A Ranger Disappears In The Land Of Vortexes & The Paranormal - David Miller

This video covers the disappearance and search for David Barclay Miller in the Red Rock-Secret Mountain Wilderness in Arizona.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hey there, folks. In this video, I want to cover
a rather unique case. Unique in the sense that it's
quite rare for forest or park rangers to disappear in
the wilderness and never be found. And sure there are
a handful out there, and those stories are more frequently
told than that of David Barkley Miller. David was a

(00:39):
seasonal forest ranger working in Arizona. He was posted to
the Beaver Creek Ranger Station, located near Sedona and service
that general region along the Moga Yone Rim. This region
is probably one of the most beautiful in the entire country,
but its natural beauty also harbors an air of mystery.
The area surround Sedona is known for the paranormal UFO sightings,

(01:04):
vortexas ghosts, and a heavy feeling of spiritual energy. This
location is so inundated with such stories that they've literally
become a part of the economy. Tourists will come here
to experience the supposed anomalies, and for those interested, you
can even take a tour of popular hotspots. With so
much strangeness, one might wonder why more people haven't gone

(01:27):
missing in this otherworldly looking place. Indeed, David's case already
fits the bill in terms of the types of cases
I try to cover. He essentially vanished off the face
of the earth while visiting this region. But credit where
credit is due, I have to say that it was
really missing four one one and David Politis that drew
me to this incident. In his book The Devil's in

(01:50):
the Details, Politis mentions that he filed special paperwork to
have the reports on Miller's disappearance released. The holder of
the file, Yavapai County, refused his request outright. I suppose
it does make sense in cases like this that remain
open to this day, it is important to keep files
out of the public reach. But typically that should only

(02:11):
be true if foul play is suspected. The truth is
there was very little publicly available information about David Miller's disappearance.
So little, in fact, that I didn't see how anyone
could form a good theory as to what happened to him.
Either way, I saw it as a challenge that was
worth accepting now. To be honest, a few years back
I had the same result as Politis denial. But like

(02:34):
a mosquito that flies around your head and just won't
go away, I find that persistence is sometimes the key.
So we're very lucky to have a lot of previously
unknown information that I'll be presenting in this video. Frankly,
even I'm surprised it worked out. I wasn't sure they'd
ever release anything. So let's dive into the story of

(02:55):
Ranger David Barkley Miller. David Barkley Miller was a twenty

(03:18):
two year old man in the spring of nineteen ninety eight.
He was an adventurous soul who grew up in Bethesda, Maryland.
In his young life, he had already gone on many adventures,
from climbing Mount Rainier to traversing glaciers in Alaska. While
in school, he was always active in sports, be it
swimming or rugby. Oftentimes he was picked to be the

(03:39):
captain of such teams, exemplifying the qualities for leadership. His
parents were Barbara and Ira Miller, and he had two siblings,
an older sister and a younger brother. Both were disabled
at a young age by a rare bone disease that
seemed to have passed David by completely. His sister passed
away in nineteen eighty four. Seeing how this affected and

(04:00):
his family gave him a great gift for empathy and
an appreciation for the gift of life. The outlet for
his passions seemed to always be the outdoors, climbing, hiking, kayaking, swimming.
He was drawn to it all. After high school, he
attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where he majored in religion.
For his honors thesis, he wrote about the sun dance

(04:21):
of the Lakota Sioux tribe. For his junior year, he
moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to continue his study of
Native American religions. It was no surprise to anyone that
knew him that his dream job was to become a
US Forest ranger. This stream came true in April of
nineteen ninety eight, when the Forest Service in Arizona called
to inform him that he had been hired to work

(04:43):
as a wilderness ranger in the Coconino National Forest. His
supervisors described him as the type of person who was
always eager, energetic, and willing to go anywhere and do anything.
During his first month with the Forest Service, David worked
long hours, but he no doubt enjoyed every minute of it.
The area within which he roamed was known for its

(05:05):
towering red sandstone cliff faces contrasted with green foliage and cactuses.
Included in that is the more than forty seven thousand
acres that make up the Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness,
filled with red sandstone windows, arches, pinnacles, and canyons. Deep
within the region, there can sometimes be petroglyphs and long

(05:28):
abandoned cliff dwellings created by the native people's many hundreds
of years ago. To some, this area is a magical place. Literally,
strange stories of vortexes and odd happenings continued to be
told of this unique piece of terrain, and so people
have long been drawn to it, and David was no different.

(05:48):
He had a great desire to hike and explore the
vast territory to which he felt connected. In the month
of May, David had three scheduled days off May nineteenth, twentieth,
and the twenty first. He wanted to use that time
for a multi day backpacking and exploration trip to the
Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness. We know virtually nothing of

(06:09):
the gear he took or what amount of food, water,
or supplies he had. Most all we know is that
he left a note in his crew quarters at the
Beaver Creek Ranger Station. It stated that he was planning
to be gone for two nights on a hike in
the Red Rock Wilderness. The note did not state a
specific location within the wilderness, which is unfortunate given the

(06:30):
vastness of the region. The exact wording of the note
is a bit odd, but here it is gone for
two nights in RRSM Wilderness, will return with Wally Mala Dave. Afterwards,
David grabbed his pack, left the Ranger station and got
into his green Subaru outback to begin his drive. The

(06:52):
last person to actually see David was one of his
co workers, David Metz. The two passed each other on
State Route one seventy years nine, while David Miller was
heading to Sedona and David Metz was heading to the
Beaver Creek Ranger Station to start his shift. Both David
Metz and David Miller were stationed and living at that
ranger station at the time. From there, essentially all we

(07:15):
know is that David Miller made it to the Bear
Sign trailhead, parked, and left for locations unknown inside the
wilderness area. May the twentieth and the twenty first came
and went, but David did not return to his seven
am shift at the Beaver Creek Ranger Station. David's supervisor,
Terry Adams, became concerned that something was wrong. All he

(07:38):
knew was the information that David left in his note
that he would be gone for two days in the
Red Rock Wilderness. Initially, mister Adams decided to send some
of his other rangers and staff to head out and
check trailhead parking areas. Presumably after some time, these rangers
discovered David superu at the Bear Sign Trailhead, which also

(07:59):
serves as the trail had for a location known as
Voltee Arch. The trailhead is located at the end of
a very long and rough forest road. When the rangers
reported back to Supervisor Adams, he realized that they might
have a serious situation on their hands and decided to
get the sheriff involved. On Friday, May twenty second, the
Yavapai County Sheriff's Office received a report from Wilderness Supervisor

(08:23):
Terry Adams. Mister Adams stated that one of his seasonal rangers,
David Miller, had failed to report for work at the
Beaver Creek Ranger Station. Mister Adams relayed all of the
information that he had learned up until that point, including
the discovery of David's vehicle at the Bear Sign trailhead.
The one item that the sheriff had a question about,

(08:43):
and undoubtedly many viewers do too, was the note. Supervisor
Adams was asked if he knew what David meant by
writing Wally Mala in his note, but mister Adams had
no idea what the words indicated. Besides that, the sheriff
tried to learn as much as possible about David's hiking experience,
gear and clothing. It was well known amongst his colleagues

(09:06):
that David was experienced in hiking, climbing, and outdoorsmanship. The gear, however,
was another story. The Ranger station staff initially believed that
he had taken a blue dome tent with him, but
they found the tent in the crew quarters. Additionally, David
left while all the other residents of the station were away,
so nobody had actually seen what he was wearing or

(09:27):
what gear he actually took. There was but one more
clue that David left behind regarding his whereabouts and intentions.
The trailhead register for the Voltee arch trail was signed
by David when he arrived in the parking lot. It
showed that he did indeed arrive on Tuesday, May nineteenth,
nineteen ninety eight, but he also added a note that

(09:49):
read three day tour de Ridge. This added a bit
of information, but much like the previous wally Mala, it
meant very little to the authorities bent on finding him.
The Red Rock Wilderness is full of ridges, and the
note was not specific enough to mention a single one.
It might have meant something specific to David, but to

(10:10):
searchers it was all but worthless. The responding Sheriff's deputy,
being very familiar with the canyons of the Red Rock Wilderness,
knew that David needed to be found as soon as possible.
He called in the help of several mounted units to
help run the trails in the area in hopes of
a quick resolution. The first mounted unit to arrive was
sent out to Voltee Arch and beyond through Sterling Canyon.

(10:34):
They found nothing of interest. An additional aerial unit was
brought in to conduct a search of the canyons and
exposed cliff faces, but they were unable to see anything
unusual against the backdrop of the bright red sandstone. Later
that evening, the Chino Valley Mounted Sheriff's Posse and Verde
Search and Rescue arrived and decided to camp overnight in

(10:55):
the area with plans to ride out the next morning,
May twenty third, regardless without any leads on where David
actually went. They were searching for the proverbial needle in
the haystack. Because they lacked any specific search direction, most
operations were suspended as the sun fell behind the hills.
The one exception was the Coconino County Jeep Posse, who

(11:18):
were assigned to patrol along the forest roads atop the
Moggione Rim. The hope was that they might make contact
with any pedestrians in the region, or perhaps even David
Miller himself. Unfortunately, the jeep Posse made no discoveries during
the night. On Saturday, May twenty third, there was no
choice but to start searching all of the trails in

(11:39):
the region one by one. They began by searching Bear
Sign Canyon, Secret Canyon, and Brin's Mesa trails using mounted
search parties. Full ty Arch Trail was again searched by
additional mounted members. The searching and then researching of trails
and regions can be especially important in a situation like this.

(12:00):
Suppose for a minute that David Miller had hurt his
leg or something which prevented him from moving quickly. Suppose
this happened when he was hiking off trail somewhere. The
only thing David could do at that point would be
to wait or attempt to limp and crawl back to
the trail. So if the individual you are searching for
is mobile, and you have to assume they are, then

(12:21):
they could make it to that trail at any point
during the search. That's why they don't just search one
area and call it good. If they did, then the
lost individual could arrive there the next day and need help,
but no one would come because the area had already
been ruled out. This can make searches particularly exhausting, but
it's also necessary. Moving on, a search and rescue team

(12:42):
from Coconino County arrived in the area with orders to
search the region surrounding Voltee Arch. This would be off
trail work. As it became increasingly more apparent that David
Miller likely traveled off trail somewhere in the Red Rock Wilderness,
the volty Arch trail was singled out for a specific
reason as well. Not only is it a popular route,

(13:04):
but David decided to sign the register for that trail,
making it the only clue searchers had with regard to
his direction of travel. If David did take the Volty
Arch trail, then he would have headed east after arriving
at the arch. You can either turn back around or
continue following the trail all the way to its conclusion
out to State Route eighty nine to a If you

(13:26):
do that, then you have to climb and drop down
from Chieftain's Ridge, which is a few hundred feet tall.
In determining David's path of travel, the search party attempted
to decipher the note he left in the trail register.
They believed that toured a Ridge indicated that David might
have taken an eastward route to Volty Arch and then

(13:46):
gone around to the northwest, coming back to bear Sign
Canyon and attempting to get back to his vehicle. This
meant that the entire search area was roughly sixteen square miles.
It also meant that they believed David went off trail
somewhere around Voltie Arch and then began making his way
deep into the steep canyons and ridge lands in this location,

(14:08):
something only a very experienced hiker should ever even think
to attempt. Meanwhile, mounted units continued to travel deeper into
Bear Sign and Secret canyons. Eventually they were forced to
turn back due to fallen trees and rock slides in
the area. This unit was redirected to the brins Mesa
Trail in order to eliminate any possibility that David had

(14:30):
gone south from volty Arch. However, nothing was found in
this region either. Afterwards, the mounted unit was released from
further operations. Other than that, aerial searches of the cliff
faces and canyons continued, but the results were the same
as everyone else. When Sunday May twenty fourth rolled around,
search coordinators were running out of new ideas and new

(14:53):
places to search. They certainly hadn't covered every foot of
ground in the designated search area, but they had covered
pretty much all the accessible area. This is the problem
with steep ridges and canyon lands. Many areas were deemed inaccessible.
Without knowing what kind of equipment David brought or what
his intentions were, it was difficult to know what areas

(15:14):
he could feasibly reach on his own. Dog teams were
brought in on this day in hopes that they could
pick up david scent and help focus the search effort.
They once again searched Bear Sign Canyon, Secret Canyon, and
Sterling Pass, but the sheriff reports indicate that there were
no positive hits from the dog teams. Afterwards, they moved

(15:34):
on to Lost Wilson Mountain and the surrounding trails, hoping
they might find something out there. Still, no signs of
David were discovered and no clues were developed. All operations
were suspended by dark On Monday, May twenty fifth. The
search continued with the use of dog teams and ground personnel. Again,
the focus was on the area surrounding Voltee Arch. This

(15:58):
day brought what appeared to be the first in the case.
A backcountry team discovered some tracks leading up into a
side canyon that split off from Bear Sign Canyon. This
region is known as Narrow Canyon. The tracks were made
using a vibrum type soul pattern and no return tracks
were seen. Searchers followed the lead using a dog team

(16:18):
until they came to a dry waterfall, which they were
able to negotiate around, but the dog and handler had
to return to base camp due to fatigue. The rest
of the ground personnel continued up Narrow Canyon up to
a second waterfall, but were recalled due to the late
hour and darkness. On Tuesday, May twenty sixth, the focus
was on returning to the spot in Narrow Canyon where

(16:41):
searchers turned around the day before. Given that the tracks
were the only lead in the case so far, the
search coordinator went with the ground team to continue up
the canyon. They followed the trackway until it was indiscernible
and essentially disappeared. In the upper reaches of the canyon,
they located a sand trap which was large and located
in such a spot that if someone had passed through there,

(17:04):
it should have left obvious tracks, Yet no human or
animal tracks were present at the time. Meanwhile, ground search
teams continued to scour Volty Arch, Wilson Mountain, and the
drainages leading up and out of Oak Canyon. The Sedona Westerners,
a hiking club that knows the area well and hiked
it three times a week, offered their assistance in searching

(17:26):
these areas. Nothing was found. At the end of the day,
the decision was made to suspend all search operations due
to the lack of signs and clues. Authorities searched virtually
every reasonable location there was in the area. The only
thing that seemed to be left was the possibility that
David used his hiking and climbing skills to get to
a location in the wilderness that nobody really travels to. Ultimately,

(17:51):
this is the problem with leaving a note to say
where you're going, but not being specific. This Red Rock
Wilderness area is pretty well contained by the out lying
cliffs and ridges, but searching this area aimlessly is difficult.
Beyond measure, it's clear that the coordinators needed something more
to go on, and, as is typical in these situations,

(18:11):
after the search concluded, investigators tried to dig deeper into
David's life and interests in order to better understand where
he might have gone. On May thirty first, an employee
of a bookstore in Sedona called The Worm contacted the
Yavapai Sheriff's office. Her name was Gwen, and she wanted
to report an interaction she had with David Miller in

(18:31):
the days leading up to his disappearance. Gwen said that
she knew David a little bit, and yet he had
come into her bookstore in either May eleventh or May eighteen.
He had purchased some topographical maps for the Wilson Mountain
and Looy Butte Sycamore Canyon area. One of those maps
was of the territory his vehicle was found in. According

(18:51):
to Gwen, David indicated he was interested in hiking those areas,
and so he sat on the floor of the bookstore
and studied the maps intently. During the two hours he
was there, Both he and Gwen talked about wildlife in
those areas. Later, David would inform her that he had
three days off coming up and he wanted to do
a hike from Sedona to Sycamore Canyon. Gwen informed him

(19:14):
that a hike like that would take longer than just
three days. The two then discussed a shorter hike around
Wilson Mountain and down to Highway eighty nine A with
a return to Sedona. Gwen stated that she thought David's
path of travel would have taken him around the backside
of Wilson Mountain. A deputy asked Gwen why she had

(19:35):
waited until after the search to report this information, and
she said that she did not normally watch or listen
to the news, and that a coworker had informed her
that David Miller was missing and the subject of a
search and rescue in the Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness.
On June twenty third, a deputy contacted one of David's
co workers, Hayden Davis. The goal was simply to get

(19:57):
to know David in his habits a little bit better,
hopes that it might give them some inkling as to
where he would go in the Red Rock Wilderness. Hayden
told the deputy that he had only known David for
about a month. He said that David had a serious
interest in Native American religion. Hayden also said that he
had been in touch with some of David's friends from
back east. They told him that David had been exposed

(20:20):
to Native American religious practices while studying in Albuquerque the
year prior. Hayden was convinced that David's intentions were simply
to hike and camp during his days off. This was
based on prior conversations the two had, and also on
the equipment that David had taken from his room. He
said that David seemed happy with his position in the forest, service,

(20:41):
and that he was always eager to take on more responsibilities.
David never indicated that he had a desire to leave
the area. Hayden mentioned that David was in what appears
to be a romantic relationship with a woman named Jenna,
who lived and worked in Spain as an educator, and finally,
Hayden was a to solve one mystery. He said that

(21:02):
the wally malla written on David's note was a reference
to a private joke between the two and referred to
what they called Native American toilet paper, or a plant
whose leaves could be used as toilet paper. Hayden assured
the deputy that the words held no hidden meanings or
refer to anything else. The next day, on June twenty fourth,

(21:24):
a deputy contacted David's mother, Barbara Ann Miller. The deputy
made it clear that his interest in the case was
in determining if there was any indication or evidence that
David did not remain in the location he was supposed
to be hiking in. Barbara had access to David's bank
accounts and told the deputy that nobody had touched his
funds since the disappearance. At the time, David had seventeen

(21:48):
hundred dollars in his account. Barbara had the bank flagged
the account so that if it were ever used, it
would create an alert. She said that David's girlfriend, Jenna,
had returned to the United States after learning of disappearance
and was in Boston, Massachusetts. Apparently, Jenna had planned on
getting a teaching position in Arizona to be close to David,

(22:08):
since he told her he wanted to stay with the
Forest Service long term. Barbara was also aware of David's
interaction with the bookstore owner, Gwen. She said that one
of David's colleagues in the Forest Service went to the
worm to speak with Gwen about her interaction with David
on the day that he bought the maps. While there,
he did learn a tidbit of new information. Apparently, David

(22:30):
told her that if his trip ran later than he expected,
he may try to exit onto a roadway and hitchhike
back to his vehicle. This information strongly reinforces the idea
that David's path of travel took him towards Volte Arch,
Sterling Pass and the Wilson Mountain areas, because all you
need to do is head east and you'll hit a
well traveled highway. On June thirtieth, a deputy was finally

(22:53):
able to get a hold of Jenna, David's girlfriend. She
said that the last letter she had received from David
had been post postmarked on the date of his hiking trip.
In the letter, he made no reference to going hiking
and never mentioned any specific places in that area that
he enjoyed hiking to in the past. She knew David
to be heavily involved in the study of Native American

(23:14):
religion and that he would sometimes take part in warship practices.
When asked, Jenna was not aware of any instances of
David using hallucinogens like peyote or mushrooms to enhance his
warship experience, nor was she aware of any place David
might have gone if he didn't go to his intended location.
She said that David had every intention of staying in Arizona,

(23:37):
and in fact moved to the state to be nearer
to other Native American religious practitioners. Following up on this lead,
a deputy contacted one of David's mentors, a man named Frank.
Frank said that he had been David's spiritual mentor back
when he was studying Native American religion. He said that
David accompanied him to a sun dance on the Pine

(23:59):
Ridge and Rosebud Indian reservations in South Dakota the year prior.
Frank did not know of any places of warship that
David might go to in the Red Rock Wilderness. He
also did not know David to perform his ceremonies alone,
and both he and David's mother had cautioned him against
going into wilderness areas alone. After all that, the investigation

(24:20):
into David's whereabouts petered out. All that was left was
to wait for tips and sightings. In two thousand and eight,
it came to the attention of Yavapai County that a
body was found in Maricopa County back in nineteen ninety
nine that held some similarities to David Barkley Miller, including
an army green backpack with the name Barkley printed on

(24:41):
it in black marker, but after examination it would be
determined to not belong to David. As time went on,
there was the occasional sighting of David. Once a woman
called authority saying that she had seen a person who
looked similar to David Miller. Riding a mountain bike and
carrying a duffel bag with the name bar Barkley written
on it. There was simply not enough information to pursue

(25:03):
an investigation on the sighting. In another instance, a man
came forward suggesting that David's disappearance might be due to
a paramilitary organization that frequents the Red Rock Wilderness. The
sheriff had to inform him that there was no evidence
to support the existence of such a thing because tips
had come in that attached David to sightings and John

(25:24):
does using the name Barkley written on items. Deputies tried
to find out if David ever marked any of his
stuff just using his middle name Barkley. They called a
good friend of David's and asked him, but the friend
wasn't sure how David marked his personal items. This friend
did provide some additional insight into his personality, however. He

(25:45):
said that David would hike off trail and not tell
anyone where he was going. He described David as a
loaner and stated that David would get lost while hiking
and have to follow a creek to get back to base,
all things that just made him more difficult to find
now that he was missing. Deputies moved on to ask
David's mother, Barbara about the markings, and she said that

(26:06):
he would mark his stuff with either David Miller DM
or David. She had never seen him use as middle
name in such a fashion. Jumping forward to twenty fifteen,
David's case had gone completely cold, so Barbara Miller was
contacted about providing a DNA sample so that they may
have it on hand in the event that his body
has ever found. Barbara consented to the collection. It would

(26:30):
take another seven years before there was another update on
the case. On February first, twenty twenty two, the Yava
Paie County Sheriff received a report from a Sedona firefighter
that he had located an old campsite in Secret Canyon.
He and his wife had been hiking in that area
when they came across some old clothing and other items.
Being aware of David Miller's disappearance years earlier, they thought

(26:53):
this find might be of some significance in the case.
The firefighter led a responding deputy to the newly dis
governed area, where he presented a pair of gortex pants,
a hat, a north faced jacket, and numerous fragments of
material in netting. There was also a small zipper pouch
on the ground that contained a tube of Lamasill foot cream.

(27:14):
The surrounding area was searched and many small items and
fragments were collected. The Onseen deputy researched the north Face
pants and jacket and learned that they were most likely
made for the nineteen ninety seven nineteen ninety eight season,
which coincided with David's disappearance. Yavapai deputies went out into
the wilderness with forty two members of the ver day

(27:36):
Tsar volunteers on February thirteenth and the twenty seventh to
conduct ground searches. They also put drones into the air
so they could view areas that appeared otherwise difficult to
get to. After these two searches, nothing was found that
could positively link the campsite to David Miller. In total,
they spent three hundred and thirty three hours searching this

(27:57):
new area of interest. On March thirteenth, a team of
ground searchers with drones returned to the campsite location and
took over one thousand photos from the air. Once they
were analyzed, they thought they spotted a possible skull and ribcage,
but when ground searchers went to that location, it turned
out to be a root ball. Barbara Miller was called

(28:17):
and informed of the find, which got her hopes up
that there might be a break in the case. She
was especially excited because it was initially reported that they
had found a tube of lamosil cream, which her son used.
They informed Barbara that the goal was to find a
way to get the campsite items DNA tested. Deputies cautioned
that such tests could only prove that David Miller was

(28:39):
at the campsite at some point, but provide no real
useful information as to what happened to him or where
he currently was. In the end, Barbara Miller had a
private lab swabed the items for DNA because the Arizona
Department of Public Safety would only do DNA tests in
cases of suspected homicide. Before doing the tests, a deputy

(29:00):
had to go out and retrieve DNA samples from the
firefighter who found the campsite along with his wife who
was with him. They both had touched the items, so
their DNA needed to be compared and eliminated during any analysis.
Deputies also collected DNA from Barbara for a second time.
It's unclear why, but they may have lost the swab
from seven years prior. It wasn't until March of twenty

(29:23):
twenty three that DNA results came back for the swabbed items.
The hat yielded no DNA and there was partial mail
DNA on the pants, but the analysis showed that this
individual was not related to Barbara Miller. Beyond that the
supposed tube of lamasill actually turned out to be some
other type of unnamed cream. Either way, it was dusted

(29:45):
for fingerprints and none were found, so in the end,
nothing tied the campsite discovery to David Miller. Once again,
David's case went cold, and there have been no new updates.
Because of the mysteries surrounding this case and also the
tempting beauty of the wilderness area in general, I knew
that this was a place I should visit, not only

(30:06):
to get a better understanding of the terrain, but also
to see this beautiful region for myself. In the summer
of twenty twenty four, I traveled to Flagstaff, Arizona, before
making my way down to Sedona, and absolutely gorgeous, if
not a little tourist y type of town. From there,
you can enter the wilderness area a few ways. I
knew that the type of terrain could vary drastically depending

(30:28):
on where you go, so I wanted to come at
this from a few angles. Much like the searchers that
tried their best, I had no specific trail or area
to shoot for. We simply don't know much about where
David went and what he intended to do. We only
know general areas that he told a bookstore owner that
he wanted to see. My first incursion was from the south.

(30:50):
This part of the wilderness area is much more akin
to a desert than others. Sand cactuses and the beating sun.

Speaker 2 (31:03):
Everything, no thing, everything thing with things.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
I think to see.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Anything I think?

Speaker 3 (31:42):
He all right, Well, we're here in the Red Rock

(32:08):
Secret Mountain Wilderness, and it certainly lives up to the name.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
This area is surrounded with beautiful red rock everywhere. The
canyons in and around Sedona are amazing. It's incredibly hot today,
over one hundred degrees. Hopefully my camera won't melt, but
because of that, I'm gonna be spending a limited amount
of time out here. I really just wanted to come

(32:33):
and see the area. The problem with this case, that
David Miller case, is that he came to this area
and he didn't really give any specifics on where he went.
He was very vague in his notes, and so this
whole area was kind of within the search zone, specifically
the volti Arch trail. But then again, they looked down

(32:56):
there many times and they didn't find anything. So I
wanted to come out here and just have a look
at the area, see how easy it would be to
get lost. To remember, this man was a ranger, he
was experienced, and he had some knowledge of this area.
So let's walk down the trails here a bit and
just get a feel for the place. Well, it is

(33:38):
just embarrassingly hot out such a cool change of pace.
You know, this is not my native habitat the desert,
extreme heat, but I do like it. You know, it's
a little funny to have to dodge the prickly pair
of cactuses everywhere, but you know, it's a good change
of pace for the channel, a little bit to get

(34:00):
some of the Southwest disappearances in and a little change
in terrain as it were. You know, I'm kind of
prancing around from shade to shade as best I can,
because it is it's burning here, but it is Arizona,
so that makes sense. Everywhere I look, the grounds, Red

(34:20):
the Rocks, Red Red Rock, Secret Mountain Wilderness makes sense.
I think when David was here, it would have been
less hot, and it seems like it would be easy
to get lost here, to be quite frank with you,
because sometimes the trails don't seem super defined. But we

(34:43):
don't really know what happened to him or where he went,
so it's difficult to say. Obviously, he didn't intend to
be lost, at least according to everyone who knew him.
He was just coming out here for a two day hike,
and that was over twenty five years ago and he
still hasn't been found. One thing that's interest about that, too,
is that it seems like a really popular area just

(35:05):
coming in here. I mean, maybe this is just because
the time of the year, but it's difficult even finding
a place to park anywhere around this area because so
many people were trying to get into parking spots anywhere
they could so they'd get near the creeks and waters
that are in this wilderness, presumably to cool off because
it's incredibly hot. But I've actually never seen a wilderness

(35:28):
area as busy as it is right now in July.
So kind of crazy that no one has ever stumbled
upon his body. It kind of makes you think, wherever
he is, he must have gotten off track or wandered
off somewhere where he just can't be found, which would
make sense given the amount of time that's passed. One

(36:04):
theory that's kind of been proposed about this case, I
think is that David maybe it came out here for
some sort of I don't know, spiritual mission. It was
said by a lot of his friends that he was
really into Native American religion, and he studied it and
was completely into it. He participated in ceremonies, all kinds

(36:27):
of things, and this area in and around Sedonah is
certainly known as a spiritual kind of place. You know,
people talk about four Texas and stuff. You're going to
the town of Sedona. There's all kinds of woo woo
shops with crystals and everything. So there's a lot of
that spirituality that just surrounds this area. And I think

(36:47):
some people thought he might have gone out on some
kind of vision quest or who knows what. He was
never known to use hallucinogens or drugs really in that sense,
so I don't know if that had anything to do
with it, but some people I think he might have
just wandered out on some kind of vision quest and
perished as a result. It's kind of possible because if

(37:09):
you get lost out here, the heat's going to kill you.
I mean, it's killing me right now, and as I've
probably already said, it's melting the camera a little bit.
When David was kind of scouting for his hike out here,
he stopped by a map shop and spoke with a
woman and he said something to the effect of if

(37:31):
he needed to, he would go off trail and just
walk straight back to a road and hitchhike something to
that effect, which kind of gave the indication that he
was willing to go off trail and I don't know,
make his own way out of here, which again is
kind of dangerous and not very smart, and that could
have been what did him in. So there's a few

(37:53):
factors that kind of contribute to it. The point is
is that he is kind of a guy who seems
to be okay with going off trail, he didn't have
a GPS. This was nineteen ninety eight. Obviously he had
or at least looked at maps before coming out here,
But still, that doesn't mean you really know where you
are and where you're going if you head off trail.

(38:15):
And again, the trails here are kind of iffy. I mean,
I have a GPS, so I'm always able to kind
of stay on track, but I constantly am seeing things
that I think look like trails, but maybe they're not.
I don't know. It's the desert, so it's kind of
kind of hard to tell sometimes. But yeah, so there's
a few options in terms of what could have happened here.

(38:37):
Did he come out here on a vision quest? Did
you just go on a hike for two days and
then when he was heading back he decided to go
off trail and try and make for one of the
highways and just got completely lost, maybe fell and died somewhere.
It's completely possible. Okay, so I already did a little

(39:40):
more off trail hiking than I even would have wanted to.
But it's getting awfully hot out here, and I'm gonna
be heading out soon. I think. One of the main
takeaways of this case is probably the fact that he
didn't really tell anyone where he was going. We knew
the general area where he was going. He was going

(40:00):
to be in this wilderness area, but they didn't really
know what trailer was going down or where to look.
They made a lot of assumptions, you know, full tea
arch trail. They looked around there a lot. They didn't
find him, so he could have gone anywhere, and that's
the big problem. If they don't know where to search,
how are they going to find you? So I think

(40:22):
that's kind of why this ended up being the way
it did. Although on the other hand, you also have
to factor in the fact that he could have gone
off trail and just wandered somewhere where nobody's going to
find him. You know a lot of people visit this area.
He still hasn't been found. Really makes me think that
he's somewhere quite remote that people just don't go. There's

(40:44):
been a couple instances where people thought they found his
remains out here, nothing was ever confirmed. But so to
this day, he's still out here somewhere, and they got
his DNA on file, so that if the eventuality ever
happens that something is found, they will be able to
confirm it, hopefully, But again, we're twenty five years on

(41:06):
in this case, and this is one of the rare
instances where a ranger, at least a seasonal ranger disappeared
and has not been found. That there's like only a
handful of those, really, so pretty uncommon in general to
have rangers go missing and not be found. But this

(41:28):
is a pretty treacherous area. Just the heat, but the terrain.
It's not a lot of fun at least this time
of year. I'm sure it's more fun at other times
a year. One other thing that's worth mentioning here is

(42:28):
that I believe one of David's friends who was interviewed,
said that I wasn't uncommon for David to get lost
and then just kind of find his way back. I
think he liked doing that kind of thing, you know,
it's kind of I think he liked the challenge maybe,
but it always worked out for him in the past.

(42:50):
But you know, that's a thing to note because just
because something works ninety nine percent of the time always
leaves room for that last one percent. You know, sometimes
if you get overconfident in an area, you take more risks,
Like me, right Now, like I said, this isn't really
my native habitat. I'm much more used to the Pacific

(43:12):
Northwest climate and everything. So I'm not going to take
too many risks out here in terms of when I
go off trail or where I go off trail, even
though I have a GPS and a personal locator beacon,
I'm just not going to risk it. That's because I
just don't know this terrain that well, and I don't
know the plants as well. I don't know the animals
as well. And when you do that, you're just less

(43:35):
sure of yourself. You know, when I'm in the Pacific Northwest,
I'll take crazy chances sometimes that maybe I shouldn't. And
that's just because I feel a little overconfident in my
ability out there, because I've been to so many places
and I know it so well. When it comes to
this area, although it's beautiful, I just kind of look

(43:55):
around and see deadliness, and you know, I'm like watching
for snakes, something we really don't have to worry about
where I'm from, you know, cactuses attacking my legs, what
have you. So I think that he could have been
just overconfident and could have wandered off, gotten lost, tried
to find his way back, and it didn't work out

(44:16):
this time. It wouldn't be the first time something like
that happened to someone. Just one more possible theory to
add to the list, and none of them really come
out to a paranormal theory. And that is to say that,
you know, just because this area is known for spirituality,

(44:37):
war Texas and I don't know, funky woo woo stuff,
that doesn't mean that's necessarily what happened to David here.
I mean, you could easily get lost and not be
found out here, it would seem to me because there's
plenty of places to fall die and no one's going
to find you because not too many people like to

(44:59):
go off trail, or at least they shouldn't. I mean,
you're only creating additional risk for yourself, and only the
people that go off trail are probably the ones that
are going to be able to find David's remains. So
could it happen one day? Possibly? You know, we've seen
it happen before. Someone found the remains of Dale staling

(45:20):
over in Masa Verde. And I mean he should never
have been found considering where he was, but someone was
wandering around in the remote country and stumbled upon him.
And sometimes you win the littery like that, but it
might not happen in this case and this point again,
it's been so long, who knows what's left. I'm probably

(45:45):
gonna be getting out of here. It's crazy hot and
I'm running out of battery. There is a supposed vortex

(46:13):
near this area, for whatever that's worth, but I think
it is more likely that David is currently in the
vicinity of Sterling Pass and Wilson Mountain. I decided that
should be my next stop, so I took Highway eighty
nine A, the same highway that David said he would
try to get to if he was lost or tired,
and parked on the roadside near a hidden trailhead that

(46:34):
leads to the pass and also to volty Arch. Once again,
my goal was just to grab a feel for the
terrain and how reasonable or logical it would be to
head off trail and deep into the wilderness. As you
are about to see, this region is very different from
the more desert like area where we just came from.

(47:00):
H All right, so I'm back in the Red Rock

(47:53):
Secret Mountain wilderness today. Uh, second time. This time, I'm
trying to get more in the mountainous canyony area rather
than the desert area, just to get a better feel
for that terrain. This is a Stirling past and I'm
currently walking in a lot more elevation than where I
was at the other day. But we're going to be

(48:15):
going pretty close to olt Arch. Maybe we'll see it.
I'm kind of just gonna see how far I can get.
It's less hot today, it's in the nineties instead of
being over one hundred. That may change as the day
wears on because it's still kind of early, so we'll
head up this trail and see where it takes us.

(48:55):
So it's still pretty exposed even in the mountainous areas
were in the canyons. There is the occasional shade, but
still a hot place to be though gorgeous. The red
rock here is just incredible everywhere you look, very scenic.

(49:16):
There's a lot of poison ivy on this trail, but
I haven't seen any yet, so kind of keeping an
eye out for that as well. This place is a
whole lot less busy than the last time I visited,
probably because it's a weekday. I haven't seen anyone else,
so I might just have the trail all to myself today. Well,

(50:02):
it's really hot out on the trail. I take the
shade wherever I can find it. There's always a good
view in the background. In general, there's not too many
places to go off trail here because it's steep just
about anywhere you look. That could change. But yeah, it's

(50:24):
thick with brush, there's poison ivy. I don't know if
this would be a good area to really venture anywhere,
but then again, some people are more brave than I am,
so who knows. When I continue on and see what
happens to the terrain as we progress here, I gotta
say I get a much more spiritual feel being out

(50:46):
here in the canyon area than I did in the desert.
So I think it would make more sense if David
Miller actually came into this area, because everywhere you look
it's beautiful. You can find nice shady spots to kind
of just enjoy the place. It's got a much better
vibe than the more desert tee areas of the Red
Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness, but also more places to die

(51:11):
and for your body to hide, So it would be
difficult to find him out here. Well, it's definitely incredible

(51:55):
out here. I am enjoying this hike away more than
I did the first one I did this area. It
was just too hot. It's still hot today. I'm just
sweating profusely. But at least it's enjoyable. But still I'm

(52:16):
not really seeing anywhere that if I was, say, looking
for a place to go explore and go off trail,
that I would like to do that. The brush is
thick everywhere you go. The trail itself is you know,
fairly overgrown. Honestly not well maintained. But then again, we

(52:36):
are talking about a difference of twenty years, so conditions
change over time. But I understand the draw of this
area why someone will want to come out here and
spend time out here despite the heat. So it makes
a lot more sense why he would be here, because,
to be honest with you, when I was here the

(52:57):
first time, I was kind of questioning why come out there?
But it's very nice here. Well, continuing on, been going

(53:25):
up some elevation here, pretty steep going over Sterling Pass.
I think it's a two thousand foot climb. Heard some
strange things in the bushes sounded like some sort of
big animal possibly, So if I don't make it back
from this, I guess, you know, but I'm sure I'll

(53:50):
be fine. Yep. I still one of those places where
I wouldn't like to go off trail anywhere. On the
animal note, there are mountain lions and black bears in
this area apparently, which I mean, I haven't heard rumor
of any attacks or anything. I'd have to look into

(54:11):
the history of that, but I suppose that's always a
possibility of what could have happened here. Who knows, especially
if he was the type of guy to go off trail,
it might make sense. But honestly, I've really enjoyed this area.
It's probably been my more favorite hikes I've done well

(54:31):
in the Arizona, Utah, Colorado area, just because you don't
usually see this type of greenery on the Red Canyon
walls that you see so much in Utah and Arizona.
So it's a very very cool place to come and hike.
I'm going to keep going for a little while. Once

(54:53):
my water gets down to a certain level, I'll probably
end up turning back. So it's getting pretty hot out

(56:00):
and I'm just dripping with sweat temperatures are in the nineties,
which is a tolerable temperature to hike in, at least
for me, as long as you have enough water to
sustain yourself. I brought a few leaders. I've almost gone
through it, so I got to start heading back. You know,

(56:23):
you just got to know yourself, and especially on these
type of hikes, and you know, I don't I don't
prefer to play it too risky if I can help it, so,
and especially on this one. The goal here was really
to see the terrain around here, because as I've said,
this whole general area was kind of the search area

(56:46):
for David Miller, and there was no specific trail I
had to go on. Like I so often do, you know,
usually have a much more pinpointed location to go to.
This time, I didn't really have that. I kind of
had well. He disappeared somewhere in the Red Rock Secret

(57:07):
Mountain Wilderness and kind of maybe near the area of
Voltie Arch, which encompasses quite a bit of area. So
I just went to any kind of terrain I could
in this area. We got both canyon and desert, which
are the two main ones that he probably would have
been hiking in. I'm certainly leaning toward this type of

(57:28):
canyon thing though, because this seems like more his style,
and it would be easier for someone to fall and
die out here and for you to not find the
body because we're dealing with steep canyons again, and Sterling
Pass is definitely steep and you could definitely fall and die.
It's not one of those where I would ever really

(57:49):
go out and look for the missing individual, just because,
to be honest with you, I haven't seen a good
place to go off trail that even looked remotely tempting.
Did see a cave, thought better about going to check
that out, although you could certainly have reached it, But
this area was searched pretty well, and I imagine they

(58:12):
would have gone and checked caves and whatnot. So I
don't know. I'm just glad to be out here and
this was a great hike, and honestly, I would recommend
it if someone wanted to come out here and just
have an enjoyable hike, because it's beautiful, pretty strenuous, though
be warned good amount of elevation gain well. Also add

(58:34):
that this is apparently not a very popular trailhead. I
haven't seen a single person the entire time, and looking online,
it seems like that is kind of the general understanding.
This is not very popular. When I was here last weekend,

(58:55):
there was a lot of cars parked at the trailhead,
but I'm fairly certain that pretty much everyone who was
parked there was just there to play at Oak Creek,
which is right across the street from the trailhead. I
don't think anyone was actually venturing down here, and so
you come this way, you pretty much have the trail
to yourself. That's what I've heard and that's what I experienced,

(59:16):
so which is kind of a shame, because it's actually
a very beautiful trail. So if you're in the area,
might be one of those nice little secret hikes that
you can take where you don't have to worry about
a lot of trail congestion. Now that we have the

(59:50):
full scope of David's disappearance, hopefully we can develop some
sort of theory as to what may have happened to him.
There are a few things that stand out. Despite David
being an experienced hiker and climber, these ridges are difficult
and strenuous. His familiarity with the region had not yet
been developed, hence his need for maps. He initially wanted

(01:00:11):
to take on a much greater hike over the course
of his three day weekend, so he did have big expectations.
We have a multi day hike in a region he
was not particularly familiar with that can end badly. And
having been to this wilderness area, I can confirm without
a doubt that if you go off trail here you

(01:00:32):
can disappear. The foliage is so thick in areas that
I can hardly imagine what searchers had to do when
they were here. There's a thousand dangers in this wilderness
between the terrain and the wildlife that lives there. I know.
One of the big hang ups people can have with
this case is the fact that search dogs were brought
in and it seemed that none of them could pick

(01:00:52):
up david scent. I don't really find it all that
strange in this case. The description in the reports indicates
that it was almost six days from the point that
David entered the area to the point that search dogs
were finally brought in. By that time, searchers had already
been scouring the area for days. The climate in this
area is also generally hot and dry, which is not

(01:01:13):
ideal when it comes to having dogs pick up a scent.
Besides that, searchers never really knew where to even take
the dogs to begin with. We don't know which direction
David went when he pulled up in his car. We
don't even know which trail he went down, or if
he even opted to use a trail. The search coordinators
really had an uphill battle right from the very start

(01:01:34):
of this one. So you have one theory that this
was an experienced guy who simply got himself up into
a difficult area of this wilderness. While there, something happens,
he has a bad fall, he gets trapped somewhere. There's
numerous possibilities that would be a simple explanation. We can
see that authorities also explored another angle where David might

(01:01:56):
have been going on some sort of spiritual journey. They
seem to think as possible that he went out on
some sort of vision quest and wondered if he was
interested in hallucinogens like peyote or mushrooms will. I think
this one is probably less likely. I think David's interest
in Native American spirituality might have played some part in
his desire to see and explore this area to what

(01:02:18):
extent will never be known. Nobody came forward to say
that David had any interest in taking hallucinogens, and there's
no evidence he had any history of doing it. Finally,
there are those who believe that something paranormal happened in
this place that is known for its spiritual energy. It's
something that can either be proven nor disproven. For myself,

(01:02:38):
I tend towards some version of the simplest explanation. Still,
we are left with the case of a young ranger
experienced in the ways of hiking and climbing, who disappeared
completely amidst the wilderness. It's a relative rarity as far
as missing person cases go, but as we've seen countless times,
regardless of your experience or title, act, accidents can happen

(01:03:01):
to anyone. David Miller's presence still remains in the Red
Rock Wilderness to this day. A trail in the area
was eventually given his name, and those who venture into
this region will read it and wonder who this man was.
Let me know your theory for this case in the
comments below, and until next time, thanks for watching.