Man Falls to His Death While Taking Photos of Sunset

A 68-year-old New Jersey man appears to have fallen to his death Monday while trying to photograph the sunset, according to officials at Maine's Acadia National Park. The Bangor Daily News reports Mark Simon was visiting the park with his wife, who waited in the car in a nearby parking lot while he walked to a bluff to take photos. She got concerned when the sun went down and stopped a park ranger who was driving by, according to the Portland Press Herald. Her husband had been gone for more than two hours.

The ranger found Simon's backpack at the top of a nearby cliff, WCSH reports. His body was 40 feet below at the water's edge. The tide carried Simon's body away from shore before rescuers could get to it, and the Coast Guard was called to pull it from the water. While Simon's death is believed to be accidental, the National Park Service is investigating and an autopsy is underway. Simon is the second person to die in Acadia National Park this year. A hiker was found dead of acute intoxication in January. And while falls are frequent in the park, there hasn't been a fatal one since 2012. (More Acadia National Park stories.)