Craig Lerman describes Yellowstone National Park grizzly attack injuring 2 hikers

A grizzly bear attack injured two hikers on the Mystic Falls Trail near Old Faithful in yellowstone national park on Monday afternoon, and one hiker said he found the first victim after spotting bear prints in the mud. Craig Lerman called 911 from the trail and took over the emergency call as the rescue unfolded.

Mystic Falls Trail

Lerman said he was hiking up the trail when he saw the signs in the mud, then found a bloody hat with a watch torn off before reaching the injured man. He described the scene this way: “I was hiking up Mystic Falls Trail when I saw bear prints in the mud” and “I kept walking a little further and saw a bloody hat with a watch torn off.”

He found a severely injured 28-year-old man lying on the trail with cuts all over his face, back, legs and stomach. Lerman said the man had already called 911 on his blood-covered phone, and he took over the call from there.

Old Faithful Response

Lerman said the injured man called out as he reached him: “He heard me coming and started saying, ‘Help. Help me,’” He added that he gave the man his T-shirt because he said he was cold and wet. “I ended up giving him my T-shirt (because) he said he was cold and wet, so I just laid it over him and reassured him help was on the way,” Lerman said.

Two National Park Service rangers reached the scene on foot, and a helicopter later arrived with more personnel to evacuate both victims to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. Yellowstone officials said the victims may have been attacked by one or more bears, and the incident remained under investigation on Tuesday morning.

Yellowstone Investigation

Lerman said the second victim was a 14-year-old and that he never saw the other person on the trail. He also said, “I was scared the bear was going to come back around, so I just kept my head on a swivel.”

Travis Guse, a pastor and former Idaho Falls resident, wrote on Facebook that “Two (men) from his church were up in Yellowstone with their mom when they were mauled by a grizzly bear” and that “The kids were life-flighted to the hospital in Idaho Falls, and the hospital still had my contact on file from when I was a pastor there over a decade ago.”

The attack left two hikers hurt in one of the park’s best-known areas, and the injured man Lerman found gave the clearest account of how the emergency began on the trail.