I was up there last year in the May run-off season which that year was at record high water. There were a number of people that got swept in at that river and in King’s Canyon.
To get in that river when it is up is beyond foolish.
I swim well, even for an old-timer. I boat and have canoed a lot in rivers. No way would I venture into that river hopping rocks.
When I was a kid, mid 60’s, we were playing near the river in Kings Canyon when my younger brother fell in. My dad was fishing downstream and waded out to catch him. Another fellow fishing near my dad helped pull them both out. I remember hearing a woman, her father and her boyfriend all died in that river the same weekend when the latter tried to save the woman.
Someone I know lost his wife in King’s Canyon a dozen years ago. Two couples on a backpacking vacation. They returned from a day of hiking to their camp near the river. Three of them went off on some errand but the wife decided to stay back and rest by the riverbank. When the others returned she was nowhere to be found. Her body was recovered downriver three weeks later.
This was mid summer but the water was high and running fast. They were experienced hikers. She may have decided to cool her feet in the water and slipped, or maybe the current was strong enough pull her in.