Hiker found dead in Grand Canyon near rugged, remote Colorado River trail
Grand Canyon National Park — A solo backpacker has been found dead near a rugged and remote trail along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, authorities in Arizona said Thursday.
The National Park Service said the 60-year-old North Carolina resident was located by helicopter Wednesday along a route connecting Lower Tapeats and Deer Creek camps. The two sites are accessible from the North Rim on a river bend about 29 miles northwest of Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim.
The man's name and hometown weren't made public. The Park Service said he was on a solo multiday backpacking trip from Thunder River to Deer Creek and was reported missing on Tuesday after failing to check in with a family member.
The Park Service and Coconino County Medical Examiner were investigating his cause and manner of death.
The route between campsites about 4,400 feet below the North Rim offers scenic views of colorful rock walls and canyons, waterfalls and pools accessible by steep and sometimes difficult trails, according to a Park Service guide.
The hiker is believed to be the sixth person to die at the canyon in less than a month and the 14th this year. Park officials reported 11 fatalities in 2023 and say there are usually about 10 to 15 deaths per year.
Other recent deaths in Grand Canyon
Park officials said an 80-year-old man on a commercial river trip died Sunday after his boat flipped and dropped him into rapids along the Colorado River near Fossil Rapid, about 10 miles upriver from Tapeats Creek. The Park Service said it was investigating the circumstances around his death in coordination with the Coconino County Medical Examiner.
Also on Sunday, the body of 33-year-old Chenoa Nickerson, of Gilbert, Arizona, was found by a group of visitors on a commercial river trip, according to park officials. She had been reported missing several days earlier after being swept away in a flash flood that hit Havasu Canyon, almost 20 miles from where she was located.
Earlier in August, officials said another woman was found dead about 150 feet below a section of the Grand Canyon rim called Twin Overlooks. She was identified as 20-year-old Leticia Castillo, of Albuquerque. Officials said when they located the body that she had likely been missing for three days.
Not long before Castillo was believed to have entered the Grand Canyon, park officials said that rangers had discovered the body of a BASE jumper who apparently fell to his death after intending to leap from a spot along the South Rim of the park called Yavapai Point — which towers roughly 4,600 feet above the ground-level river that cuts through the canyon. His body was found beside a deployed parachute roughly 500 feet below the rim. The man's identity wasn't revealed. Officials said they'd opened a probe into his death and reiterated that BASE jumping, a particularly extreme take on typical parachuting that can be deadly, is illegal in the Grand Canyon.
One visitor died at the tail-end of July after accidentally falling off the edge of the canyon near Pipe Creek Overlook, according to the national park. That person was identified as Abel Joseph Mejia, a 20-year-old from North Carolina, whose body was found 400 feet below the rim. Officials said people should remain at least six feet away from the edge of the Grand Canyon rim when visiting the park.