Hiker from Atlanta metropolitan area killed in Grand Canyon fall

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK (AP) - A man who fell to his death while on a hike at the Grand Canyon has been identified as an Atlanta resident.

Thomas Peake set out on a daylong solo hike on Monday from the canyons North Rim down to the Colorado River and back. When the 39-year-old didnt return from the 3-mile round trip by dusk, National Park Service officials say his wife drove to the nearest town in the remote area and reported him overdue. Park rangers began an aerial search on Tuesday morning. Peakes body was quickly found just off the trail on the lower end of the very steep Lava Falls Route.

Officials said today that the medical examiner in Mohave County determined that Peake died from injuries sustained in a fall. Park rangers estimate he fell about 15 feet.

Click here to read the article from the Arizona Daily Sun.

GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK - Dunwoody native Thomas Peake's last day began early. He and his wife Dena got up in time to see the sun rise Monday from their remote Grand Canyon campsite.

A few hours later Dena said goodbye as Thomas began a challenging eight-hour hike down the Lava Falls Route below the canyon's North Rim. She didn't join him but managed to share the experience via walkie talkie.

The last words she heard from her husband of three years provide a small measure of solace.

"Oh my God, the Colorado River is so beautiful," Peake, 39, told his wife as he neared the bottom of the trail, according to the couple's close friend Dara O'Neil. Soon after, the National Park Service reports, he slipped on one of the volcanic rocks that compose the three-mile route, falling an estimated 15 feet to his death.

Click here to read the article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Click here to see Thomas Peake's Facebook Memoriam Page.