Hiker found dead in Grand Canyon after flood sweeps her from husband. ‘Beautiful soul’
_fitted.png "Chenoa Nickerson, of Gilbert, Arizona, was caught in a flash flood Aug. 22 in the Grand Canyon, officials said. Her body was recovered three days later.")
An “amazing person” and a “beautiful soul” was lost when a hiker was swept from her husband in a flash flood in Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park, friends and officials said.
Chenoa Nickerson, 33, was found dead Aug. 25 by a commercial river trip in the Colorado River near river mile 176, according to the National Park Service.
The Gilbert woman had been hiking in Havasu Creek with her husband on Aug. 22 when a flash flood hit and carried both of them in rushing water, her sister, Tamara Morales, wrote on Facebook.
Her husband was rescued, but Nickerson remained missing for three days, McClatchy News previously reported.
A helicopter has transported her body out of the canyon, rangers said.
Now, her friends and family are grieving her death.
“This world has lost a bright light,” Dacey Blackman wrote on Facebook.
“God doesn’t waste a hurt and (...) I have no idea how we could lose such a beautiful soul this soon,” Blackman wrote.
“Chenoa, I don’t have words…my little yellow badge who grew in to a beautiful vibrant woman. You reached for the stars and followed your heart,” Krista Carpenter said on Facebook.
“Chenoa’s light will forever be a part of all of us, and we will ensure that her spirit continues to shine brightly,” Morales wrote.
The flooding stranded hundreds of people in Havasu Canyon, Fox 10 Phoenix reported. It also caused tribal lands to shut down and declare a state of emergency, the Havasupai Tribe Tourism said in a Facebook post.
This story was originally published August 26, 2024 at 8:21 AM with the headline "Hiker found dead in Grand Canyon after flood sweeps her from husband. ‘Beautiful soul’."
