Deb Chamberlin, the 52-year-old school board vice president, died after she stepped over a rock retaining wall to take a photograph, lost her footing and fell down an embankment before falling off a cliff.
Nash said Chamberlin and family members -- her husband, son, Alex, and daughter, Kelly -- had pulled their car into a viewing area near Tower Fall shortly before the accident occurred around 10 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time. After the fall, Nash said her husband flagged down a passing motorist, who called 911.
Park rangers arrived soon after and, with a scope, spotted Chamberlin on the floor of a steep narrow canyon near the Yellowstone River. Nash said they could not get a raft in to rescue her because the spring snowmelt had raised the river level too high.
A ranger eventually rappelled down to Chamberlin and found she had died, Nash said.
Park rangers used a stretcher suspended from a helicopter to pull Chamberlin from the canyon shortly after 3:30 p.m.
He said the retaining wall was there to provide "a measure of safety" for visitors, but it was not unusual for people to step over it to get photographs.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-30/1150612889137260.xml&coll=6
How sad for her family. Sometimes bad judgment is fatal. My cousin died in a tractor accident, left a wife and two preschool children, doing something he knew he shouldn't have done.
well .... rules ARE for other people, right? .... never mind ....
Auntie Mame lost a husband that way.
Prayers for her and her poor family.
I have read the comments regarding this story. I just want to make a few clarifications to some of the comments being made. This accident did not take place at the Tower Falls overlook where some people think it happened. It was NOT where the pictures on this site indicates. I was in Yellowstone last weekend when this happened and was in this area not too long after she fell. The rangers were just getting ready to repel down the side of the cliff. There is no three or four foot retaining wall or fence at the pullout where the family stopped. It is only a small rock retaining wall (if you can call it that) about one foot tall. There are also no signs in the pullout area where they stopped. I will agree that maybe this was in poor judgement, but she did NOT disregard warning signs or climb over tall fences to take her picture. This is a horrible accident that has left a family without a wife and a mother and is incredibly sad.