The search continues for a Texas man who went missing during an apparently unannounced hiking trip to the Grand Canyon more than a week ago, according to AZCentral.
Family members of Drake Kramer, who hails from San Antonio, say he did not tell them he was taking a trip to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, an act they say was out of character for the 21 year old.
He was last seen Sunday, Feb. 1 checking out of the Bright Angel Lodge. The next day he sent his father an eerie text message.
"He was at the Grand Canyon and he needed to be back with Mother Earth and set his soul free," the father, Robin Kramer, told ABC News. "At that point we really started getting worried and started calling and trying to get people to look for him."
Robin and his wife Brenda reported their son missing that same Monday and the National Park Service is now conducting a ground and aerial search of a 285-mile area of the south rim, AZCenral reported.
Drake Kramer's car was found at the lodge.
"It's completely out of character for him to do this," his father told the station, adding that they learned their son traveled from San Antonio to California and then Arizona.
Drake is an aspiring geologist who loves the outdoors and camping, his father told ABC News.
But Drake's parents and investigators do not yet know what he was doing at the Grand Canyon. Officials are looking into his cellphone records for clues.
"We don't know what his plans were," Kirby-Lynn Shedlowski of the Grand Canyon National Park told ABC News. "He may be hiking, we just don't know."
