Hiker rescued near midnight from 100-foot cliff on Bell Rock; with video1 min read

Photos courtesy of the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office

Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a call of a man stuck on a 100-plus foot cliff on Bell Rock at 11:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb 12.

After realizing he was in a very dangerous location, deputies requested Yavapai County Search and Rescue teams, including Verde search and rescue and back-country rope teams.

YCSO learned that the man had been hiking in the late afternoon hours when it started to get dark. He tried to make his way to the trailhead when he became disoriented and stuck on the cliff.

The search and rescue teams were able to locate the man but could not get to him. An Arizona Department of Public Safety Ranger helicopter arrived and hoisted the hiker to safety.

The hiker did not need medical attention but was very cold.

“Thank you to the DPS ranger, and the multiple Yavapai County search and rescue volunteer teams who responded in the middle of the night to make sure this hiker made it to safety,” YCSO stated.

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Christopher Fox Graham

Christopher Fox Graham is the managing editor of the Sedona Rock Rock News, The Camp Verde Journal and the Cottonwood Journal Extra. Hired by Larson Newspapers as a copy editor in 2004, he became assistant manager editor in October 2009 and managing editor in August 2013. Graham has won awards for editorials, investigative news reporting, headline writing, page design and community service from the Arizona Newspapers Association. Graham has also been a guest contributor in Editor & Publisher magazine and featured in the LA Times, New York Post and San Francisco Chronicle. He lectures on journalism, media law and the First Amendment and is a nationally recognized performance aka slam poet. In January 2025, the International Astronomical Union formally named asteroid 29722 Chrisgraham (1999 AQ23) in his honor at the behest of Lowell Observatory, citing him as "an American journalist and longtime managing editor of Sedona Red Rock News. He is a nationally-recognized slam poet who has written and performed multiple poems about Pluto and other space themes."

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