YouTuber Andrew Cross, ‘Desert Drifter,’ Has Died at 36 After Car Accident

Andrew Cross, the Virginia-born YouTuber known to half a million fans as ‘Desert Drifter,’ passed away at 36 on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, in a Colorado hospital, a month after a devastating car accident left him with a severe brain injury.

The crash—a high-speed rear-end collision—happened January 31 on a Mesa County highway, flipping his world from desert trails to an ICU bed.

His sister, Jenna Spooner, broke the news on CaringBridge, writing, “Andrew’s spirit is free, surrounded by light and love,” a quiet end to a life that roared with adventure. “He went out his way—peaceful, with us there,” a family friend said, voice soft with the weight of loss.

The lead-up was a slow, wrenching fade. Andrew clung to life support for weeks at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Grand Junction, his body battered from the wreck that crushed his Toyota Tacoma while he sat stopped—maybe at a light, maybe in traffic. By late February, his family noticed the strain, his discomfort creeping through the machines keeping him here.

“It was time—we couldn’t watch him hurt anymore,” Spooner shared, explaining the gut-punch decision to let him go. On Tuesday, staff wheeled him around the ICU on a mobile ventilator, a final lap with nurses lining the halls to honor a man they’d fought for, before loved ones gathered to pray, sing, and ease him off the machines, staying long after his last breath.

Cross built ‘Desert Drifter’ from the ground up—a channel blending exploration with a history nerd’s twist, racking up views with treks through Colorado’s deserts and climbs up its rugged peaks. Half a million subscribers tuned in for his lonesome rambles, camera catching the dust and the stories of forgotten places.

“He made you feel like you were right there with him,” a fan said, scrolling old videos that now sting to watch. The crash cut that short—a random slam from behind, no fault of his own, just a twist of fate on a highway that didn’t care about his next upload. The Mesa County Coroner’s Office confirmed Wednesday he died from those injuries, a blunt end to a life lived wide open.

The goodbye was pure Andrew—scripture, songs, a circle of love in a sterile room. Friends and family leaned on faith, reading passages he’d loved, their voices carrying him out as the beeps faded. “We walked him to the edge, then let him fly,” Spooner wrote, a poet’s touch on a brutal moment.

It’s a stark pivot from his last vlog, posted mid-January—a windswept mesa under a big sky, his grin wide, no hint of the wreck coming. Now, his channel’s a time capsule, 36 years packed into playlists that’ll outlast him, a legacy his fans are already mourning with comments piling up like digital flowers.

Friday’s dawning gray in Grand Junction, and the family’s reeling—Jenna and the rest facing a quiet they didn’t want. The other driver’s a ghost in this story; police haven’t said much—accident, not malice, but the why’s still raw. “He didn’t deserve this, nobody does,” a local said, eyeing the highway where it happened, a stretch too ordinary for such a loss.

Andrew Cross, the guy who turned deserts into dreams, is gone at 36, leaving half a million strangers to grieve a voice they knew through a screen. The family’s planning a memorial, details to come, but for now, it’s just the echo of his adventures—and a sister’s words, calling him free, surrounded by light.