Travelers Wary Of El Capitan After Days Of Rockfalls, Park Still Open

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK (CBS13) — It was the end of a scary week for visitors at Yosemite National Park after a series of rockfalls that seriously injured two people and left one man dead.

The park is taking precautionary measures and closely monitoring El Capitan, the site of those rockfalls.

As the tours continue around Yosemite National Park, visitor Becky Salzmann can't help to think of the Florida couple she helped comfort just a day ago.

"I asked the lady because I could tell she was very shaky, can I give you a hug? and I just held her, and she got emotional," she said.

The Florida man is the latest person to be injured within the last three days as rocks came crashing down from El Capitan creating large cloud of smoke

"It looked like fog rolling in. I'm like fog? That is so weird. Why would fog be rolling in? And then we came to a dead stop," she recalls.

On Wednesday pieces of a massive rock killed Andrew Foster of Whales, 32, and seriously injured his wife.

"We were actually climbing in the west side, and it fell off the east side when it happened, but we can feel a little movement," said Matt Spohn, who was on El Capitan during the first rockfall.

Geologists say Thursday's rockfall was 22 times as big as the rockfall on Wednesday. There was no movement on El Capitan on Friday, but the park did have another injury.

To be on the safe side, roads inside Yosemite Valley were rerouted. Some of the debris that landed on roadways has been cleared, and caution signs have been posted.

"The area is not closed; it's still beautiful weather, so people are climbing," he said.