Visitors enjoying the views at the Grand Canyon earlier this week were horrified to see a group of young people jumping and scrambling over the rocks to take photos of themselves standing right on the rim.
The incident was recorded by Instagram user therescuedphoto, who submitted it to TouronsOfNationalParks, where viewers were equally shocked. One commenter said they had to stop watching, while another found it hard to keep going.
"They’re not even looking at the view," said another. "It’s all for vanity."
The Grand Canyon is one of the most popular National Parks in the US, and received an estimated 4.7 million visitors last year, but it's also known as the deadliest, and has more search and rescue missions than any other.
Some accidents are the result of carelessness, while others are just bad luck. In August this year, a 13-year-old fell while into the canyon while trying to move out of another visitor's photo. Wyatt Kauffman was left with a spinal fracture after falling 100ft from the North Rim, but doctors expect him to make a full recovery.
Researchers believe that the park is going to become even more dangerous in future due to rising temperatures, which will increase the risk of heatstroke if visitors are underprepared. Temperatures at the bottom of the canyon already reach 120°F during the summer, leading many people to take a different route, but experts warn that those temperatures could soon continue into the fall, taking hikers by surprise.
