canyonlands.

On its website, The National Parks Service describes the Maze as “the least accessible district of Canyonlands. Due to the district’s remoteness and the difficulty of roads and trails, travel to the Maze requires more time, as well as a greater degree of self-sufficiency. Rarely do visitors spend less than three days in the Maze, and the area can easily absorb a week-long trip.”

“He clearly had intended that this was just going to be a day hike,” Henderson told HuffPost.

Henderson said that as Richards was attempting to to hike out of a lower canyon, he fell about ten feet and broke his leg in several places.

According to a September 15 National Parks Service incident report, Henderson had no warm clothing, no overnight gear and no map. He did, however, have five liters of water and two Power Bars.

Park rangers first became concerned when they found what appeared to be an abandoned campsite in the park’s Island in the Sky District, Henderson said. They began a search and a helicopter located him in the Little Blue John Canyon area.

The helicopter took him to Moab Regional Hospital where doctors treated his broken leg, internal bleeding and dehydration, according to the incident report. Richards is expected to make a full recovery.

Incidentally, Little Blue John Canyon is where Aaron Ralston became trapped in 2003. Ralston, whose story is documented in his book “Between a Rock and Hard Place” and the film “127 Hours” starring James Franco, was forced to amputate his own right arm after an 800-pound boulder fell on it, trapping him for days.

“He made some of the very same mistakes that Aaron Ralston did,” Henderson said. “He went into a very remote area and nobody knew what his travel plans where.”

“This is at least the third or fourth time that we’ve had issues at Blue John since since the movie,” added Henderson.

Canyonlands, however, is by no means among the deadliest of the national parks. Yosemite has that unfortunate distinction, where at least 14 people have been killed so far this year.

Attempts to reach Richards were unsuccessful.