There must have been foul play involved. The article says they left their hotel room at 2:30 am. Unless they wanted to watch the sunrise at some special location, there would be no good reason to leave that early.
A massive search in rugged, mine shaft-riddled terrain continued Wednesday for two Santa Barbara men who went missing early Sunday morning after leaving a Randsburg motel. And loved ones on two coasts waited for word on their fates. The men left the motel without food, water, cell phones or heavy clothing, Kern County sheriff's spokesman Ray Pruitt said. Hundreds of searchers were going over an 1,100-square-mile area, much of it desert.
LINK: http://www.bakersfield.com/news/local/x4969177/Hundreds-scour-Randsburg-area-for-missing-men