Western North Carolina’s Transylvania County is known to many as the “Land of Waterfalls.” But with the beauty and tranquility of the area’s waterfalls and other natural features comes an element of danger and, sometimes, tragedy.
That fact rang true yesterday when a 24-year-old visitor to a section of the Pisgah National Forest just outside Brevard, N.C. fell at least 50 feet to his death from the top of Moore Cove Falls.
Kim Quang Le, a Vietnamese resident living in the United States on a Student/Employee Authorization Card, had been visiting the area on a camping trips with four friends when the Moore Cove Falls accident occurred.
According to witnesses present at the scene when the fall occurred, Quang Le had ascended the side of the falls and embarked on a traverse of its brink when he lost his footing, falling 50 to 75 feet into the stream bed below.
U.S. Forest Service along with the Transylvania County Rescue Squad and the Transylvania County EMS were all called to the scene, but because Quang Le was declared deceased at the time of their arrival, no efforts were made to resuscitate him.
Moore Cove Falls is located in the heart of a popular tourist area just off of Highway 276 between Sliding Rock and Looking Glass Falls.
