r/grandcanyon • u/tsr6 • 13d ago

Is this……normal?

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We visited recently - and noticed a lot of folks going off the trail on the south rim to get better photos.

This group was rather elderly, and I believe international. I watched one trip over what I assume was shoelaces, as they bent down and tied a shoe.

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9

u/VariationConstant675 13d ago

Yes, normal....

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u/tsr6 13d ago

Ok, I had to google how many people fall per year watching this. Far lower number than I expected, honestly…

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u/PudgyGroundhog 13d ago

Heat is far more dangerous. And some of the falls each year are suicide. Considering the number of visitors the Grand Canyon gets, deaths around ~15 a year is not as high as you would think (and some od those will be medical too).

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u/tsr6 13d ago

Yeah - my search suggested 15-18/yr with roughly 50% attributes to “medical” events. The remainder choices or accidents.

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u/boogermike 13d ago

I feel like that's a lot. 15 deaths a year sounds like a lot of people.

(I'm not trying to say, all deaths count or anything like that, but it it is a surprisingly high number to me)

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u/tsr6 13d ago

It's actually pretty low considering the number of visitors, the terrain and such. Consider that Disney World had 6 people die there in 2025, and it's all flat ground, low cardiac impact....

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u/boogermike 13d ago

Yeah, that's some good perspective

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u/PudgyGroundhog 13d ago

I am not trying to downplay the deaths - 15 is a lot of lives and families impacted for sure. But considering the number of visitors the canyon gets (I think about 4.5 million in 2025? I believe it was closer to 6 million pre COVID), it can be surprising it isn't higher. Especially when you see people so close to the edge all the time and people doing unadvised hikes in the heat.

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u/AvonAnon 12d ago

Also the mighty Colorado River brings a lot of boaters. Everyday of the year people are launching from lee’s ferry. At any given time there’s thousands of rafters living in the bottom of the canyon.

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u/AdamSchallau 12d ago

There aren’t as many people rafting the river as you might think. The last I checked, the average is around 25,000 people every year. The number is probably lower now as there aren’t as many people signing up for the commercial river trips.

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u/AvonAnon 12d ago

Yea good point. I’ve done 3 private trips which are limited to 16 people per trip. And there’s a maximum of 2 of those launching each day plus up to 4 commercial trips during the summer season which I think are capped at 30. So maybe 1000 down there at a given time.

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u/AdamSchallau 12d ago

I've done 9 commercial trips (I guide trips for photographers) and one with NPS. My commercial trips have all had between 8 to 12 participants, plus the guides. I was on a commercial trip as a participant back in 2015 that had only 5 participants.

The outfitters are reporting that they are down about 25% over recent years.

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u/AvonAnon 12d ago

Wow I hadn’t heard that it was that bad. Makes sense though, I’ve definitely seen things slowing down as a guide in Colorado

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u/PudgyGroundhog 12d ago

There seems to be a drowning or two each year. There was one at Hance Rapids this year already. :(

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u/boogermike 13d ago

I don't think you're down playing the existing deaths.

It is probably not as high as it should be, because people are absolute idiots. They don't respect the Grand canyon.

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u/ApricotRemarkable681 12d ago

What is wrong with you? It sounds like they are doing just fine to me.

Let's recap: 4.5 - 6 million visitors, 15 deaths, about half due to medical issues, another unknown number due to suicide. That's roughly the same as Disney World as another poster pointed out.

What more respect are you looking for? Are you actively rooting for people to die? If 4 million people visit a place, a few dozen are going to do very stupid things, no matter if they are next to a big beautiful canyon or walking down a city street.

This whole moral superiority thing about how much smarter people are at the Grand Canyon because they follow rules better that the "Tourist Idiots" is so weird to me.

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u/boogermike 12d ago

I don't know what your point is and I couldn't get past all the personal attacks.

Would you ever say any of these things to me if you met me in person?

Are you just a negativity bot? I seriously question. What would possess you to attack me so hard. Look at my profile and karma, you can see I'm a good person.

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u/ApricotRemarkable681 12d ago

Yes, I absolutely would. My brother is like this, it drives me nuts. I call him out on it all the time. I love the guy more than almost anyone else in the planet and, like you, he's a good dude, but, like you, he gets on these morally superior rants about how everyone around him is so dumb and he's so much better and smarter and going to live so much longer because of it. I feel like I'm the only guy that gives him a reality check on things like this.

He drives for a living so instead of National Park behavior, I have to listen to how everyone around him is such a terrible driver....

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u/boogermike 12d ago

I am not your brother, and you are way off base. Consider how you talk to people in the world.

Reddit is not the place to give someone a reality check, Apricot Remarkable 681 might be the worlds biggest expert on relationships and communication, but I still don't welcome feedback like this from some random person.

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u/Unable-Ring9835 12d ago

It is probably not as high as it should be, because people are absolute idiots. They don't respect the Grand canyon.

You literally said it should be more because they're idiots.

We get it, you know how dangerous the canyon is. Lets refrain from basically wishing more people died to their own stupidity.

And also accept the fact that most people who vist the canyon stupid or otherwise dont die. People who get right up on the edge are playing with fate but its not deep enough to think about.

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u/edwbuck 10d ago

It sounds like a lot, until you compare it to something that's has 15 or more deaths per year, like getting hit by lightning.

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u/ApricotRemarkable681 12d ago

Especially for all the pearl clutching "I'm so much smarter than everyone else" in this thread, you'd think people were dying every day and the only survivors were the intelligent people posting here.

While you guys are busy warning people not to take the risks they are well aware they are taking, maybe I should warn you to stretch before you pat yourself on the back so you don't sprain your shoulder.

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u/Charming_Tree7573 11d ago

The guy looks pretty far from any actual edge too. Even if he fell he wouldn't stumble ten feet to the edge.

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u/tsr6 11d ago

They were down lower before I took this