35 stories, each highlighting a specific National Park.

I see this book being stocked at National Park stores. Folks will buy it for the story tied to that particular park. Visitors to National Parks tend to visit other National Parks, so its a win-win ... plus you are on vacation and there is plenty of time to read (haha).

I won't rate a book unless I've read the entire book, cover to cover. I had to pace myself in reading Mysteries of the National Parks, reading 3 or 4 chapters a day. Glad I read this one. Some things I've read about already, but there are definitely some National Parks to move higher on the list. The author picked stories that wouldn't be short, interesting ... maybe a little quirky ... not the run of the mill stories.

There was a TREMENDOUS amount of research done in writing this book. I was very impressed with the number of articles reference. I also liked the end of the book, how the author had a little synopsis of why he selected that particular story and how he personally investigated it. Followed by the sources.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Publishing for approving my request to read the advance read copy of Mysteries of the National Parks in exchange for an honest review. 460+ pages. Release date is May 6, 2025.

This is a little dry for my taste. I love the stories but there was not a lot to break it up. I wanted to love it

The title alone, “Mysteries of the National Parks,” totally enticed me to select this book (which I think would look nice in a national park gift store). It’s a collection of 35 stories set in places administered by the National Park Service. Some are retellings of folktales, some are ghost stories (the JFK rocker in Yosemite mysteriously moving around the lodge after his assassination), and some are tributes to the indigenous tribes and locals who are culturally celebrated. If you have the time to read through all of them, you’ll have a pleasant experience and you’ll possibly retain some of the trivia for conversations about particular parks.

The organization of this book, however, was a mess. I received an ARC, so there’s hope that a detailed Table of Contents will be added beyond just the general geographic divisions. The chapter headings, too, need to be included upfront beyond just a number. I live in Utah, home of “The Mighty Five” and, of course, I wanted to go directly to stories about Zion, Bryce, Arches, Capitol Reef, and Canyonlands. But I need to page through the section simply called “The West” to find any references. So, as a reference book, this failed me. It’s a nice collection of vignettes and additional park information, but it would benefit from a restructuring for the casual reader. 2.5 stars.

Thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

Part fiction, part truth, part mystery, part travel guide, Bezemek takes readers to 35 National Parks across the US. The stories vary from tales about famous people (Calamity Jane and Hugh Glass - of Revenant fame) to more obscure stories about a kayaker going over Niagara Falls and the first known UFO sighting in the US. Interspersed with these stories readers will find helpful advice about how and when to visit these sites.

The stories were of varying interest and length. I found some compelling, others I just skimmed. Most had some historical context, but a few were more current. I found the travel advice useful and important for visitors, but those paragraphs were inserted at odd times within the telling of the stories. I found it sometimes quite jarring (for example) to leave the story of a man who survived a grizzly attack right in the middle to talk about trail access and weather in the park, then back to the survival story. I think that these "sidebars" would be better either at the beginning or end of the story. Just my two cents.

I've visited many of these Parks and hope to visit some of the others in the future. If history and nature and strange or unusual events are of interest to you, This is a worthwhile read. I've read better, but this was an interesting book. I'm glad I read it.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley. I was very excited to read it because I am a lover of our country’s National Park Service (NPS) and have visited several of the sites. The book contains 35 stories that are related to different NPS sites. These stories range from the mystery of the Upheaval Dome formation at Canyonlands National Park to a US Air Force pilot’s disappearance in Kings Canyon National Park and everything in between. Some of the events the author wrote about are well known (Lincoln’s assassanation) while others are lesser known (the disappearance of the crew of an L-8 blimp). Each chapter also has snippets of information about the featured parks. Since each chapter focused on a different mystery, it was easy to set it down and pick it back up without any issues. I will admit that some of the stories grabbed at me more than others. Overall, I enjoyed this book and think other fans of the NPS will find it interesting.

I liked the layout of the e-book. Broken down by parts of the US from West to East and then by National Park, so that you could find a particular region if needed. The book is geared towards history and geography buffs rather than true crime enthusiasts. If you are into history and the national parks, this book is for you. It has many stories, some of which I had heard before, but many I had not been familiar with. I do wish it had included photos; there were a handful, but I anticipated a plethora of picture,s and I was disappointed by the lack of photos to support the stories, especially those that would have benefited from photo evidence, such as the sliding stones at Racetrack Playa in Death Valley National Park.

Fun and informative. Would recommend to a dad who's got the Americana travel bug and a new national parks photo map to complete. Some stories felt super tangential but maybe that's because I didn't realize how many areas were considered national parks.

It is fine. There aren't any references or anything like that included in the stories so you can't check out the stories yourself. It is fine if you are a reader who is interested in possible "conspiracy theories" or hidden agendas, but it wasn't for me.

I really enjoyed this fun, informative book. The author did a great job with his storytelling This book was well-researched, I found each chapter interesting because the mysteries were varied.

I really enjoyed this collection of stories about oddities and disappearances in the national parks. First of all, this is 100% the kind of book I want to read on vacation. When I was at Yellowstone, I scoured the local bookstores for something like this. The closest I found was a book about an earthquake there in the 50s (pretty good!) and of course those creepy outdoor disappearance books by the conspiracy theory guy who thinks people are being kidnapped by sasquatches and...held in tunnels, or something? I'm a little unclear on what he has "figured out."

Anyway, this is a true miscellany of random odd events. We have the guy who led to the flying saucer craze after seeing a UFO that was not shaped like a saucer, ghosts, a chapter about redwoods (which is more mysterious than that might sound), and lots of random historical information about some lesser known National Parks.

The stories are interspersed with tips on how to get to the often remote places where the stories took place, along with descriptions of the various national parks filled with actual facts about, like...geography. Recommended for kids; the tales aren't too scary or lurid and your child might accidentally learn things.

All in all a fun read for someone like me, a child of the 90s who grew up reading those encyclopedias of the paranormal while waiting for the latest X Files to drop. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a review copy.

What a fun collection! Lived the organization of this book and got quite a few stories that I hadn’t heard before. This book is perfect for readers who love spooky, paranormal, and just plain weird stories. Thank you for the opportunity to read and receive this ARC!

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I enjoyed the variety of stories. I also appreciated the author’s tips and recommendations for readers hoping to explore the settings of these stories for themselves. I was expecting some of the stories to be more spooky/eerie/baffling, but I am happy to have learned some more history about our national parks.

This was a good and fun read. The author goes through 35 of the unexplained mysteries of the National Parks. I learned a lot and look forward to more by him.

Some stories I’ve heard about and others are new to me. This was a good read, I enjoyed the history! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for giving me access to the earc of this book.

I love reading about mysteries so I thought this book would be great for me. But sadly it wasn’t.
It’s a great mix of different types of mysteries but just a few of them actually held my interest while the others were just too “boring” for me.

The book itself is really nicely written and it solely focuses on the mysteries at hand.

This was just not for me which is OK.
I’ll be sticking to my true crime instead (but there was some crime in here that was really interesting).

I grabbed this one to read as I’ve enjoyed many books lately of people missing on trails and national parks and I have found them horrifying yet riveting. Something about the vast wilderness leaves me unsettled and in awe.

That being said I think I came to this book thinking it was something different. The first story was about flying saucers, the second about bandits and the introduction read like an ad to national parks. I did end up skimming a lot. The stories weren’t that interesting to me and they were short and lacking depth.

I liked the premise of this book which combines mystery with traveling. It could have been written better as this felt like an unedited book. Some stories could have more depth to them.

I did like the information telling readers how to get to the sites.

Not a good book. It is a scattered read that should and could have been so much better.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from netgalley and the publisher.

This was a very interesting dive into mysteries of our national parks across the country. I very much liked that it covered mysteries rooted in the human world, as well as the supernatural.

Definitely a fen way to give you a basic overview of a view weird things connected to some parks. You'll have to go to other sources to get better info but this is definitely a good way to get an idea of what you'll be interested in finding.