I know this sounds morbid but I guess it depends on how you look at death.  Does it make you feel lucky to be alive or does it put you into a uncontrollable depression.  Anyway, there are two must read books for anyone looking to visit, have visited or are just itching to learn more about the mishaps of a small number of others who have.

Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon by Michael P. Ghiglieri and Thomas M. Meyers and Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite by Michael Ghiglieri and Charles R. “Butch” Farabee, Jr. are both accountings of every known death that has occurred at both National Parks since the days of early exploration and whatever evidence was found - for all you forensics fans.

Four hundred and five hundred pages in length, both books are easy reads with the chapters breaking up the book nicely by means of demise.  And, if you prefer not to read all the gruesome detail, you can skip to the end of each chapter and get a quick run down  each death.  Not every incident ends in tragedy.  Both books do have some stories of amazing survivals.  And in some ways the stupidity of some of these people makes it a bit like reading Darwin Award entries.  Either way, hopefully you will read much of this book in disbelief that people would take such unreasonable risks instead of saying to yourself, “I should go try to swim across the Colorado River too!”

There is a much more important purpose to these books than just an anthropological study of every body discovered in these parks.  There is a message and the message is clear; the wilderness nor the National Parks are Disneyland, yet so many visitors treat it as such.  The animals can attack, the cliffs are real, there are no lifeguards, and no way out if you decide to go beyond your own ability.  Most of the deaths accounted for are due to choices made by visitors that if chosen wisely, would still be alive today.  For example, don’t hike Grand Canyon in the middle of the day in the middle of summer; don’t climb over the railing to get a better picture of a 300ft waterfall; and learn to read a map, to name a few.  Unfortunately, the mistakes of one or a few many times result in the demise of innocent bystanders as well.

So for these books if I was to make up some arbitrary rating scale; I give Death in Grand Canyon 5 out of 5 gallons of water and for Death in Yosemite, 5 out of 5 compasses.