A Colorado man was found dead Sunday in the Grand Canyon while on a group river trip, marking the seventh fatality in the national park since July 31.
Grand Canyon National Park officials received a call early Sunday morning reporting a fatality at Poncho’s Kitchen, a section of the Canyon near the 137th mile marker of the Colorado River, according to a press release.
The deceased was identified as Patrick Horton, a 59-year-old from Salida, Colorado who was visiting the canyon on a “non-commercial” river trip, park officials said in the news release.
His body was found by other members of his party on the 10th day of their journey.
The Grand Canyon has had a turbulent summer with six deaths in August alone, ranging from a woman swept away by a flood to one illegal BASE jump gone wrong. Three people died first week of August alone.
The park recorded 11 deaths in 2023, 12 in 2022, a staggering 23 in 2021 and 13 in 2020. The average usually stays somewhere between 10 to 15 deaths throughout the year, park officials said — with 2021 being an outlier.
Horton’s death marks the 15th death of 2024, approaching the high end of the annual average.
From 2014 to 2019, 103 people died in Grand Canyon National Park, according to NPS mortality dashboard. Of these deaths, 49 were the result of medical emergencies or problems, including 37 deaths that did not involve any physical activity.
Across all national parks in the United States, an average of 358 deaths were reported each year during this period, placing Grand Canyon National Park at the lower end of the spectrum.
The National Park Service and the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s office are still investigating Horton’s death, the NPS said. It is unclear how or when he died.