Worker at Timpanogos Cave trail falls to his death

AMERICAN FORK — For the second time in two days, someone fell off a cliff at Timpanogos Cave National Monument, and Thursday it was a monument employee who fell to his death.

Rex Walker, a maintenance worker for the monument, had driven off in a two-wheeled motorized trail bike around 1:30 p.m. to fix some lighting outages. He was fairly close to the cave when he somehow drove off of the trail and fell more than 500 feet to his death, Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon said. Park officials said he fell near the cave exit on a portion of the 1.5-mile, paved trail that leads visitors to and from the cave.

"We don't know what happened, but somehow he fell off the trail," Cannon said. "There were other people around, but no one was with him. Other employees heard the fall, but we're still investigating to get an idea of what he was doing when he fell."

Staff members at the park tried to rappel down the steep slope to reach the 58-year-old man, who had fallen down a narrow rock-slide chute an additional 300 feet or more. Park superintendant Denis Davis rapelled to where the motorbike had landed but couldn't reach or even see where Walker was. Two National Park Service rangers, including Timpanogos Cave Chief Ranger Michael Gosse, hiked up from below to where the worker had fallen and found him dead.

Walker, who leaves behind a wife and children, lived in Pleasant Grove and worked at the park during the summer only.

"We worked with him every day, and we loved him. Our hearts are hurting," Davis said. "Rex was the kind of employee you love: great and broad set of skills, here early and often worked late. It is a tragedy that we hope never to repeat."

Sheriff's search and rescue crews were at the national monument with employees of the National Park Service, working to determine what caused the fall, Cannon said.

Davis told KSL that park employees heard the accident, prompting other employees to try and help the man.

"At that point, we rushed to the scene, saw the trail bike," Davis said. "We set up a rappel and went down to it, but there was no sign of him. A few minutes later, we heard our rangers coming up from below discovered him in the ravine. So he had fallen, my guess is, over 1,000 feet down the chute."

Cannon said that Timpanogos Cave personnel were working to bring the victim's body down from the trail by reaching it from a higher point around 6:30 p.m.