National Park After Dark

In the mid-2000s, hikers began disappearing from national forests across the southeastern United States, with their bodies later found in remote areas of the parks. When investigators compared timelines and locations, a pattern emerged. The disappearances were connected by a man who moved easily through public land, blending into trail culture and exploiting the trust shared between strangers in the outdoors. When a woman vanishes, investigators race against time to find her and the identity of the perpetrator to stop further killings.Sources:  Wild Crime: Blood Mountain https://www.detpress.com/abcnews/shows/wild-crime/episodes People.com | C...

Today’s stories include almost abductions, cemetery shenanigans, shared trauma and men saving (and ruining) the day. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers!For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full e...

Take a stroll down memory lane as we reflect on the last five years of NPAD. Come laugh with us (and at us) while we look back on some of the memorable moments that brought us to where we are today.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full...

Ever since September of 1992, when Chris McCandless was found deceased inside a bus in remote Alaska, the story of why he chose to walk into wilderness has captivated the world. Chris has been idolized, questioned, criticized and immortalized by strangers for decades. Books have been written and movies have been made to share his fascinating story, but were incomplete in their tellings. In 2014, Carine, Chris’s sister published her own version of the story we have come to know as Into the Wild. In her heartbreaking memoir, the world gets a view into their world, and a chance to un...

Valley of Shadows is a new true crime podcast that digs into a nearly 30-year old secret buried in the California desert. On June 11, 1998, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Jon Aujay set out for a run in California’s Devil’s Punchbowl park — and never came back. Aujay has yet to be found. The Sheriff’s Department rules Aujay’s disappearance a suicide, but friends, family, and fellow deputies insist the story doesn’t add up. Instead, they believe Aujay may have stumbled into the Mojave Desert’s criminal underworld — where outlaw biker gangs crank out methamphetamine and local cops operate...

Today’s stories include prank fails, questionable evidence, bear saviors, damned girls trips, and mountain flavored Disneyworlds. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers!For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full e...

In the previous episode, a catastrophic fall high on Siula Grande forced an impossible decision. With Joe badly injured and hanging in space, Simon cut the rope, believing his climbing partner was lost. Now, high in the Cordillera Huayhuash Reserve, both men must attempt to get off the mountain alive. Joe is alone with a shattered leg and no supplies. Simon is stranded high on the face with night closing in and no clear way down. Survival is no longer about the climb, but about whether either of them can endure what comes next.For a full...

High in the Cordillera Huayhuash Reserve of the Peruvian Andes, two British climbers attempt the first ascent of the West Face of Siula Grande. The mountain is remote, unforgiving, and lethal to mistakes. After reaching the summit, a catastrophic accident during the descent forces a decision that places survival and death on opposite ends of a single rope.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nati...

Today’s stories include pizza in Zion, getting stalked, mule saviors, mysterious trapezoids, and pooping lake water. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers!For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to the week’s partners!

Not many of us would accept a job that risked life and limb, but for a brief moment in time, young men did just that - just to carry the mail. It may have only been in operation for 18 months, but the legacy of the Pony Express has lasted generations. A 2,000 mile horseback ride from Missouri to California posed risks of all kinds, but with no telegraph wires or trains connecting the coasts, brave men and their trusty steeds stepped up and battled the elements, warring nations and each other to keep the nation connected.Banff Film Festival...

Fayetteville, West Virginia sits on the edge of the New River Gorge, a small Appalachian town now known as a gateway to one of America’s newest national parks. But on Christmas Eve in 1945, it became the setting for one of the most haunting unsolved mysteries in American history. After a house fire destroyed the home of George and Jennie Sodder, five of their children vanished without a trace, leaving behind conflicting investigations, reported sightings, unsettling clues, and a decades-long search for answers.For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the la...

Today’s stories include snubbing trail magic, spider inflicted injuries, railroad watchers and unexplained orbs. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers!For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to the week’s partners!Hollow Socks: F...

In July of 1917 a pioneering landscape painter paddled out onto Canoe Lake in Algonquin Provincial Park and never returned. His death was initially ruled an accident, but in the following decades peculiar “evidence” and claims from the locals raised a lot of questions. Theories began to arise that maybe it wasn’t an accident after all. Tom Thomson’s death may have happened nearly 100 years ago, but it remains one of Canada’s most enduring mysteries.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, m...

The Grand Canyon has always been a magnet for the bold, the reckless, and the people who look at a mile-deep chasm and think... yeah, I can take that. In this episode, we race through a century of jaw-dropping stunts, from a 1922 biplane pilot who somehow landed inside the park’s early boundaries to Nik Wallenda balancing across tribal land on a high-wire without a harness. Along the way we unravel how thrill-seekers dodged rules, rewrote them, or ignored them entirely in a quest to outdo nature itself. For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/ep...

Trail Tales 82 - Today’s stories include cemetery tales, childhood tubing trauma almost felonies and ghostly protectors. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers!For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to the week’s partners!Belle...

In November of 2024, 65 year-old Valdas Bieliauskas was on a rafting trip with a group of friends in the wilds of Tasmania when he did something we all have - he stumbled. But that trip landed him in an impossible situation. With his leg pinned between boulders in fast moving cold water, options were running out. A decision had to be made - a limb or his life.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com...

In honor of National Native American Heritage Month, we venture into Badlands National Park, where a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation left two FBI agents and an activist dead. Leonard Peltier, convicted on questionable evidence and finally released after 49 years, insists his only crime was “being an Indian.” This is a story of defiance, injustice, and the complex fight for Native lands and sovereignty.For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:<...

Today’s stories include rites of passage, veiled threats, small town legends, and mysterious melodies. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers!For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to the week’s partners!Nutrafol: Get $10...

In June of 1877, 800 people were faced with an impossible choice - leave their home or be forcibly removed from it. What resulted was a 126 day 1,500 mile journey across four states by a band of Nez Perce who were attempting to escape forced relocation. They were relentlessly and violently pursued by the U.S. Army, eluding and fighting them for months through mountain ranges and within Yellowstone National Park before ultimately being forced into a corner just 40 miles from Canada - and freedom.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the...

Truman Everts, a 54-year-old bureaucrat, joined the 1870 Washburn Expedition to explore Yellowstone. After becoming separated from the group, he lost his horse, food, gun, and blankets. Alone for 37 days, he endured brutal storms, frostbite, a scalded hip, and even a mountain lion. His dramatic survival captivated the nation and helped inspire the creation of Yellowstone as America’s first national park.For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @nationalparkafterdark<br...