Teenager Dies in Fall on the Blue Ridge Parkway

NPS Digest is reporting this morning that the Blue Ridge Parkway dispatch center and the Humpback Rocks visitor center received multiple reports of a young woman who had fallen approximately 50 feet down a cliff onto the parkway this past Sunday evening, September 15th.

There was a rapid response from park rangers and interpretive staff, Wanynesboro and Wintergreen rescue squads, and medically trained visitors who witnessed the accident. The patient, a 13-year-old girl, was flown by helicopter to University Medical Center in Charlottesville, but succumbed to her injuries. She had been picnicking with family and friends at Humpback Rocks picnic area and had hiked out to an overlook to view the sunset. She and another youngster had scrambled down from the overlook and were climbing along the top of the cliff when she fell.


Jeff
Hiking in the Smokies