Grand Canyon National Park has endured a steady stream of fatalities since the busy season began in June. Two visitors have died in the past week, bringing the park’s current death toll to 16 in 2024.
These deaths have generated a glut of coverage by mainstream news outlets, with,, and even covering the fatalities. The steady march of stories and reports about dead hikers, fatal falls, and accidents on rafting trips have raised public awareness of the risks associated with adventuring in the national park. It’s left many of us wondering: has something changed down there?
Meghan Smith, the supervisor of the Grand Canyon National Park’s preventative search and rescue, a group that educates visitors about how to stay safe, says no—so far, 2024 has been business as usual. Smith told me that 16 deaths may sound high, but it’s still not dramatically higher than the park’s annual average, which is 15 deaths. “Last year the number was ten, which was on the lower end of average,” she said. “This year we’re at 16, which is moving toward the higher end of normal, but still within range.”
The two most recent deaths occurred along the Colorado River. On Tuesday, September 10, park rangers recovered a body that’s presumed to be a 71-year-old man that had been on a private rafting trip. The man, whose identity has not been released, had gone missing from his riverside camp earlier in the week. The other fatality is Patrick Horton, 59, of Salida, Colorado, who was found dead on Saturday, September 7, by members of his rafting group at their camp.
Authorities do not yet know the cause of either fatality—NPS officials are currently investigating both incidents alongside the Cococino County Medical Examiner.
The 14 other fatalities had a variety of causes: drownings, flash floods, heart attacks, and suspected heat sickness. Victims range in age from 20 to 80. This distribution of age and cause of death is normal, Smith told me.
What is abnormal, however, is the way in which the deadly incidents have occurred in rapid succession, what Smith called “clustering.” This week’s deaths came on the heels of another fatality: an 80-year-old man died while participating in a rafting trip on August 25.
Another cluster occurred in late July and early August: during a seven-day period, three people died, all in falls from the rim. One of them perished in a botched BASE Jump.
Back in June, three hikers died over the course of 21 days—all the deaths were of suspected heat illness.
“Some clusters can be expected, such as when we’ve had extreme heat warnings” Smith says. “But the three over-the-edge, accidental falls in such close, back-to-back proximity was surprising.”
Officials told me that clusters of deaths and rescues in the canyon have a major impact on the individuals who work in Grand Canyon’s search and rescue and emergency services. These groups handle approximately 300 non-fatal emergencies each year, including injuries, helicopter extractions, and missing people.
It’s a stressful job that can lead to mental health issues like anxiety, especially during clusters, Smith said. This year, Smith hired a public safety psychology firm from Albuquerque called Public Safety Psychology Group to provide critical stress and one-on-one mental health checks. “We had them here the last week of August,” Smith said.
Fatality clusters can also mislead media and the general public, Smith said. The recent trio of deaths resulting from people falling off the canyon’s rim could raise the alarm about safety at the canyon’s overlooks. These fears are ill-founded, Smith said. She believes that, had the fatalities occurred at different points in the year, they would not have caused the same response—especially if visitors knew that 6 million visitors come to the canyon annually. The annual average of 15 deaths represents less than a thousandth of a percent compared to the number of visitors each year.“It’s an unfortunate coincidence that they clustered,” she said.
But Smith and other officials told me that the Grand Canyon will always pose potential danger to tourists. Ken Phillips, who oversaw the park’s search and rescue unit for 27 years, told me that visitors to the Grand Canyon should always make two primary considerations when choosing which activity to pursue: their tolerance for heat and their own physical health.
“Flash floods and BASE jumps, those are the outliers,” Phillips said. “Heat is by far the single biggest risk, followed by cardiac-related issues.”
In summer months, temperatures at the bottom of the canyon can reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit, but descending hikers may be oblivious to the heat because the South Rimis at 7,000 feet above sea level and 4,800 feet above the river. On a cool June morning, temperatures up there can be in the sixties. “The problem isn’t the couple hours walking down,” Phillips said. “It’s walking back up—it’s steep and the heat can be extreme.”
Tom Myers, who has served as the park’s physician for 34 years, told me that extreme heat and higher altitude can exacerbate a person’s pre-existing medical conditions. Myers, who co-authored the bookOver the Edge, Death in Grand Canyon,advises visitors to study the risks before descending from the rim. He toldϳԹ that a 41-year-old hiker who was found dead on the Bright Angel Trail on June 16 died from an acute heart attack. An autopsy revealed that the man had a 90-percent blockage in an artery. “You certainly don’t want the Grand Canyon to be your stress test to find out the hard way that you have an underlying heart disease,” Myers said.
The Preventative SAR team that Smith supervises was put in place during Phillips’ tenure to help visitors understand these subtle risksbefore it’s too late. She oversees seven seasonal employees and 70 volunteers on the preventative SAR team, and these staffers walk the trails below the rim and help educate hikers and sight-seers on the effects of heat, altitude, and exertion. They also administer to hikers in distress and even make suggestions to turn around in cases where the person is displaying signs that they are not fit to continue.
This is critical work, because heat can impact a person’s perception of risk and decision making, similar to drinking alcohol, Myers added. This topic was recently discussed on the Grand Canyon Hiker Dude Podcast. Host Brian Speciale, co-founder of guiding company Bright Angel Outfitters, interviewed a hiker named Jessica Ryan, who was walking through the bottom of the canyon on June 29 with her uncle, Scott Sims, when he collapsed. Staff from the nearby Phantom Ranch Lodge hurried to help the two, but Sims, a 69-year-old entrepreneur from Austin, Texas, died. Officials have yet to reveal his cause of death, but Sims’ death occurred when temperatures were soaring.
“It was surreal and traumatic,” Ryan said. “We just never should have started.”