The national parks can be as beautiful as they are deadly.
Our national parks are perhaps our greatest treasure in the United States, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t come without a risk when visiting. While most national park-related deaths are related to traffic incidents, there are certain parks that qualify as more dangerous than others.
The National Park Service has a comprehensive webpage with data on deaths in the parks and their causes. Visitors can analyze fatalities by type as well as demographics.
Several parks statistically stand out among the total of 63 as the most harrowing to visit. This list does not include other National Park Service units, such as national monuments and recreation areas, which in some cases are even more dangerous. One example is Lake Mead National Recreation Area, where there have been, on average, 20 deaths a year, mostly by drowning.