Haunting final photo of swimmer, 22, swept away by raging waterfall in Yosemite as witness describes desperate attempt to rescue drowning man from national park’s famed 600ft drop

A valiant park visitor tried to save a 22-year-old man after she unknowingly took a chilling photo of him being swept toward a raging waterfall in California. 

Freesia Gaul, 20, and her friends were just about to wrap up their lunch at the top of Nevada Falls in Yosemite National Park on Saturday afternoon when she decided to snap a picture to capture the ‘beautiful day’, she told the Daily Mail. 

But as she did so, she saw a young man at the top of the nearly 600ft drop, starting to move ‘into the calmer non-white area of the water’. 

Gaul, an Australian-Canadian, initially thought she was just witnessing a man having fun in the water, but then she spotted the telltale sign that things were not what they seemed. 

‘I saw slight ripples at the edge of the water,’ she recalled, telling the Daily Mail that is when she knew the man, later identified as Josue Baires Alfaro, was trapped in an ‘incredibly strong undercurrent’. 

Within seconds, Gaul dropped her camera and ran into the water to try to save him, she recalled. 

She soon realized how intense the current was, which made it hard for her to get a solid grip on him. 

Gaul said she acted as fast as she could in a 10 to 20 second window until she realized Alfaro couldn’t be saved. 

As he was swept away in the raging water, Gaul said her body kept hitting the rocks, and she started to accept the fact that her life might be over too. 

But that’s when she spotted a girl holding out a stick toward her and grabbed on. 

As she did so, Gaul said she painfully watched Alfaro go over the edge of the waterfall. 

‘I looked at him, he looked at me. He looked at me like he wasn’t going to make it,’ she explained.  

Once she was back on shore, Gaul ran over to where she thought he might end up. She also recalled having a sliver of hope that he might be badly injured, but still alive. 

But, unfortunately, park officials later found his body. 

Afterward, Gaul said she located Alfaro’s family, who were completely ‘inconsolable’. 

She recalled hugging a woman who told Gaul she was the victim’s sister. 

She also helped the family, who she said seemed like tourists, pack up his things that were left on the beach near the edge of the water. 

Gaul then got her stuff together and headed to a nearby park bathroom, where she broke down for a couple of minutes. 

‘My friends and I started walking back to the base of the trail to go home, I’d cried briefly in the bathroom out of guilt, as it felt like he was only a hand away and if I’d tried harder I could’ve saved him,’ she stated. 

More than anything, Gaul wishes that she could have saved Alfaro, but she was placed in a life-or-death situation that she described as ‘an impossible decision’. 

She wants the tragedy to serve as a reminder that even the most skilled swimmers need to be cautious in water. 

‘The line between brave and reckless is a fuzzy one. I’ve had to see many incidents before and know when things are about to go wrong, it keeps you always on alert.

‘Seconds can be the deciding factor between life and death, and in a split second like that, all I could do was act,’ Gaul continued. 

The Daily Mail contacted the National Park Service, which is heading the investigation, for comment.