Yellowstone National Park worker, Estefania Liset Mosquera Alcivar, 21, fell to her death at the Grand Canyon around 3:15 a.m. on Friday. Alcivar was socializing with a handful of co-workers when she stepped too close to a huge drop-off area and plunged onto the rocks far below.
Estefania Alcivar, from Ecuador, was a concession stand worker and in the United States on a visa, according to a Daily Mail report.
The Yellowstone National Park worker reportedly feel at the Grandview Point area of the Grand Canyon. Alcivar and her friends were hanging out near a trail along the edge of the canyon when she fell, CNN reports. Her co-workers quickly dialed 911 for help. A rescue team was able to spot her body shortly after dawn.
According to the search and rescue crews, the fall the young woman sustained was not survivable. A helicopter was ultimately sent in to recover her body later in the morning. The Grand Canyon ranges in depth from 800 to 1,200 feet.
The identities of the national park staffers who were with Alcivar when she fell have not yet been released to the public.
Ecuadorian woman falls to death in Yellowstone canyon: Estefania Liset Mosquera Alcivar… https://t.co/S5iwi4NTCg … via @MailOnline
— A.M (@RealAbdulQadir) August 27, 2016
Yellowstone National Park officials have launched an investigation into Estefania Liset Mosquera Alcivar’s death. Not long after the tragedy was made public, tributes from family and friends began appearing online.
“You have no idea how much I miss you. I’ll always remember you as that beautiful girl and full of life. We lost you but heaven is so lucky to have won a beautiful and wise little angel. May God bless you and be always at your side. This is not a goodbye just a see you soon,” Jose Verdezoto Mosquera, a relative of Alcivar’s, posted on Facebook in Spanish.
“Thank you for so many years of loving us so much my little tefita. I leave a little hole in my soul but always, always close together. I love you so much friend. Rest in peace,” Alcivar’s friend, Michelle Bonilla, also posted in a tribute shared on social media.
The Yellowstone National Park worker was known for her outgoing, friendly, and kind nature.
Woman falls to death in Grand Canyon of Yellowstone https://t.co/szlRN6rEwv
— Detroit Free Press (@freep) August 27, 2016
The tragic death of the park concession worker and three raging wildfires in the Yellowstone National Park area have cast a cloud over the 100th anniversary of the creation of the National Park Service. Special events to commemorate the landmark anniversary are scheduled to take place on Thursday, the Guardian notes.
The wildfires have caused the close of the south entrance to the national park. Summer is the peak of the tourist season at state and national parks. Last month about 2,400 vehicles entered the south entrance of the Yellowstone National Park on a daily basis.
Today’s fire update: slight growth on fires, south entrance remains closed. Full report at https://t.co/7OaJytjXXI . pic.twitter.com/pwmfqsA5J8
— YellowstoneNPS (@YellowstoneNPS) August 26, 2016
The National Park Service (NPS) is urging visitors to the park to use caution when walking certain trails. Yellowstone National Park encompasses the northwestern corner of Wyoming, and parts of both Montana and Idaho. It was the first national park in the United States and remains one of the most popular parks in the system.
The park staffer’s death is the third tragedy to occur in Yellowstone National Park this year. In June, a 13-year-old boy was badly burned when his father, who was carrying him, slipped and fell into a hot spring. Earlier that same month, a man visiting the park from Oregon fell off the Norris Geyser Basin boardwalk and also fell into a hot spring.
[Image via Shutterstock]
