National Park Mysteries That Will Keep You Up At Night

On August 15, 1933, grad student Joe Halpern disappeared while hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. According to the Coloradoan, no confirmed trace of him was ever found, though he did start out with a hiking partner, Sam Garrick. Yet, while the two were making their way up the trail to Flattop Mountain, Halpern wanted to continue on to the next peak. Garrick wasn't up for it, so he left Halpern to hike on his own with the promise that both would meet up at Bear Lake Trailhead.

After hours of waiting for his friend, Garrick alerted park rangers, who undertook a search. Things weren't looking good, however, given that Halpern was carrying only minimal supplies and no overnight or foul-weather gear. Despite their efforts, searchers found no evidence of Halpern, who seemed to have fully disappeared into the wilds of the park.

In the many years since, quite a few have concluded that Halpern went off-trail and succumbed to the elements in the rough subalpine and alpine terrain of the park. Yet, some friends and relatives held on to tantalizing theories that he had walked out under his own power and started a life elsewhere. Yet, no leads have turned up anything about Halpern's fate either way.

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