A tourist from Hong Kong fell while taking a photograph at the Grand Canyon and died, park officials said.
A helicopter lifted the body of the Hong Kong man from 1,000 feet below the rim on March 28 at Grand Canyon West, spokesman David Leibowitz said. His identity hasn’t been released.
Grand Canyon West is a popular tourist destination on the Hualapai Indian reservation outside the boundaries of the national park that includes the Skywalk, a bridge with a glass walkway that hangs 4,000 feet above the canyon floor.
The fall happened at Eagle Point, where the Skywalk is located. The rim has some ledges and outcroppings below but no barrier between tourists and the edge.
The man in his 50s was taking photos when he stumbled and fell, Leibowitz said. Signs at Eagle Point warn tourists not to get too close to the edge. Leibowitz extended the tribe’s prayers to the man’s family.
The Hualapai reservation includes a roughly 100-mile stretch of the Grand Canyon at its western edge.
Authorities at Grand Canyon National Park said they found a body on Tuesday evening, March 26, in a wooded area south of Grand Canyon Village away from the rim.
Spokeswoman Vanessa Ceja-Cervantes said that officials were still working to identify the person and had not pinpointed a cause of death.
Grand Canyon National Park is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States, drawing nearly 6.4 million visitors last year. Grand Canyon West on the Hualapai reservation gets about 1 million visitors annually.
Falls at Grand Canyon
Authors Tom Myers and Michael Ghiglieri said that as of 2012, about 685 people had died from falling into the Grand Canyon.
Ghiglieri noted that the 1980s actually saw more deaths than recent years but there has been a shift in what kills people.
“Over the last decade, proportionally more people have been dying from environmental problems—mainly heat—while hiking,” he told the Arizona Daily Sun.
“This is despite everything the park has tried to do via educational signs and via preventative search and rescue work, both of which are pretty good. There were also proportionally more people dying from falls within the canyon (as opposed to from the rims).”
Of the people that fall over the edge, most are young males, he said.
About 12 deaths happen each year at the Grand Canyon, park spokeswoman Kirby-Lynn Shedlowski reported on the Grand Canyon blog earlier this year. On average, two or three of the deaths are from falls over the rim.
Other causes of death include natural causes, medical problems, suicides, heat, drowning, and traffic crashes.
The blog recommends people stick to paved paths on the rim, watch children closely both at the rim and on trails, and be aware of the possibility of falling at all times.
The official Grand Canyon website states on viewing the canyon safely: “Stay at least six feet from the edge. Hold on to Children. Do not lean over or go past walkways and railings. Always be aware of your surroundings. Do not back up without first looking where you are going.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
