Some wonder about safety of Utah trail

The results of an investigation into the death of a National Park Service employee at Timpanogos Cave National Monument are expected this summer, but a more pressing question looms. How safe is the trail? Rex Walker died May 20 after the trail vehicle he was using somehow veered off the steep cliff that abuts the 1½-mile trail from the visitors center to the series of caves at this Utah County attraction visited annually by as many as 80,000 people. Walker's death came a day after an 11-year-old girl on a school field trip experienced, and survived, a 100-foot fall from the trail. There have been five serious falls over the past seven years, according to Denis Davis, superintendent of Timpanogos Cave National Monument. In September 2006, a young girl stepped off the trail after being distracted. Two men, including a visitor from Russia, tried to save the girl, but the Russian man fell over a cliff and died. "We invite people here. We ask them to pay money to do a tour and that gives us a responsibility to make them as safe as possible," Davis said...more