Bibee gave the first graphic description of what happened. He said when he got to the top of the Mist Trail he saw people on the river side of the barricade. He said one man was posing near the waterfall with a screaming young girl in his arms while a teenage girl snapped photographs.
“People became unglued on this guy. They said, ‘You know what, man? Get your ass back over here,” Bibee said.
He said as that man complied, another man and woman in the same group crossed the barricade and made their way to a rock in the middle of the river to pose for photographs.
“That’s when the woman started to slip. He reached for her and fell in. Then another one tried to help and she falls in the water. We literally watched them get swept over the edge of Vernal Falls,” he said.