Death in Rocky Mountain National Park: Accidents and Foolhardiness on the Continental Divide

by Randi Minetor

Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park welcomes more than 4 million visitors every year, but this jewel of America's parks has seen more than its fair share of deaths among its tourists. More than 70 people have perished attempting to climb Longs Peak, the park's tallest mountain--some of whom vanished into the wilderness, never to be found. Thousand-foot falls from high rock ledges, hypothermia, avalanches that bury climbers, lightning strikes, a historic flood, and even plane crashes are among the ways that park visitors have met a bad end. Author Randi Minetor also provides tips for staying alive and safe in the Rocky Mountains.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, Nature

336 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2020

About the author

Crisscrossing America since 1992 in a quest to see all 50 states (done!), 431 national parks (76 to go), and more than 700 species of birds (623 so far), Randi and Nic Minetor bring their expertise and their love of the wilderness, American history, and birding to readers who share their many passions. A working writer for more than 40 years, Randi is now the author of more than 80 books in print under her own name, and a number of ghostwritten books on a wide variety of topics.

Reviews

[David Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the author's eighth book about death in our national parks. I try to spend 15-20 days a year in Rocky Mountain National Park, so this one appealed to me while the others do not.

In the appendix she asks, "Are you ready to make the commitment to seeing all that is magnificent in Rocky Mountain National Park and living to tell the tale? It's easier than you may think after reading this book." Earlier in the book, she helpfully admits that "hiking alone certainly does not guarantee a death sentence." I often hike alone and have (so far) lived to tell the tale.

I read quite a few books about death: Nazi concentration camps, Soviet gulags, and combat. Those are all about man's inhumanity to man, and they all happen in places I've never been and will likely never visit. This book, on the other hand, is mostly about foolhardiness and hubris and happens in places that I know quite well.

The author visited the Park but doesn't know it very well. She gets her stories from newspaper reports and the like. I wasn't really expecting any great prose, and my expectation was met. The tone is very journalistic. Generally, the geography is correct but there are some instances that didn't quite make sense. And she has a few spelling errors ("Hallet" sometimes instead of "Hallett", for example). None of this should deter the interested reader.

The front and back covers of the book are the only photographs; they are stock photos and neither is of RMNP. An appendix includes a list of all fatalities. Notes and index are included.

[Emily Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of interesting stories and learning what not to do. great dedication from park rangers and others when attempting to find people. most of these people died doing things I would never attempt (like climbing 14,000ft Longs Peak in the winter). also interesting/surprising to learn that there are no death resulting from bear attacks in the park — because when I was hiking there I was thinking about being attacked by a bear the entire time

[Valerie Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is this a *good* book? Eh. Did I fly through it? Indeed I did.
Being a resident of northern Colorado and a frequent visitor to RMNP (sidebar, I found it weirdly annoying the author never referred to the park as RMNP, but always the full name or "Rocky Mountain"), I was thrilled when my husband found this for me in a local bookstore. I already knew a lot of the bigger stories, but I learned some things about my favorite hiking grounds as well! I've been following the James Pruitt missing person case ever since I saw the Missing poster at a trailhead. I'm kind of obsessed with the whole Missing 411 thing, and I was hoping the Unusual Circumstances would be a little more spooky, but all in all, this book helped solidify that I will never, ever, not ever attempt to summit Longs Peak.

[Shelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no idea why I find these books fascinating 😂. Almost all the major parks have similar books.

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this is Minetor's most recent book, which hopefully means she's working on another one. As always, informative and fascinating without being exploitative. This book omits automobile related deaths for length, something I don't have a particular opinion about, and Minetor has a standing policy against covering suicides, a stance I do agree with.

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apparently, there are a lot of ways to fall off mountains. This book was interesting and generally engaging, although it definitely got depressing. Sometimes, it felt a little like an emotionless log of detailed mishaps. It seems that this author has made a career of writing about the national parks, and her research seems well-done and generally trustworthy.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate that the author wanted to give every victim a memorial, making them a real person with a life and family, etc.
Unfortunately, the entire first half of the book is basically copy and paste. Victim fell 500, 800, 1500 feet to their death. Over and over and over again. I got bored.
It really only got interesting to me once we got to the Lawn Lake Flood.

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book is separated by the type of deaths that have occurred in Rocky Mountain National Park.
I found the Lawn Lake Dam disaster on July 15 1982 interesting. And the story about Fred Selak “the hermit of Grand County” in 1927 was entertaining. The Epilogue contains a list of guidelines and rules to assist visitors.

[Lyndley Leavell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this all the way through. I like how the author worded things. Most of the time it was predictable. Sometimes, it would surprise me. Now I know what I shouldn't do in Rocky Mountain National Park.

[Mish · Rating 3 out of 5]

I felt like half the stories in this book didn’t warrant inclusion as they had little information beyond a date and a name of the victim. Plus the transitions from story to story within a chapter are inconsistent, sometime forced and other times jarring.

The most interesting chapter focused on the flood of Estes Park after the dam at Lawn Lake failed. But the author glossed over a lot of the details which could have made it an even more interesting tale.

It seems the author jumped on the death in national parks bandwagon with this book, but it is not on par with the Death in Grand Canyon or Death in Yellowstone books.

[Holly Bloomdahl · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I was stupid enough to think hiking alone was a good idea before read
ing this book, I certainly know better now.

[Mol Plourde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informational, respectful

[DORET · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read. It helps that I'm a little familiar with the areas being discussed. The book contains great lessons on what not to do in any mountainous terrain.

[Julie Shields · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting info. I wish it read more like a book than a newspaper

[Margo · Rating 3 out of 5]

My summary/review - as always, a retelling of deaths that have taken place in the park, from falling to freezing to lightening striking.this books did freak me out more than most because of how treacherous some of the hikes are - especially on Longs Peak - and how rapidly the weather can change.

[Chuckles · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the first book in the series that I read. It was ok, the author covers each incident fairly well, but its obvious she didn’t realky attempt to get additional details in most of the incidents beyond what had already been documented in police, NPS, and other incident reports and in newspapers. The summarizes these well in a good journalistic formal, but it would have been nice if she dug deeper and at least tried to track down witnesses and such to add more information. Because she wanted to cover every death there are many early stories that are really bare bones and pretty much serve no purpose, nothing really can be gained by hearing about their death, no lessons learned.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

As with other books I have read by Randi Minetor, her extensive research is impressive! All of her sources are documented in the reference section. It's difficult to read story after story of individuals who have lost their lives to the beloved RMNP. Whenever available, Randi added personal background to help the reader see each death as an individual, rather than just another statistic. The epilogue contains tips for all of us to help us stay safe, specifically in this park. I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys experiencing the great outdoors and would like to do it safely.