13 American National Parks Where People Vanish Without a Trace

Every year, people walk into America's wildest national parks — and simply do not walk out. No trace. No answer. A car left at a trailhead, a pack found by a river, a child gone from a mountain meadow while the adults' backs were turned. Some are found years later, miles from where they should have been. Some are never found at all. This is a countdown through 13 U.S. national parks and one documented disappearance in each — from the redwood coast of California to the ridgelines of the Great Smoky Mountains — and the vast, indifferent terrain that swallowed them. ⛰️ THE COUNTDOWN (approximate times) 0:00 The Vanishings 1:48 No. 13 — Redwood National Park (Jeff Pierce, 2019) 13:30 No. 12 — Shenandoah National Park (James Cattley, 2022) 23:51 No. 11 — Mount Rainier National Park (the 1981 Ingraham icefall) 34:38 No. 10 — Denali National Park (the 1967 Wilcox expedition) 44:59 No. 9 — Glacier National Park (Yi-Jien Hwa, 2008) 56:41 No. 8 — Rocky Mountain National Park (Rudi Moder, 1983) 1:07:02 No. 7 — Olympic National Park (Jacob Gray, 2017) 1:19:38 No. 6 — Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Parks (Randy Morgenson, 1996) 1:30:53 No. 5 — North Cascades National Park (Alex Pisch, 2020) 1:42:08 No. 4 — Yellowstone National Park (Austin King, 2024) 1:53:50 No. 3 — Yosemite National Park (Stacy Arras, 1981) 2:05:58 No. 2 — Grand Teton National Park (Cian McLaughlin, 2021) 2:16:46 No. 1 — Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Dennis Martin, 1969) A note: every case in this film is real and documented, drawn from National Park Service records, search-and-rescue reports, and news accounts. Out of respect for the missing and their families — several of these cases are still open — this film avoids speculation, sensationalism, and any claim about causes that were never established. Where a disappearance remains unexplained, it is left unexplained. Some imagery is representative public-domain National Park Service and USGS photography of these parks and their backcountry, not always the exact location. If you have information on any open case, contact the National Park Service or the NPS Investigative Services Branch tip line. CREDITS & SOURCES • Images: U.S. National Park Service & USGS (public domain) + Wikimedia Commons (public-domain / Creative Commons). • Music & ambience: original synthesized score. Full image attribution is listed in the film's credits and the pinned comment. #NationalParks #MissingHikers #TrueStories #Documentary #Wilderness #Unexplained #NationalParkMysteries #NPS