National Park After Dark

National Park After Dark

Hosted by two friends who share a passion for public lands and a fascination with what can go wrong there, each week hosts Danielle and Cassie explore the darker side of our National Parks. But it isn’t always chills and thrills. By sharing inspiring tales and their desire for protecting our planet’s wild places, they hope listeners will be inspired to take a walk into the wild and create meaningful adventures of their own.

Episodes

January 1, 2026 60 mins
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: @‌nationalparkafterdark
TikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark

Support the show by becom...
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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 s...
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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 invest...
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December 18, 2025 66 mins
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: @‌nationalparkafterdark
TikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark

Support the show by becoming ...
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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 Cana...
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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 ru...
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December 4, 2025 58 mins
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: @‌nationalparkafterdark
TikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark

Support the show by b...
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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.

Sources:


River Rescue Documentary


Frankl...
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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...
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November 20, 2025 84 mins
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: @‌nationalparkafterdark
TikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark

Support the show by becoming an Outside...
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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 ultimate...
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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 li...
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November 6, 2025 45 mins
Today’s stories include wilderness tripping, formative moments, interrupting crimes and protective spirits. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers!

For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodes

For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:

Instagram: @nationalparkafterdark
TikT...
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Topping every “America’s Most Haunted” list sits The Winchester Mystery House. It’s story has been told time and time again, but do we really know the truth of the woman behind its facade, and have we treated her legacy fairly? In today’s episode, we discuss the forgotten Winchester.

For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes

For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch ...
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We have a special Halloween episode for you this month to celebrate spooky season. We’ve decided to release what would have been a subscribers only episode :) 

This week we are joined by Patricia, better known as Patches, the creator of The Morbidly Curious Book Club. What began in 2021 as a small online space for readers to share dark and fascinating nonfiction has grown into a worldwide community of more than sixtee...
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Do you believe in goblins and fairies? Do you believe in their the magic? Well, the Fairy Minister Reverend Robert Kirk did. In 1691 he published "The Secret Commonwealth of Elves and Fairies", a book that described their habits, appearance, and secrets in detail. The following year, Reverend Kirk was found dead on Doon Hill, the alleged entrance to the realm of the fairies. Coincidence? You decide.

For a full list of...
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October 23, 2025 62 mins
Today’s stories include haunted government housing, mystery hair, almost animal attacks, breaking the (leash) law, family trauma bonding and bad shipwreck vibes. Outsiders Only bonus stories available for Patreon and Apple Subscribers!

For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodes

For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials a...
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October 20, 2025 5 mins
Power. Fame. Obsession. Betrayal. These are more than headlines. They are the forces behind some of the most unforgettable crimes in history. Crimes Of... is a weekly true crime anthology series, hosted by Sabrina Deana-Roga and Corinne Vien of Two Girls One Ghost, that explores a new theme each season, such as crimes of the paranormal, unsolved murders, mysterious disappearances, and more. 

For their first season, Sa...
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October 20, 2025 70 mins
Graveyards are often portrayed as eerie, haunted places. Today, they’re depicted as places of fear and sorrow, where the living rarely go. But historically, cemeteries were central to community life. Far from being hidden or feared, they were embraced as spaces for reflection, creativity, and leisure. They allowed for open religious expression, inspired art and literature, and helped shape landscape architecture. This week we ...
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Carved into the granite heart of the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore is one of America’s most recognizable (and controversial) monuments. Beneath the towering faces of four presidents lies a dark and often untold history of stolen land, massacres, and the erasure of Indigenous people who have called this place sacred for generations. From sculptor Gutzon Borglum’s troubling past to the Lakota’s ongoing fight for recognition throug...
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