A 34-year-old Grand Junction man was rescued Wednesday from a van teetering off a cliffside about 170 feet above a canyon floor.

Daniel J. Lyons drove his van off a road in the steep, red-rock canyons of Colorado National Monument, and the vehicle dropped, tumbled and rolled 120 feet before getting snagged on brush and a rock ledge.

"It's jaw-dropping," said Joan Anzelmo, park superintendent. "It got caught on an outcropping of rock; that's what saved his life."

About 50 rescue personnel including park rangers, Grand Junction firefighters, volunteer firefighters and Mesa County sheriff's deputies performed a technical extraction in the dark to rescue Lyons, Anzelmo said.

The incident began about 4:30 p.m. when Lyons called 911.