In Glacier, two water rescues in one afternoon

Glacier National Park rangers had a busy day last week when two water-rescue incidents occurred at around the same time.

Rangers were first dispatched to McDonald Creek near Red Rock Point around 12:30 p.m. on July 15 following reports of a 12-year-old boy falling into the creek.

The incident came only three days after a woman fell into the creek further downstream and was swept over the Lower McDonald Creek Falls. She was pronounced dead the next day.

According to Park officials, a family from Georgia riding in a Red Bus tour had stopped at Red Rock Point. Their boy was playing on a log when he fell into the creek. He was swept downstream about 20 yards in a constricted and steep area with very fast moving water.

A male visitor from Wisconsin jumped in and safely got the boy to the bank across from the Going-to-the-Sun Road. A tow truck getting ready to pull a vehicle out of the ditch on the busy highway west of the incident was told to wait until rangers could deliver a rescue boat to the scene.

Using an inflatable kayak and life jackets, rangers transported the boy and the Wisconsin man safely back across McDonald Creek. There were no injuries.

Right in the middle of all that, around 1:30 p.m., rangers were alerted to a rafting accident on the North Fork of the Flathead River. A cooler, some plastic bags with personal belongings and a life preserver were seen floating down the river at the Glacier Rim river access site, about 12 miles north of Columbia Falls.

Park rangers, the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office, Two Bear Helicopter and North Valley Search and Rescue responded to the site. According to Park officials, two adults and two children from California flipped as they were rafting. All were wearing life jackets.

The current carried the family a short distance downstream to the Glacier Park side of the river. Personnel aboard the Two Bear Helicopter spotted the family, and a boat was dispatched to pick them up and transport them to their vehicle. The rafters were wet and cold, but there were no injuries.

Drowning is the No. 1 cause of accidental death in Glacier Park.