19-year-old dies at popular swimming and diving spot in Tuolumne County
A 19-year-old Antioch man died Tuesday evening at the Rainbow Pool Day Use Area in Tuolumne County. A short Facebook post by the county Sheriff’s Office identified the victim as Alvin Reyes Jr. and did not say if he is believed to have drowned or suffered a fatal injury.
The report of a person falling into the water and not resurfacing was made about 6:30 p.m. from the popular recreation spot off Highway 120 about 13 miles east of Groveland.
The Sheriff’s Office has not released information about how quickly the call was made after Reyes went under, or how quickly deputies, a search and rescue team and a dive team were able to get on scene and into the water.
The post says the teen’s body was recovered by divers and search members.
Rainbow Pool is widely known. San Francisco Chronicle and SF Gate outdoors writer Tom Stienstra wrote in 2014, when it opened after Rim Fire damage was repaired, “For many, especially youngsters who make the trip for the first time, it is a summer rite of passage to take the flying leap off the brink of the waterfall and into the pool.”
A May 2019 Los Angeles Time travel article on Groveland also recommends a visit, and the Sierra Nevada Geotourism site calls it a “perfect swimming hole.”
But Mary Pike, at the U.S. Forest Service’s Groveland Ranger District within the Stanislaus National Forest, said by phone Wednesday that the beautiful spot also has its hazards.
There are huge, very slippery rocks that go down to the water and other rocks that are popular to jump from, she said, and it seems like every year, someone dies or is hurt. “It breaks our hearts,” she said.
The Union Democrat reported Wednesday there have been at least three other accidental deaths there in the past decade, including a 3-year-old who slipped and fell in the water in 2015.
In July 2016, 11-year-old Nataliey Garcia of Empire drowned on a Saturday afternoon during a family trip there.
Rainbow Pools, along the south fork of the Tuolumne River, features a natural water slide of about 10 feet that shoots riders over the falls and down maybe 20 feet into the basin of water, David Murphy, Nataliey’s stepfather, told The Bee at the time.
Nataliey’s group included about 10 adults and lots of children, including her siblings and cousins. Murphy was the first to go down the water slide, he said, and was surprised at the power of the water. “It grabbed me, pushed me out,” he said. He wasn’t hurt, but “I just landed crazy. ... I belly-flopped.”
Concerned about safety, he tried to wave off Nataliey’s mother from going, but she interpreted the wave as a signal to proceed. The quick slide was harder on her than on Murphy, Lessa Leatherman said. “The water beat me up and I couldn’t get out of the water by myself. I could barely breathe and I hurt my leg really, really bad.”
Nataliey apparently went down the slide while Murphy and Leatherman’s sister were tending to injured Lessa. None of them saw her go or immediately knew something had happened to her.
In August 2008, a Turlock man died after he hit his head diving into the swimming hole. Officials said Arlo Roberts, 33, dove from a 30-foot rock and struck a rock just below the water’s surface, suffering head and chest injuries.
This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 1:52 PM.
