The Nations 10 Most Deadly National Parks.

    • While many would assume that the parks are considered deadly due to the wild animals that are sure to be in any of these parks that is actually not the case. It seems that human error is one of the biggest reasons people die in national parks.

    While taking in the surrounding and enjoying a moment in a beautiful lookout spot they seem to be unaware of their surroundings and this is when things take a turn for the worst.

    In June, a 23-year-old Portland man walked away from a boardwalk and slipped and fell into the boiling, acidic spring in the Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone and never emerged. In July, a 35-year-old Florida woman fell to her death from a Grand Canyon trail when posting a photo from Ooh Aah Point. In August, a 64-year-old Atlanta woman died after she was hit by a car while looking at a snake on a Great Smoky road.

    Since the Parks Service doesn’t offer updated aggregated records on the official number of fatalities, we pulled records from January 2006 to September 2016 on where, how, and why park visitors are dying. Here’s what we found.

    Lake Mead National Recreation Area
    Established: 1964
    Size: 1.5 million acres
    Visitors: 7.2 million annually
    Deaths: 254    national parks
    Lake Mead itself can present the most danger to visitors—even more so than desert high temperatures.   Photo:Chrissy Cottrell/Flickr

     

    Yosemite National Park
    Established: 1890
    Size: 747,956 acres
    Visitors: 5 million annually
    Deaths: 150

    national parks
    Cathedral Rocks, near El Capitan—scene of some of the first serious rock climbing in the Sierra's.   Photo:Keith Burgie/Flickr
    Grand Canyon National Park
    Established: 1919
    Size: 1.2 million acres
    Visitors: 5.5 million annually
    Deaths: 130
    national parks
    Though the Grand Canyon is familiar, it's still not the walk in the park it seems.   Photo:screaming_monkey/Flickr

    Yellowstone National Park
    Established: 1872
    Size: 2.2 million acres
    Visitors: 5.969 million annually (Should we round to 6M?)
    Deaths: 93

    national parks
    The water is lava—no, seriously, stay on the bridge.   Photo: Courtesy Yellowstone 
    Golden Gate National Recreation Area
    Established: 1972
    Size: 82,000 acres
    Visitors: 15.6 million annually
    Deaths: 85
    national parks
    Surfing is not recommended in the Golden Gate area.   Photo:Franco Folini/Flickr

    Next Page »



    Pages: 1 2 3

    9 Comments

    2. Daniel Norling said:

      Let’s take selfies as we are just inches from falling into this pool of acid!

      Reply
    4. Ann Waters said:

      the article should have said how the people died in the parks…

      Reply
    7. John Esposito said:

      National Parks are very dangerous period. US Government likes to keep a lid on the rapes, robberies and murders occurring there. I am a former NPS Law Enforcement Supervisor and it looks like they finally are disclosing some issues.

      Reply

    *

    *

    Top