An injured person was rescued from the bottom of Big Bradley Falls in Polk County on Saturday, after fire rescue crews and emergency response partners spent several hours reaching and extracting the patient from the rugged, wooded terrain surrounding the gorge. The patient was ultimately handed off to Polk EMS and taken to the emergency room.
Saluda Fire & Rescue reported the rescue in a Facebook post, as WLOS reported. Crews reached the injured hiker at the base of the falls, provided care on scene, and then worked to extract the patient from the terrain before the handoff to Polk EMS, who then transported the person to the hospital. Saluda Fire & Rescue also used the moment to remind the public to use caution when visiting Big Bradley Falls and other heavily wooded or rough terrain areas.
A Gorge That Keeps Testing Rescue Crews
The terrain that made Saturday's extraction take hours is baked into the landscape itself. Reaching the base requires descending washouts and a near-vertical rock wall of 20 to 25 feet that often demands ropes, according to Komoot. The Tryon Daily Bulletin reported a multi-agency response to the separate 2025 fatal fall.
Cell service is another complicating factor. Visitors in the Cove Creek and Big Bradley Falls area experience little to no cellular phone service along Green River Cove Road and the surrounding trails, a gap that can slow down how quickly emergencies get reported and rescues get dispatched.
A Site With a Long, Grim History
Saturday's rescue is the latest entry in a troubling pattern at the falls. In July 2025, 29-year-old hiker Astrid Angelina Madrid Ticas died after falling an estimated 75 to 100 feet at Big Bradley Falls, an incident that triggered a multi-agency emergency response and temporary closures of local roads and trails, according to the Tryon Daily Bulletin.
That death followed others. In October 2019, 28-year-old hiker Aaron Post died after slipping from the top of the falls while taking a photograph. More than 50 emergency personnel responded; rescuers lifted Post out of the woods and flew him to a hospital, per WSOC-TV. And in February 2017, a 47-year-old father died after falling 120 feet from the cliff edge near the falls' overlook in front of his family, according to a report from WLOS.
Restricted Zone Rules and Legal Access
In response to the mounting toll, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission designated Big Bradley Falls and adjacent posted areas along the trail as a Temporary Restricted Zone under state regulation, requiring hikers and outfitters to obtain written permit approval through a Memorandum of Agreement before entering. Entering the restricted zone without that prior written authorization is a Class 3 Misdemeanor carrying a $25 fine plus court costs, per the commission.
The rules do carve out a legal path to the falls: guided commercial rappelling and rock climbing tours are permitted through specific outfitter agreements with the state, even as unguided visitors face restricted-zone enforcement because of the dangerous terrain, according to Visit NC. State wildlife officials also invested nearly $100,000 after an eighth fatal accident in 2019 to build a designated viewing platform with a rock perimeter wall and tall wooden fencing meant to keep visitors off natural ledges, according to a Reddit account of the project.
Neither WLOS nor Saluda Fire & Rescue has released the identity or condition of Saturday's patient. For now, the message from rescue crews remains the same one that has followed years of falls, closures, and recoveries at the gorge: caution around Big Bradley Falls and similarly rugged, heavily wooded terrain is not optional.
