Travel blogger who warned against dangerous selfies dies 'taking cliff edge photo'

Couple found at bottom of sheer 800-foot drop by rangers in California's Yosemite National Park

Married couple Vishnu Viswanath and Meenakshi Moorthy were said to be 'travel obsessed' (Facebook)

A travel blogger who fell to her death alongside her husband while apparently taking selfies on a cliff edge had previously warned tourists against attempting to capture dangerous photographs.

Rangers at Yosemite National Park in California found the bodies of Vishnu Viswanath and Meenakshi Moorthy around 800 feet below Taft Point, where visitors can gaze over an unguarded cliff face.

Viswanath’s brother, Jishnu Viswanath, told reporters on Tuesday the pair had set up a tripod close to the sheer ledge shortly before they apparently fell.

Park visitors later saw the camera and alerted rangers, who found the Indian couple’s bodies using high-powered binoculars last Thursday.

Viswanath, 29, a software engineer who had recently moved to work in San Jose, and Meenakshi, 30, who had ambitions of becoming a full-time blogger, were said to be “travel obsessed”.

Moorthy wrote for a blog called “Holidays and HappilyEverAfters”, filled with photos of the couple at the Eiffel Tower, riding gondolas in Venice and exploring mountain ranges.

In an Instagram post, Moorthy had previously warned her readers of the dangers of attempting to take photographs in potentially life-threatening situations, sharing an image of herself perched on the edge of the Grand Canyon.

“A lot of us including yours truly is a fan of daredevilry attempts of standing at the edge of cliffs and skyscrapers, but did you know that wind gusts can be FATAL???” she wrote. “Is our life just worth one photo?”

Jamie Richards, a Yosemite National Park spokesman, told The San Francisco Chronicle that although investigations were still ongoing, the couple indeed appeared to have fallen from the cliff.

“We still do not know what caused them to fall,” he said. “We’re trying to understand what happened. We may never know, [but] from everything we see, this was a tragic fall.”

“Yosemite is a wild and scenic place. If you are not paying attention to your footing, it is very easy to have a slip and fall.

“Now, we don't know what happened in this case, but we urge hikers to stay on the trail.”

Additional reporting by AP