Texas teen plunges 50 feet to his death over waterfall in Olympic National Park while on graduation trip

A Texas teen plunged off a 50-foot waterfall to his death while on a trip with his friends celebrating their high school graduation at Washington state’s Olympic National Park.Grant Herridge, who attended Vanguard College Preparatory in Waco, Texas, had traveled to the Olympic National Park in the northwest corner of Washington with friends after graduating high school a week earlier.The teen was walking on the rocks at the top of one of the waterfalls at the Sol Duc Falls when he slipped and fell into the pool of water below on June 8, the National Park Service said.Witnesses said Herridge resurfaced at the bottom of the waterfall, only to submerge underwater again.Herridge’s father, Brad Herridge – a pastor at the Ocker Brethern Church – confirmed his son’s death in a heartbreaking Facebook post.“Grant was doing what he loved, hiking through Olympic National Park, and had a tragic accident,” the grieving father wrote.“He was always so full of life and we are going to honor him by living life to the fullest in the future.

Please continue to pray for us as we struggle to live life without him.”Park rangers and search and rescue crews rushed to the falls in the expansive wilderness in the park, but didn’t discover his body until the next day.Herridge, a rising freshman at Baylor University in Waco, was found completely submerged and pinned under the water between the two falls.Herridge was remembered as an adventurous outdoorsman, living by the motto inscribed on a ring he wore, “while we wait for life, life passes,” Brad Herridge told KWTX.Officials have faced dangerous conditions recovering Herridge’s body because of the high river flow in the approximately eight-foot canyon.Rangers and rescue teams attempted to recover Herridge on two separate attempts but faced increased water speeds near the recovery site because of the warmer temperatures and rapid snowmelt.“The park’s priority is to safely complete this recovery as soon as con...