Arizona woman, 59, falls 100 feet to her death while taking photos in the Grand Canyon
- Maria A. Salgado Lopez, 59, of Scottsdale, Arizona, died Friday after falling 100 feet.
- He was walking with his family near the south rim when he got off a ledge
- Her death is the second in the park this year: A woman died of heat stroke on June 26.
- On average, 12 people die in the park each year, many of them from heat and altitude.
An Arizona woman fell 100 feet to her death while taking photos in the Grand Canyon.
Maria A. Salgado Lopez, 59, of Scottsdale, Arizona, died Friday near the South Rim visitor center. Her body was recovered later that day.
Salgado López was walking and taking photos with family members when he accidentally got off a ledge and fell.
The accident occurred west of Mather Point.
Maria A. Salgado Lopez, 59, of Scottsdale, died Friday near the South Rim Visitor Center (stock image)
Death was the second in the park in recent weeks.
On June 26, Catherine Houe, 49, of Daly City, near San Francisco, died after suffering heat-related symptoms on a 114-degree day.
The Grand Canyon had 17 deaths in 2018, and at least four people died in the park area in 2019.
The first death last year was not the result of a fall, according to Vanessa Ceja-Cervantes, spokeswoman for the Grand Canyon National Park.
She said the victim was a foreign national and that the body was found on March 26 in a wooded area south of the park’s South Rim Village area.
On April 23, Cynthia Ackley, 69, of Peoria, Arizona, fell near Pipe Creek Vista.
Two weeks earlier, a 67-year-old man had fallen 400 feet over the eastern edge of the Yavapai Geology Museum.
And in March, a 50-year-old Hong Kong man visiting the Hualapai reserve outside the park fell while trying to take photos.
The South Rim, where Salgado López died, is a popular place to take photos, particularly at sunset (stock image)
“On average, there are about 12 deaths in the park per year, but a small percentage of them are from fatal falls,” Ceja-Cervantes said at the time.
‘The causes of those deaths range from heat, drowning, to medical problems and more.
“Elevated elevation plays a role in some of the deaths.”
The Grand Canyon National Park is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the U.S., attracting nearly 6.4 million visitors in 2018.
Grand Canyon West in the Hualapai Reserve receives approximately 1 million visitors a year.
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