His death is the seventh reported in Grand Canyon National Park since July 31.
A Colorado man was found dead in Grand Canyon National Park on Saturday, according to the National Park Service. It is the seventh death reported there in less than two months.
The man, Patrick Horton, 59, of Salida, Colo., was on a self-guided river trip with a group along the Colorado River when he was found dead by others in the group, the Park Service said in a statement.
The Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center, the dispatcher for emergency operations in the area, received a report around 5:30 a.m. on Saturday of a death in an area known as Poncho’s Kitchen, near River Mile 137 along the Colorado River, the Park Service said. Park rangers arrived to find Mr. Horton dead at the scene, the agency said.
Mr. Horton died on the 10th day of a private, self-guided river trip, which requires a river permit that is won through a lottery system, the Park Service said.
A cause of death has not been released. The Park Service said it was investigating the death in coordination with the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Representatives for the Park Service and the medical examiner’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday evening.
The Grand Canyon National Park, in northern Arizona, attracts millions of visitors each year, many of them hikers who descend thousands of feet from the rim of the canyon to the Colorado River below. According to the Arizona Office of Tourism, about 5,000 of the 27,000 people who travel along the river through the Grand Canyon each year do so on private trips with the appropriate park permits.
The death is the seventh reported in Grand Canyon since July 31, according to previous news releases from the Park Service. Others include a 60-year-old hiker from North Carolina who was on a multiday backpacking trip when he was reported missing by a relative; an unidentified 80-year-old man who died after his boat flipped over in a river; Chenoa Rickerson, a 33-year-old woman whose body was found after a flash flood; and Leticia A. Castillo, 20, whose body was found 150 feet below an overlook.
There have been at least 15 deaths in Grand Canyon so far this year, including six fatalities reported over two separate weeklong periods this summer, The New York Times reported.
The park averages about 17 deaths per year, with the most common cause being cardiac arrest, according to data from the last decade.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
