Scary Stories of People Who Got Lost in National Parks
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What does the host say about why listeners should tune in?
Most people who enter a national park expect to remember the views. The people in tonight's stories remember the moment they realized they no longer knew where they were. Before we begin, if you like scary stories, subscribe or follow for three new episodes every week. And if you like listening for sleep or on the go, check out Just Creepy on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoy the episode, please consider leaving a review or rating. It really helps the show. Thank you. So now let's turn off the lights, get comfortable, and get into these scary stories of people who got lost in national parks.
My name is Graham, and during the summer of 2017, I worked on a seasonal backcountry trail crew in Yellowstone National Park. I've changed the names of everyone else involved. I still know people who work for the Park Service, and a few of them were involved in what happened. I don't want this turning into an argument about who followed procedure and who didn't. There was an investigation after I was found. Nobody was fired. And the report blamed bad weather, difficult terrain, and a series of poor decisions on my part. That's a fair explanation for most of it. It doesn't explain the man in the gray shirt. I was 25 that summer. I'd finished a forestry degree in Colorado and had spent two seasons doing conservation work on public land.
Yellowstone was the job I'd wanted most. The pay wasn't impressive, the employee housing was cramped, and the work left my hands split around the nails. None of that bothered me. For four months, I got paid to live in places that most visitors only saw from a road turnout. Our crew maintained backcountry trails in the southern half of the park. We cleared fallen timber, repaired drainage channels, replaced short sections. of boardwalk, cut brush, and rebuilt tread after storms. Much of the work was done with hand tools. We carried pilaskies, shovels, rock bars, cross-cut saws, and more food than anyone wanted on their back. When a job was far from a road, horses and mules carried the heavier gear to a temporary camp.
We called those trips hitches. A hitch could last anywhere from five to nine days. People hear that I worked in Yellowstone and assume I must have been fearless in the woods. I wasn't. I was comfortable there because I understood the risks. I knew how quickly the temperature could fall, how to store food. In bear country, and how long wet clothing could remain harmless before it became dangerous. I could read a topographic map and hold a compass bearing through thick timber. I also knew that confidence caused trouble when it replaced caution. The incident happened near the end of August, during our final long hitch of the season. Six of us had packed into the southeast part of the park, beyond the developed areas around Yellowstone.
Lake. I won't name the exact drainage. The site wasn't on any tourist route, and I was asked not to identify it after the rescue. It was several miles from the nearest regularly traveled trail, and much farther from a paved road.
How does the narrator introduce his back‑country job and the events that led to getting lost?
Our spike camp sat on a dry bench above a cold creek. We had three small tents, a cooking area well away from where we slept, and a line strung between. Two trees for food. The animals had been led back out after the first day, so everything that remained had to leave on our backs. Our assignment was to repair a section of trail damaged by spring runoff and summer storms. Water had cut channels through the tread, and several hundred feet had turned into deep mud. We spent the first four days hauling rock, digging drains, and laying sections of peel. Log, across the worst ground. Our supervisor was a woman named Megan Beck. Megan had worked seasonal jobs in Western Parks for almost a decade and knew that part of Yellowstone better than anyone on the crew.
She was calm, practical, and strict about turnaround times. If she told you to return by 3, she meant you should be walking into camp at 2.50, not beginning the trip back at 3. The co worker with me that day was Ryan Reed. Ryan was a year younger than I was, and on his first Yellowstone season, but he'd done trail work in Montana.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What does the host say about why listeners should tune in?
0:15–3:36
2
How does the narrator introduce his back‑country job and the events that led to getting lost?
3:36–14:13
3
What mysterious encounter does he have with the man in the gray shirt?
14:13–31:24
4
How does the night in the shelter unfold and what does he experience?
31:24–1:01:09
5
What did the narrator find at the hidden camp and how did the armed man confront him?
1:01:09–1:15:02
6
How did the chase through mangroves, water channels, and sawgrass play out?
1:15:02–1:29:15
7
How did the storm, improvised shelter, and limited water supplies impact survival?
1:29:15–1:45:47
8
What happened during the rescue, investigation, and what lessons did the narrator learn?
1:45:47–1:56:16
Speakers
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