Woman falls to her death from 140-foot cliff in Arizona while hiking with husband and 1-year-old child

A woman died after falling from a 140-foot cliff this week while hiking with her husband and young child on a mountain in the Arizona desert, authorities said.

Zaynab Joseph, 40, died Monday after a group of hikers found her while hiking along Bear Mountain in Sedona, a desert town near Flagstaff and a tourism hub, the state’s office said. Yavapai County Sheriff on social media. Joseph had already fallen from the cliff when the hikers heard screams and discovered her alive, seriously injured.

One person called 911 while another went down the embankment and confirmed that Joseph was still breathing. She died a short time later, the sheriff’s office said, noting that the Sedona Fire Department pronounced her dead because they were the first unit to arrive on the scene. The sheriff sent search and rescue teams to the scene to recover Joseph’s body, which they successfully did with the help of the state Department of Public Safety.

Joseph was hiking on Bear Mountain with her husband and 1-year-old child, the sheriff’s office said. The three men had traveled from their home in California to Sedona, where they were renting an Airbnb. Her husband and child were airlifted from the mountain while authorities worked to recover the body. The sheriff did not say anyone else was injured.

The circumstances of Joseph’s death and its exact causes are under investigation. Officers interviewed hikers leaving Bear Mountain following Joseph’s death and asked anyone else who may have witnessed the incident to contact the sheriff.

About 3 million tourists flock to Sedona each year, according to the Sedona Chamber of Commerce. Many are drawn to the area’s scenic outdoor activities, as Sedona is surrounded by pine forests and trails along its outskirts wind through enormous red rock buttes and canyons. The hike to the summit of Bear Mountain is considered strenuous because it is “mostly shadeless, steep, and difficult in places,” the U.S. Forest Service writes in a description of this trail and another that takes participants in a longer journey through the surrounding area. canyon.

The trail to the summit of Bear Mountain is slightly shorter than two and a half miles, but jumps more than 1,800 feet in elevation while requiring hikers to navigate rocky switchbacks — trails that trace a zigzag pattern — narrow side canyons and other difficult conditions. The other trail through the entire canyon has an elevation gain of 2,100 feet, on a path that runs mostly “over slanted rocks,” the Forest Service says.

The path taken by Joseph and his family was unclear. CBS News reached out to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office for more information but did not receive an immediate response.