Morbid Outdoors
The podcast about the times when the "great outdoors" aren't always great. Join us to hear tales of all things morbid in the wild. We cover murders, missing persons, legends, and more all within our great national parks, wildernesses, and forests. "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep..." -Robert Frost If you've ever been told you're weird for liking morbid stuff, you're our kind of people. Come along and learn about all of the morbid tales in our lovely wild lands. Dark Horizons Media, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episodes
If you’re been on social media, you’ve probably seen videos or pictures of bison attacking tourists in our national parks. Online articles will tell you it's pretty rare but with the plethora of pictures and videos and stories online says otherwise. With many more people getting outside these attacks seem to be becoming more frequent, and not just for bison, but for all animals. Antelope Island State Park in Salt Lake City, Utah sa...
In 2021, search crews at Grand Canyon National Park made an unexpected discovery while looking for another missing person: skeletal remains believed to be of another missing person. His backpack had been found years earlier with prescription bottles bearing his name, but no trace of him was located until the 2021 aerial search. His remains were there the whole time, blending into the canyon until chance and persistence finally brou...
The first month of 2026 brought some interesting headlines in the natural world--from animal attacks to rescues, this month's headlines were wild.
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It was the summer of 1933, and Rocky Mountain National Park was still young — wild, untamed, and only partly mapped. On August 15th, a 22-year-old University of Chicago student set out on a solo hike. He told his friend he was heading toward Taylor Peak — just another day in the mountains before he had to return home to Chicago. But he never came back and his disappearance remains unsolved to this day. This is one of Rocky Mountain...
Mount Everest: the world’s highest peak above sea level. It's iconic and stands against the sky like a giant. Everest is covered in snow and ice…and dead bodies. It is famous for its “Death Zone” which has extremely thin air, making breathing difficult, requiring supplemental oxygen for climbers. This beautiful mountain is dotted with many climbers who never made their way down.
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Utah has many missing persons cases and mysteries within its national forests and national parks. One of those happen to be the disappearance of a Finnish man who went missing in the Ashley National Forest in March 2025. He went to look for gold in the Uinta mountains and hasn’t been seen since. He is just a young man far from home, drawn to a wilderness he may not have fully understood. In places like this, it doesn’t take a drama...
When taking in the sights at beautiful overlooks many people don’t give a second thought to if the platform they’re standing on is safe…because why wouldn’t it be? But what happens when governments don’t appropriately fund high tourist areas such as national parks? When parks are underfunded and people still visit, fatalities are more likely to occur. This is what happened in Paparoa National Park in April of 1995.
Welcome to Nature News, where we bring you the latest headlines from the wild places that shape our world — and sometimes take us by surprise. From hikers trapped in quicksand to ancient lakes returning after decades, here’s what nature has been telling us this past month.
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https://www.backpacker.com/news-and-events/news/hiker-trapped-quicksand-arches-national-park/
https://people.com/human-remains-bel...
Horror doesn’t come from nowhere. Some of the most unsettling films we watch in the dark are rooted in something real — a crime, a disappearance, a moment that was too strange to ignore. Art imitates life, and in horror, it often does so with disturbing precision. And maybe that’s why these movies hit harder than pure fiction. Because somewhere beneath the jump scares and soundtracks, there’s a reminder that the most frightening st...
In July 2010, an experienced outdoorsman goes missing while with friends during a climb on Mount Rainier. Mount Rainier is majestic, but it’s also merciless. Eric’s story is a haunting reminder that even experts can vanish—and often without explanation. His disappearance remains one of Mount Rainier’s most baffling modern mysteries, a reminder of how quickly climbers can be swallowed by the mountain’s brutal weather and treacherous...
The Mojave Desert can look endless from above — all pale rock, broken sun, and silence. But for two hikers in July 2017, that silence became something else entirely. Three months after going missing, their bodies were found under a tree and left everyone with more questions than answers.
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https://people.com/crime/joshua-tree-murder-suicide-california/
For decades, ranchers across the American West have stumbled upon scenes that defy explanation: perfectly healthy cattle found dead overnight, organs removed with surgical precision, no blood, no tracks, no signs of struggle. From Colorado’s windswept plains to the deserts of New Mexico, these cases have become part of rural legend — and one of the strangest unsolved mysteries in modern American history.
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In 1989, a chilling mystery unfolded high in the rugged wilderness of Japan’s Daisetsuzan National Park. Near the slopes of Mount Asahidake, rescuers responding to a hand-carved SOS sign stumbled upon a gruesome discovery — a human skeleton lying beside it. At first glance, it seemed like a tragic but straightforward case: but it was anything but. What began as a routine recovery in the Japanese mountains turned into one of the cou...
Welcome back to Nature News, November 2025 Edition. On this episode, we travel across canyons, coasts, glaciers, forests, and mountains — touching on real stories of nature’s beauty, danger, and unpredictability. Some are tragic. Some are surreal. All are a reminder of the raw power and complexity of the wild.
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We’re heading deep into Washington’s Olympic National Park — a place where mist hangs heavy in the ancient forests, and where the line between the living and the lost grows thin. From the storm-battered beaches of Rialto and Ruby, to the moss-draped silence of the Hoh Rain Forest, this landscape feels alive — watching, listening. Join us for today's installment of Haunted Parks.
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National parks are supposed to be peaceful—untouched slices of wilderness. But dig through the right reports, and you’ll find something else: the weird stuff. The unsettling stuff. The “what the hell actually happened out there?” stuff. Join us for part two of bizarre incident reports from various national parks.
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In October 2020 a University of Washington professor and avid outdoorsman, set out on a solo overnight hike in Mount Rainier National Park. He was last seen on October 9th, and when he failed to return the next day, a massive search effort began. To this day, his disappearance remains an unsolved mystery, a haunting reminder of how even experienced hikers can vanish in the vast wilderness of our national parks.
Tips: Mount...
There’s a silent epidemic that has been happening for decades on our federal lands. Everyone loves recreating in national recreation areas, national forests, and national parks. But there’s an unseen danger about these places: you could become a missing person and there would be little done to bring you back into the known.
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https://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/exploration-survival/lea...
On September 24, 2013, two friends set out to hike in Idaho’s Craters of the Moon National Monument but never returned. The remote volcanic landscape is known for its rugged terrain, lava fields, and extreme weather conditions. Their tragic disappearance underscores both the unforgiving nature of the monument and the dangers of venturing into isolated wilderness without adequate preparation.
Tonight, on this Halloween-leaning episode, we’re going on a journey across America — coast to coast, forest to canyon, swamp to cliff — to explore 13 trails where something other than wind might be watching. These are hikes with history. With tragedy. With ghosts. With stories that linger in the trees.
So grab your headlamp, pull up the hood, step off the beaten path—and let’s go where the wild gets uneasy.
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