Hmmm...helpful items of info: Nevada is larger in surface area than the UK, most of the folks who live in NV's rural areas are survivalists by birth or training( i.e. rural farmers, ranchers, indians etc...). The folks who live in the cities...not so much. The terrain is temperate to arid and trends from high desert to rocky foothills, to middling height mountains. The Canadian tourists-taking an unplanned, un prepared trip down what they called "the scenic route"; trusted a less than accurate map. They noticed that the road they were using was not a regular paved/maintained road (often referred to locally as a service road or a seasonal road)and continued further into the bush until they were well and truly stranded.
Conditions were sub optimal for anyone hiking alone. Conditions were sub optimal for anyone stranded with their vehicle. This a case of survival by sheer ,dumb ,common garden variety, doo-dah luck. I pray that the woman's husband is alive and well...but my sense of reality says he was coyote/bear/mountain lion chow as soon as he was out of her line of sight.