WEST YELLOWSTONE, Wyoming – A tourist visiting from Taiwan was struck by a falling tree in Yellowstone National Park and killed instantly. The pine tree struck the 36-year-old visitor on the head.
The Taiwanese man was hiking with a group on Monday on Fairy Falls trail when he left the trail to get a better a look of Grand Prismatic Spring. He climbed up a tree-covered slope, and a lodgepole pine tree fell, landing directly on his head.
Park rangers were sent to the scene and were unable to revive the man.
According to the rangers, the tree had been previously killed in a fire 26 years earlier during a 1988 forest fire, but was still standing. It was reportedly windy on Monday at the park. The National Park Service is investigating.
The man’s name has not been released, pending notification of his family.
