Man with broken leg crawls four days across Utah desert

SALT LAKE CITY -- A North Carolina man crawled four days across the Utah desert after breaking his leg on a solo hike, inspired by a Hollywood movie about a man who cut off his own arm to save himself after being trapped by a boulder in the same canyon.

Amos Wayne Richards, 64, of Concord, N.C., is now recovering at home.

Canyonlands National Park rangers found Richards four days after he fell 10 feet in Little Blue John Canyon on Sept. 8. Along with the leg injury, he dislocated his shoulder.

""It took me about 3 or 4 minutes to work my shoulder and get it back in place and once I got it back in place, I stood up and realized my ankle hurt a little bit," Richards told WBTV in Charlotte.

Without cellphone service and only two protein bars to eat, Richards began crawling back to his car across the rocky terrain. He filled water bottles with rain as he retraced his steps, eventually dragging himself almost five miles.

"I was actually following my GPS, crawling right on top of my feet print that I had hiked in on," Richards said.

Richards was treated for the shattered leg and dehydration at a hospital in Moab, Utah, before returning to North Carolina to recover.