America’s national parks welcome millions of visitors each year. However, more than 2,000 people died there between 2014 and 2021. Here are the five national parks that recorded the most deaths relative to visitor numbers during that period, based on data from the National Park Service.
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1. North Cascades National Park
Located in Washington state, North Cascades National Park has the highest fatality rate relative to its visitor count, with nine fatalities between 2014 and 2021 (0.004%).
2. Alaska’s Lake Clark National Park & Preserve
Alaska’s Lake Clark National Park and Preserve ranks second with four deaths (at a 0.003% mortality rate).
3. Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Reserve
Wrangell-Saint-Élie Park, also in Alaska, is America’s largest national park. In 2020, 11 deaths were recorded, two of which were caused by animals or nature (0.002%).
4. Fort Bowie National Historic Site
Fort Bowie National Historic Site ranks fourth, with only one recorded death (0.0015%).
5. Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site
Finally, the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site ranks bottom in the top five with one fatality (0.0011%).
Parks reporting the most deaths overall
Lake Mead National Recreation Area, which stretches between Nevada and Arizona, is the deadliest park, with 145 reported deaths, including 47 drownings.
The Grand Canyon comes next with 97 deaths in 8 years, but contrary to popular belief, more than half of those deaths were due to illness rather than a fall. The heat is often the cause of hikers. Yosemite Park has identified 94 of them.
Finally, Great Smoky Mountains National Park recorded 80 fatalities and Natchez Trace Park recorded 74, including 62 in car accidents.
The parks with the highest fatality rate have a fatality-to-visitor ratio of less than 0.003% and are often the most visited parks.
causes of death
Of the 2,092 deaths, 415 are due to car accidents, 402 to drowning, and 385 to medical causes.
Among the causes of death we also find falls (206), environmental causes (91), transportation (65), homicides (27), poisoning, police intervention and others. Five deaths are said to have been caused by nature or animals. The cause of 449 deaths is still unknown.
One of the animal-related deaths occurred in Yellowstone Park in 2015, where a woman was attacked by a female grizzly and eventually euthanized.