The Grand Canyon National Park was recently designated the deadliest of America’s 63 national parks, and earlier this week a man died after falling to his death from the Grand Canyon Skywalk. On the morning of June 5, the unnamed 33-year-old man walked over the edge of the Sky Walk and died after plummeting 4,000 feet.
Explore and save squads from the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office deployed ropes and a helicopter in an attempt to aid the unfortunate individual. Rescuers declared the man deceased at the location and transferred his remains to the Hualapai Nation, the entity responsible for managing the attraction. It remains uncertain whether the victim plunged from the canyon’s precipice or from the structure of the Skywalk itself, although the county’s search and rescue team shared a hyperlink to a suicide prevention hotline on their Facebook page.
The investigation into his demise remains ongoing, yet the Grand Canyon has consistently presented perilous circumstances for those venturing into great heights. The most renowned feature is the Skywalk, a curved glass bridge protruding 70 feet from the canyon’s cliffs, granting visitors a panoramic view of the Colorado River, flowing 4,000 feet beneath. Both the Canyon and the river hold significant historical importance to the Hualapai tribe. The lower 108 miles of the Canyon, as well as sections of the Colorado River, are situated within the boundaries of the Hualapai Reservation.
In the meantime, the Grand Canyon National Park, which has no connection to the Skywalk, earned the distinction of being the most perilous national park in the United States. Through a request made under the Freedom of Information Act, it was revealed that within the past five years, a minimum of six individuals lost their lives while another 56 individuals vanished within the vast expanse of the Grand Canyon National Park. These figures were amassed from the period spanning 2018 to February 2023, surpassing the corresponding numbers of numerous other national parks across the country. Surprisingly, despite not even making it into the top ten most visited national parks, with only 4.7 million visitors in 2022, Grand Canyon National Park still claimed the highest count of fatalities and disappearances.
By way of comparison, during that same five-year timeframe, Yosemite National Park, Golden Gate Park, and Death Valley National Park each reported a total of four fatalities. Olympic National Park in Washington registered the second-highest tally of missing persons reports. Recently, a professor from Stanford University, who is currently facing charges for allegedly mistreating his girlfriend, was located several days after being reported missing during a hiking expedition in Olympic National Park.
Throughout that specific five-year duration, an estimated 1,100 people were officially declared missing, although the majority of them were ultimately located. Nevertheless, it is conceivable that this particular tally may not have been entirely precise, as shared by a retired leader in emergency services at the Grand Canyon. Ken Phillips, the aforementioned individual, revealed a range of scenarios that could have contributed to these cases, encompassing factors such as heat stroke, lightning incidents, river drownings, air crashes, suicides, and accidental falls.
Furthermore, the immense magnitude of the Grand Canyon poses notable obstacles when it comes to executing search and rescue missions. Phillips underscored the considerable difficulty involved in locating a lone individual amidst such an expansive expanse, likening the pursuit to searching for a minuscule needle in a vast haystack.
According to the Arizona Daily Sun’s report, the park stood out in 2008 for having the highest incidence of suicides compared to all other national parks across the nation. Although numerous suicides involve individuals leaping from the precipice, there have also been instances where individuals deliberately drove their vehicles off the cliffs.