MODESTO (AP) ― A Central Valley woman is describing how what had started as a pleasant walk one morning earlier this month in Yosemite National Park turned into a three-day ordeal.
Jessica Rose Garcia says after an orientation meeting on Oct. 6 for her new job at the Wawona Hotel in the park she decided to go for a long walk.
The 23-year-old Garcia told the Modesto Bee that after walking for more than three hours, she slipped on a wet rock and fell off a cliff, landing 35 feet below in a creek bed, between the cliff wall and a boulder.
Because of injuries, and large boulders blocking her path, she was unable to climb out of the area.
When a search was mounted and rescuers finally found her, Garcia was lifted out of the creek bed on a rescue basket, then taken to a hospital in Fresno.