A California teacher died this week in a hiking accident on a steep and difficult mountain trail near Sedona, Arizona, authorities said.
The Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office identified the woman as Zaynab Joseph, 40, of California, who was reportedly staying with her family at an Airbnb in Sedona.
Joseph was hiking with her husband and one-year-old child on Bear Mountain, about 9 miles west of Sedona, when she fell Monday morning, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
She fell from a 140-foot (42-meter) cliff, the office said. A hiker who happened to be nearby descended the cliff to render aid and found her seriously injured but breathing, the statement said.
Rescuers from the Sedona Fire District, search and rescue crews from the sheriff’s office and an Arizona Department of Public Safety helicopter unit rushed to the trail, but the woman died at the scene, the office said.
“The man and child were flown from the mountain and the victim was recovered,” the sheriff’s office said.
The incident is under investigation, the organization said. Witnesses were sought.
The area is located in Coconino National Forest, approximately 186 miles north of Phoenix. The US Forest Service describes a trail to the top of Bear Mountain as challenging and too steep for horses.
“The strenuous walk to the top of the mountain is largely unshaded, steep and in places difficult,” it said in an introduction. “The trail rises more than 1,800 feet in elevation over the 2.3-mile hike to the summit of Bear Mountain.”
The Islamic Society of Orange County said on its Facebook page that a memorial service with prayers would be held Friday evening at Orange Crescent School in Garden Grove for “our dearest Mrs. Joseph.”
The school lists Joseph as a 10th and 11th grade science teacher.
Joseph was from Toledo, Ohio, according to her Facebook page. Her LinkedIn said she lived in Huntington Beach, California, south of Garden Grove.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
