A Texas man died at a national park in Utah after coming down with heatstroke while spreading his father’s cremated ashes, according to his sister.

James Bernard Hendricks, 66, was found dead on 1 August in Arches National Park. His death is being investigated by the park service and local sheriff.

Officials have not yet confirmed that his cause of death was heat-related.

His sister told a newspaper in Texas he was traveling through the US West on a mission to spread his father’s ashes.

“He was loved by countless people because he was an unusually kind, sweet person who made friends easily,” Ruth Hendricks Brough told the San Antonio Express-News.

“Now all these people are grieving. It was a horrible shock.”

Hendricks had been posting updates to Facebook about his travels with the caption “A Final Journey with My Father”.

A post from 28 July described his plans to enter Arches National Park “at the crack of dawn” in order to avoid traffic and get the best photos. Other recent posts are from the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Mesa Verde national parks.

Park rangers found his vehicle at the Sand Dune Arch Trail after he was reported overdue from a hike. His body was found “off-trail nearby”, officials say.

A Facebook post by his sister says that he was found with an empty water bottle.

Mrs Brough added that he may have wandered off trail after becoming disoriented by the heat, dehydration and the high elevation environment.

Arches is just north of the city of Moab, Utah. Its famed rock arches draw around 1.5 million visitors per year, according to the National Park Service.

His sister told the Express-News that Hendrick’s final destination was Reno, Nevada, where their father lived for many years.

“He was a person who spread joy to every living thing he met, and to him, all the universe was alive, from human beings to fossils to stardust,” she said. “It was all precious to him.”