{"id":212,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:32:03","latitude":40.33895400000000108775566332042217254638671875,"longitude":-111.6018616999999721883796155452728271484375,"title":"The Legend and History of Bridal Veil Falls","subtitle":"","fullsize":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/995531031235d53a420b1535d4353e68.jpg","address":"","all_locations":[],"zoom":15,"creator":["Marc Jonathan Wein, Brigham Young University"],"description":"According to a contested Native American legend of dubious origin (see Farmer, 360, 375-77), a girl named Norita fell in love with Grey Eagle, a young man from a rival tribe near Provo Canyon’s Bridal Veil Falls. The couple planned to elope, but Norita was discovered by her elders from both tribes, who told her they had killed her lover. Overwhelmed with grief, Norita leaped from the mountain to join him in the afterlife. Out of compassion for Norita, Mother Nature transformed her hair into “a bridal veil of falling water” and then took Grey Eagle, who had escaped the elders, and “molded his massive frames into the mountain” so that he could watch over Norita forever. Multiple versions of this legend have circulated in the region for decades, and while the veracity of their origin is dubious, they all speak to the mystique and romantic character of Bridal Veil Falls&#039; dramatic vista.<br />\r\n\t<br />\r\nLegends are legends, but in 1977, mountaineer Jeff Lowe hosted an ice climbing seminar at the 607-foot double cataract waterfall. Scott Fischer, famous for his ascents without supplemental oxygen, was in attendance. Fischer broke his ice axe during his ascent, which left him “stranded on a pillar of ice at the height of a ten-story building.” Although he fell to an inevitable death, his friends were shocked to realize he had survived. According to climber Wes Krause, “Scott had reached the bottom of that waterfall at a high rate of speed and then slowed as the ice angled out until he launched off the ramp and out into the rocks.” Fischer sustained minimal wounds, but he continued climbing for nineteen years. In 1996, he perished in the Mount Everest disaster made famous by Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air, which was adapted into the 2015 film Everest, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Fischer.<br />\r\n\t<br />\r\nBridal Veil was also well known for its aerial tramway, built in 1961, which carried visitors to the Eagle’s Nest Lodge and Restaurant, perched on a cliff above the falls. Known as “The Sky Ride,” the Swiss-made tramway held the record for being the steepest in the world and was the only tramway to be constructed alongside a major U.S. highway, past a major waterfall, and with a river running directly below it. In the summer of 1993, more than 27,000 people rode the tramway to the Eagle’s Nest. The owner, David Grow, used the property as a “special-event venue for weddings, receptions, and class reunions.” The Eagle’s Nest endured several storms, but most of it was destroyed on New Year’s Day 1996 by an unusually powerful avalanche. Grow wanted to restore the Eagle’s Nest, but a July 2008 fire sealed its fate. Although the falls are beautiful, Bridal Veil’s history speaks of the heartaches, near-death experiences, and losses that it has witnessed.","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"Bridal Veil Falls is a gem of Provo Canyon Utah. Its legends remind visitors of tales of love and loss, reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet. Furthermore, its history is connected to the tallest mountain on earth, as well as a record-breaking aerial tramway that made even the most committed daredevils dizzy.","website":"","related_resources":["Arave, Lynn. “Back When a Switzerland-like Tram Thrill Ride Permeated Provo Canyon,” August 20, 2013.","Birkby, Robert. Mountain Madness: Scott Fischer, Mount Everest & a Life Lived on High. New York, NY: Kensington Publishing, 2008.","Daily Herald. “Herald Poll: Is Bridal Veil's Past its Future?” September 4, 2008.<br />","Daily Herald. “Looking for Steep Thrills.” September 13, 2006.<br />","Stryker, Ace. Daily Herald. “Bridal Veil Falls Tram Line Cut Down,” August 13, 2008.<br />","Jared Farmer, On Zion's Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the Ameircan Landscape (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008)."],"factoids":["Scott Fischer did not escape his near-death experience completely unscathed. As he fell, Fisher “flailed around, trying to jam his [secondary] ice tool into the waterfall to stop himself.” So doing, Fischer had embedded his tool through his own boot, between his Achilles tendon and his ankle bone. One witness was amazed that he “hit nothing but meat.”","In addition to the restaurant and lodge, the Eagle’s Nest complex also included a gift shop, a petting zoo, and a railroad caboose snack shop.","In February 2017, it was announced that the county would spend $1 million to demolish what remained of the Eagle’s Nest Lodge, as it is deemed an unstable structure that “could crumble at any time.”"],"files":{"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/995531031235d53a420b1535d4353e68.jpg":{"id":895,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"The Tramway Rising Above the Falls","description":"Note the unbelievably steep incline! | Hale, Steve. “Tramway to the Top of the Falls,” Ford Times (October, 1963). ","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/995531031235d53a420b1535d4353e68.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/7f55bd3add5bb9fa26cc984a4d430126.jpg":{"id":896,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"View from the Eagle’s Nest Lodge and Restaurant","description":"Hale, Steve. “Tramway to the Top of the Falls,” Ford Times (October, 1963). ","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/7f55bd3add5bb9fa26cc984a4d430126.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/852ddbd1663c2b9f6ed232c126ed7e33.jpg":{"id":897,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"Bridal Veil Falls","description":"A photograph taken where the falls meet the rocks. In colder winters, more of the falls are frozen as ice. Note the remnants of construction at the top of the falls, to the right and above where the water is flowing. Railing and what appears to be a building can be seen. | Photograph by author.","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/852ddbd1663c2b9f6ed232c126ed7e33.jpg"}}}