Young girl dies in 500-foot fall from Yellowstone Park trail

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo., Aug. 18 (UPI) -- A young girl died when she fell more than 500 feet as she and her family hiked down a steep trail in Yellowstone National Park, park officials said.

Zahra Allahyari, 8, of Poway, Calif., was the second person to die in the park in less than a week. She was killed Sunday morning on the trail to the Brink of the Lower Falls Observation Platform.

The trail is at one of the park's best-known natural wonders, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

A day earlier, the body of Darien Latty, 22, of Demorest, Ga., was retrieved from a dangerous section of the Yellowstone River. Latty, who was in Yellowstone working at Roosevelt Lodge, had gone inner tubing with friends last Monday on the Lamar River. He was apparently unable to get to shore at the point where the Lamar joins the Yellowstone.

"Latty was last seen being swept downstream, separated from his inner tube and without a life jacket," park officials said.

An intensive search ended late Friday when what appeared to be a body was found pinned under a rock about a quarter mile downstream from where Latty was last seen. A swiftwater rescue team from Montana's Gallatin County used kayaks and a raft to recover the body the next day.

Officials said using inner tubes to float the park rivers is banned.