A man visiting Yosemite National Park has plunged to his death after being swept over the 594-ft Nevada Fall. The incident is confirmed by officials to have taken place on Saturday, and the woman who tried to save his life has described what happened as a “nightmare”.
As reported by SF Gate, Freesia Gaul (20) was enjoying the scenery when she spotted something that terrified her in her camera frame. She saw a man, Josue Baires Alfaro (22), weakly swimming in the river, which turns into rapids, then plunges off the side of a cliff.
Gaul said she knows the rules of life-saving, but had to intervene. In an interview with SF Gate, she explained:
“The number one rule in lifesaving is don’t create a second victim. But when you see someone like that, when you make direct eye contact with someone who you know is going to go over, you can’t turn around.”
Gaul abandoned her camera, ran into the water fully clothed, and desperately tried to save the man from going over. As terrified people watched from the riverbank, she tried her best to yank him out of the current. Then the currents began to yank her underwater. As she said, “I basically thought the chances are zero. I’m not making it out of here.”
“I basically thought the chances are zero”
Gaul scrabbled at rocks and tried to slow her descent and, when a lull in the rapids arrived, a man extended a walking stick to her. She reached for it and missed, plunging back under the water. Gaul resurfaced and, with one final effort, clung to it.
She then looked back and saw Alfaro slip over the edge of the waterfall. As she explained:
“It felt like he had been almost a hand away. If I’d thought faster, did something better, maybe just in time … I could have saved him.”
A heartbreaking incident is being investigated at Nevada Fall in Yosemite National Park
— Surajit (@surajit_ghosh2) June 24, 2026
On June 20, emergency crews responded after a 23-year-old man was reportedly swept into the fast-moving water above the waterfall. Witnesses described a terrifying scene, with multiple people… pic.twitter.com/8UxfJ5qpjE
Gaul then approached Alfaro’s horrified family, helping them gather his things and comforting them as they prayed for him. But, deep down, she knew that he was dead: “Once you get swept in, you can’t stand up. You’re fighting a mountain, and you’re just one swimmer.”
The National Park Service repeatedly underlines that visitors hiking to Nevada Fall must be aware of the dangers. On their site, they say, “use extreme caution while you’re near any flowing water or wet rock in this area,” and that the water may look “inviting on a hot summer’s day, but it is illegal and dangerous to swim here due to the extremely hazardous current.”
Published: Jun 25, 2026 10:00 am