Over the weekend we went for a hike up Eaton Canyon again. I realized as I was preparing for this post (and looking at the previous Eaton Canyon post) it's been almost four years since we were up there!!!
The weather has been excellent, and it looked like everyone else had the same idea!!! The place was PACKED!!! My dad had suggested bringing a change of shoes & socks, as it had been quite wet leading up to this. He'd anticipated the stream being swollen and that we'd end up getting our feet wet.
We probably could have avoided soaking our feet, but it was so crowded that it would take a while crossing on rocks & such, as you'd have to wait for people coming the other way. The stream was a bit fuller, but not that bad.
Of course, the water was freezing. I kept saying, "It's as if they made it from melting snow!!!" My younger boy would complain when he'd get his feet wet. His brother helped him across several times by carrying him on his back. We made it up to the falls and were resting, taking pictures, enjoying the view. The falls, I'd say are 30 to 40 feet, with the canyon walls rising 45 to 55 feet on either side, a classic box canyon.
Now for the bad scene: After we'd been there a few minutes, there's the noise of rocks coming loose and bouncing off the walls. Shortly after that, we hear screaming and crying. Looking over, there's a young teenage girl out cold. Quickly a crowd is gathered around her. I check to see if my phone gets any reception, but no. Fortunately, someone else has better reception that me and calls 9-11. We left pretty quick after that, as did a few other hikers with small kids. Guess no one wants their little kids to have to deal seeing a dead person, or whatever.
It was rather chaotic there, and we're not exactly sure what happened yet. The official story that the local paper had on their site was what we'd thought had happened: She (and other hikers) had climbed up over the falls, and she ended up falling down, and in the process knocking a few rocks loose that ended up raining down on her. We did see people up there, and it seems like an exceeding bad idea. The other stories we'd heard were that she had been down below, and someone above inadvertently loosened some rocks, which fell of her, or they were tossing rocks down from above. The latter two scenarios seem plausible, as I would have expected to hear some yelling if she'd fallen. Of course, one rap on the head right at the beginning of a fall and you'd be silent the rest of the way.
Anyway, there was just a little bit of blood. The paper's site said she was in serious condition. We got to see the rescue helicopter nice and low on the way out, and saw a couple police and half a dozen firemen, as well as a couple of park rangers heading in as we were on our way out. I looked up the hospital's phone number today and was considering calling and seeing if I could find out any more information, and even toying with the idea of paying a visit. Hope she's OK!!!
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