Three people were injured after a “substantial” piece of rock fell in Utah’s Zion National Park Saturday, according to a news release from the National Park Service.
The park service said the rockfall occurred near the Weeping Rock Shuttle Stop just before 6 p.m., injuring three people and stranding several others.
One person was transported to the hospital by park ambulance for further treatment, the release said.
The rock broke off Cable Mountain, about an hour east of St. George in the state’s southwest corner, and fell about 3,000 feet.
Shuttles were stopped for around 90 minutes following the rockfall that showered visitors with rocks, branches and a plume of dust and sand.
Some visitors on the Weeping Rock Trail were temporarily stranded by the rockfall but were able to self-rescue.
Falling Rocks
A 14-year old girl was killed by falling rocks in Montana’s Glacier National Park earlier this month.
In addition to killing the girl—identified as Ayva Sparrow—rocks also injured her parents and two other children in the vehicle, the park said in a statement.
A GoFundMe campaign set up to help the family said that the girl traveled through the park during a family trip to Canada.
The rocks struck the top of a vehicle near the East Tunnel of the popular and mountainous Going-to-the-Sun Road.
The park estimated the rocks were between fist-sized and 12 inches in diameter with enough debris from the rockfall to fill the bed of a pickup truck.
Glacier National Park
Founded in 1910, and drawing in almost 3 million visitors a year, Glacier National Park squeaks into the top 10 list of the most popular of America’s 60 designated national parks.
With tourist season in full swing in summer, the number of accidents at national parks rises.
At the end of last month, a tourist died after slipping on wet boulders below a waterfall in Yosemite National Park in California.
Epoch Times reporter Simon Veazey and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
