1 person dead near Sequoia National Park’s iconic General Sherman tree

A person died in Sequoia National Park at a popular hiking trail on Thursday, officials said. 

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Authorities were called to the General Sherman Tree Trail on a report of a medical emergency, Rebecca Roland, a spokesperson for the National Parks Service, told SFGATE. The 1-mile trail is a busy tourist area that leads to the General Sherman sequoia, the largest living tree on Earth. 

When officials arrived, they provided emergency medical treatment to the person, Roland said, and the Park Service is not providing further information “out of respect for the family.”

The individual was eventually pronounced dead in the park and later identified as a 79-year-old man from Nevada, according to Tomas Lopez, a detective with the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office. The man’s cause of death has not been determined yet, he told SFGATE.

The sheriff’s office did not provide details about what led up to the emergency or the circumstances surrounding the man’s death. 

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On the day of the emergency, the region was under an extreme heat warning, according to the National Weather Service.

There have also been multiple recent deaths at Sequoia National Park and nearby areas in recent months, including a 17-year-old girl, who slipped into a fast-moving river at the park in June. At the neighboring Kings Canyon National Park, a Bay Area couple drowned at the Roaring River Falls in May. Last summer, a 36-year-old man died after hiking in rugged terrain in the Mineral King area.