Last Friday, Jeffrey Eggertz snapped a picture of his son and daughter and their friend standing on a cliff in Zion National Park, then warned them to stay away from the ledge.
That was the last time the Santa Clara, Washington County, man would see his energetic 12-year-old, Tyler Jeffrey Eggertz, alive."He was such a great kid," said his mother, Nancy Elder, with whom Tyler lived in Sandy. "He loved the life he lived, and he lived the life he loved."
The boy and his 15-year-old sister, Brittany, and a friend had climbed to the second of three Emerald Pools on trails between cascading waterfalls. The children were visiting their father for the weekend.
They sat next to Heaps Creek, dipping their feet into the water about 3:45 p.m. But when Tyler Eggertz stood up, he slipped on the algae-slickened rock, fell on his side and slid off the 100-foot cliff with the waterfall, Jeffrey Eggertz said.
Had the others tried to grab him, they too would have fallen, said Zion National Park spokesman Denny Davies.
The Indian Hills Middle School honor student landed on a boulder garden near the pool below - and near another group of hikers, Davies said. He was pronounced dead at the scene, despite efforts to revive him. Several hundred people were visiting the 3-mile trail at the time.
Meanwhile, the father and his wife, Lora, and children Christian, 3, Lauren, 7, and her 7-year-old friend had marched up the trail to the highest pool, about a half mile to the west, since they couldn't find their way to the second pool, Jeffrey Eggertz said.
They couldn't see Tyler, Brittany and their friend. As they walked down, they were stopped by a park ranger who indicated there had been a fatality.
"I asked if the family was with the person," Jeffrey Eggertz said. The father described his son to the ranger. Then he knew.
"You kind of go numb for a while, then it hits you," he said.
"When I walked outside this morning . . . I saw (his) motorcycle. It just broke me apart," he said, his voice cracking. "Knowing that someday we can be with Tyler again is some reassurance - knowing he probably had more important things to do on the other side."
The boy's death was the second in Zion this year, Davies said. The first was on New Year's Day, when a seasoned rock climber lost his footing. The two deaths comprise the park's annual average, he said.
"Zion is a wild and wonderful place," he said. "The things that make it so attractive for hundreds of thousands of visitors each year are the same things that makes it a dangerous place to visit.
"Especially with children, people need to respect the signs and warnings set up for them . . . to use this area carefully and not allow a moment's inattention to become a nightmare for a vaca-tioning family."
Tyler's fall was the first of the spring break weekend, during which families and revelers flock to southern Utah parks and towns - in Zion alone, visitorship jumps from 80,000 in February to 220,000 in March, Davies said.
To the northeast, a 14-year-old Sandy boy was treated and released from a Moab hospital after falling while climbing in Arches National Monument.
About 6 p.m., Nick Nelson apparently was attempting to climb down a slick rock ledge near Dead Horse Point Road in Seven-Mile Canyon when he fell up to 40 feet, the Grand County Sheriff's Department reported.
Meanwhile, Tyler Eggertz's body was flown to Salt Lake City for an autopsy, required since he died in a national park. Elder said funeral services will be held early next week in the Sandy area.
Elder described her son as an adventure-seeker who enjoyed motor-cycling, Scouting and Rollerblading. Snowboarding was his latest passion.
"He probably lived more in his 12 years than us if we lived to be 100," Elder said. "He always told me that he loved me, whenever he left the house or went to bed.
"He was my best buddy."