Become an Apple Subscriber or Patron to listen.
What started as a father-&-son camping trip within the vast beauty of the Utah mountains ended in absolute tragedy when a 12-year-old boy vanished without a single trace.
12-year-old Garrett Bardsley was out camping in the wilderness of Utah in August 2004 with his dad, Kevin, as well as a group of Boy Scouts & leaders. After Garrett accidentally stepped into the lake while they were out fishing, he told his dad that he was heading back to their nearby campsite so he could change into dry socks. As he made the short walk that should have only taken only minutes, Garrett vanished, never to be seen again. What followed was one of the most intense search efforts in the region’s history.
Garrett Bardsley was the youngest of four children born to parents, Heidi & Kevin, a Mormon family who were active in the LDS Church. He had two older brothers, Jared & Cameron & an older sister, Courtney. Kevin worked as a general contractor & he & his three boys were active members of the Boy Scouts.
According to his family, Garrett was a determined child who wouldn’t allow life’s challenges to hold him back. When he started school & struggled with reading, he attended early-morning classes for extra help. He often begged his parents to allow him to read during family scripture study so he would have the opportunity to practice his reading. Garrett was passionate about learning & absolutely adored school; even when he was sick, he refused to stay home.
At the time of his disappearance, Garrett was only days away from starting middle school. His family & friends indicated that he was always up for a laugh, he was the class clown without being obnoxious & he was the first to step up & offer someone a word of encouragement.
Garrett had only just celebrated his 12th birthday one month earlier on July 24 & although he’d gone camping before & earned a badge for wilderness survival, he wasn’t entirely experienced within the great outdoors. According to Kevin, their son was an innocent kid who had been looking forward to spending a few days in the woods with his friends, eating s’mores, fishing & hanging out.
Kevin, Garrett & his two older brothers left their home in Elk Ridge, Utah, about sixty miles south of Salt Lake City, for the trip that included eighteen other Scouts who ranged in age from 12-18 & about eight adults. The troop’s scout master, Wally Trotter, wasn’t there for this particular trip since he wasn’t able to get the time off from work so another father, Gary Hansen, took over as the group’s leader. The outing wasn’t an official trip through the Scouts, but the fathers of the groups arranged the trip as a last hurrah before school began. Since no merit badges needed to be earned, their goal was just to have fun.
The hike that leads to Cuberant Lake, which is about 80 miles east of Salt Lake City, is about 6.6 miles there & back with about 1,000 feet of elevation gained throughout the hike. Since the lake is at an elevation of 10,426 feet, those unaccustomed to this high elevation would likely find the hike strenuous. Since the Garrett & his fellow Scouts live at an elevation of a little more than 5,000 feet in Elk Ridge, their bodies would be more adapted & equipped to more easily make the hike than someone who lived at sea level.
The Uinta Mountain range runs from east to west & the basin that holds Cuberent Lake also holds several other small, unnamed, but numbered lakes. Since the lake is in a basin, in order to go elsewhere, a person would have to navigate through difficult terrain as more than half the area is surrounded by steep mountain ridges that go up while the other portion goes steeply downward.
The group arrived at Cuberant Lake campsite #4 within Utah’s High Uintas Wilderness on Thursday, August 19, 2004 & planned to stay two nights before heading home on Saturday. They set up camp just off the main trail & about ⅓ of a mile from Cuberant Lake in a flat area without trees next to a small pond & a patch of boggy grass. It was the perfect spot to house a larger group of campers since the surrounding area is of rocky, steep terrain or thick with forested areas. Not only were they within close distance to Cuberant Lake, but several other smaller lakes as well. After they settled themselves, the boys & their fathers went to bed that night without any issues.
On Friday, August 20, Kevin & Garrett woke up early to go fishing together & as they made their way down to one of the unnamed nearby lakes at about 8 am, the rest of the group, including Garrett’s two brothers, were back at the campsite about 300 yards, or the length of three football fields, up the hill.
The area of the High Uintas Wilderness is vast, remote, yet gorgeous with towering pine trees, pristine glass-like lakes with jagged mountain peaks within more than 450,000 acres of wilderness. As you get deeper into the trails, there are no paved roads, no trail makers or cell phone service.
As Garrett walked along, holding his fishing pole, he lost his footing & stepped into the lake, soaking his shoe, his sock & the bottom portion of his pants. Since it was a cold morning & he didn’t want to be uncomfortable in squishy, wet shoes, he told his dad that he was going to quickly head back to camp so he could change into dry gear.
As Garrett told his dad, I’ll be right back, Kevin didn’t give it a second thought since they’d walked the same trail multiple times to & from camp. As Garrett walked away, Kevin noticed that his son was going in the wrong direction so he called out a few reminders about the path that would lead him back.
According to a YouTuber who hosts the show, The Missing Enigma, he visited the area & walked from the campsite down to the lake & found that the trail wasn’t entirely clear & found himself wandering around, lost without the use of his GPS. He was easily able to see how a child could get turned around within the terrain.
Garrett walked away wearing a black hooded Quick Silver sweatshirt, red sweatpants, a white t-shirt & white Converse shoes. Since it was such a short walk, Kevin assumed his son would be back in a handful of minutes, but as about fifteen minutes ticked by, there was still no sign of him.
Kevin initially assumed that his son had gotten distracted back at camp & maybe stopped to talk with his fellow scouts or grab a snack. However, when he made his way back to camp to check on Garrett, he realized that he wasn’t there. On his way back, he thought he heard someone call out, Dad, but when he stopped & looked around, he didn’t notice anyone so he continued on. His worry began to quickly escalate when he spoke with the Scouts & leaders & not a single soul had seen Kevin come back to camp to change his clothes & shoes.
The group began immediately searching for him as they walked the vicinity of camp, calling Garrett’s name. When there was no sign of him in the immediate area around camp, at 10:52 am, the adults made the decision that Gary Hanson would hike back down to his car & drive over to a location near Lost Lake about 5 ½ miles away where there was cell phone reception so he could call for help.
When Gary met a Summit County deputy at Lost Lake, they drove up to the trailhead together, hoping that by the time they got back to camp the group would have found Garrett, but that sadly wasn’t the case.
Soon, official search teams began arriving which involved hundreds of people who poured over the woods in the following days. They positioned people at trailheads around the vicinity of camp as well as along the Weber River which would have acted as a natural barrier if Garrett came down the basin. There were search dogs, people on horses, in helicopters, use of infrared technology & thermal imagining after the sun set that Friday, but there wasn’t a single trace of Garrett. They found no footprints or clothing.
Because the area where the Scouts had been camping was so vast with thick tree coverage, even seasoned hikers were known to lose their bearings & sense of direction as the terrain all begins to look the same with each direction you turn. Although the campsite was so close to where they’d been fishing, a few missteps off the trail could have led Garrett completely off course. Since the tree-coverage is so thick, his cries for help may have been muffled.
Garrett’s scout leader, Wally Trotter, who was working back in the city, said that for some reason he got a strange feeling that morning that something wasn’t right, but because he knew the group weren’t within range of cell reception, he continued on with his day. It wasn’t until later that morning when he got a phone call from Gary about Garrett’s disappearance. He immediately left work & headed to the mountains to help with the search. He speculated that Garrett may have taken a wrong turn & gotten off course, maybe he tripped & injured himself or came across wildlife, specifically bears. It’s possible that he spotted an animal on his way back to camp, got scared & bolted off into the trees, losing his way as he did.
When Garrett initially vanished, Kevin, understandably, began to spiral in panic as he pictured his son, crying in the forest, calling out for his dad, cold, scared & alone. He dreaded the thought of calling Heidi to let her know what was going on & he hoped & prayed that the initial searches would find their child unharmed. As the search continued & there was no sign of Garrett, Kevin was forced to pick up the phone to call his wife, who was out of town at the time. Heidi recalls that as soon as she heard her husband’s voice on the other end, she knew that something must be terribly wrong.
Although Heidi later indicated that she had a terrible gut feeling that they would never find their son, Kevin continued to hold out hope. As darkness fell each night after Garrett vanished, Kevin continued to search through midnight, unable to sleep knowing that his son was lost & alone.
As the rain poured down on Saturday night & the frigid cold air rolled in, they could only imagine how cold their youngest son must be. Because they were at a high elevation in the mountains, temperatures would have dropped to as low as 18 ℉ (-8 ℃) at night. Other than the clothes he wore & the fishing pole he held, Garrett walked away with no backpack & no supplies. Planes that flew overhead at night shone a powerful light down into the wilderness, hoping they would spot him.
As helicopters flew overhead, hundreds of volunteers combed through the mountain yelling Garrett’s name, shining lights in hope he would see them & come to safety. They lit bonfires around the lakes & many people stayed up all night with the goal that Garrett would be drawn to the warmth & light of the fire.
On Saturday, the scouts, including Garrett’s two older brothers, Jared & Cameron, were instructed to pack up their belongings & head home. Those who were there recall the heartbreaking sight of seeing them leave the campsite without their brother. As darkness fell on Saturday night, the temperatures dropped & the rain poured down & scout leader Wally feared that Garrett might not survive another night.
When Heidi arrived at the mountain, she & her husband continued to search, but by Sunday when Garrett had been missing for two nights, hope was starting to fade. As snow began to fall on Sunday, the crowds of volunteers began to dwindle. Everyone had to get back to their families & their jobs, including Wally.
By Tuesday, four days after Garrett vanished, the search was reclassified as a recovery rather than a rescue since the weather had been so cold that it was likely impossible that Garrett could have survived.
On Tuesday, searches came across a Nike ankle sock within a field of boulders about a half-mile from where Garrett had last been seen. The sock appeared to have been taken off of a wet foot & wadded up. Because the boulder field could have been used as a source of shelter, the County Sheriff felt it was in line with a place Garrett may have gone. They turned their attention to this location, hoping they might come across additional clues, but this wasn’t the case.
Heidi, Garrett’s mom, insisted that the sock belonged to her son while a searcher later claimed that it was his. DNA testing later confirmed that the sock had not belonged to Garrett. The short, black, chrome ice-fishing pole that Garrett carried as he walked back to camp has never been found.
During the second weekend, more than 1,000 volunteers showed up, but by Sunday, nine days after he went missing, Summit County officially called the search off. It was possible that Garrett could be under a ledge, hidden in a cave or under rocks or logs.
Over the years, Summit County had conducted many searches within the High Uinta mountains; some had been successful, while others had not. Oftentimes, victims who were lost would seek shelter under a log or rocks where their bodies would later be recovered, many times unclothed due to symptoms of hypothermia & a phenomenon known as paradoxical undressing. This results in a feeling of false warmth & impaired judgement caused by a failing temperature regulation system in the brain.
According to experts, a 12-year-old boy going missing in the wilderness is a complicated situation because they’re starting to have more independence & reasoning skills, but they aren’t yet thinking like an adult. When faced with a survival situation, a child of Garrett’s age would likely experience a mix of fear & confusion.
Some children might have the reaction of freezing or hiding, hoping someone might find them. Others might attempt to retrace their steps, only venturing deeper into the wilderness & farther away from camp. Panic is a very likely reaction, especially if faced with danger such as a wild animal. When faced with panic, quick decisions can lead to injury. However, being a resilient child, specifically a Scout, might allow the advice Garrett had been previously taught to kick in. There was the possibility that he found shelter or warmth.
A man who helped with the search, Ed Bonner, who has taken a number of groups of boys on hikes in the area, indicated that when he’s out in the wilderness, he makes a couple of the boys lead the way & when they inevitably ask him where they should go, he asks them to stop & think about what they’re doing. It’s been Ed’s experience that boys of Garrett’s age don’t tend to stop & think, they just go.
Many people questioned how Garrett could have gotten lost within the basin since it wouldn’t have made any sense to climb up or down away from the flat terrain where they were camping, but because of his young age, he may have made this decision without fully thinking it through.
Because there was no trace of Garrett or any of his belongings, there have been many theories as to what happened to him. The first theory is that he took a wrong turn, got lost & wandered deeper & deeper into the woods. Since everything in nature tends to look the same, this can easily happen to even experienced hikers. Since panic causes a brain to not think as clearly as usual, a person might believe that if they just continue to walk, they’ll eventually find their way.
Some people don’t think that this theory is likely since Garrett had taken the short path back to camp in question multiple times already & since it was a little more than 250 yards away, there have been doubts that he would’ve gotten turned around. Since searchers began looking for Garrett within minutes of him walking away from his dad, one would assume he would have heard them calling out to him.
Search dogs picked up no scent of the young boy & other than the Nike sock, which may or may not have belonged to Garrett, none of his belongings have ever been found. One would assume that once Garrett realized he was lost, he would have dropped the fishing pole he was holding as he walked away from his dad.
The second theory is an animal attack. On a previous outing with the Scouts, Garrett came running back to camp terrified, saying he saw a bear. Since Utah is home to black bears, mountain lions, this is an absolute possibility. However, an animal attack on a human is very loud & violent & would leave evidence of the attack behind that would include hair, blood, shreds of clothing & potentially drag marks. The fact that no evidence of an attack was found makes this theory unlikely.
Another theory is that Garrett was abducted on his short journey back to camp. It’s possible that a predator was lurking nearby, aware of the fact that a group of Scouts were camping, watching & waiting for an opportunity when one was vulnerable & alone. This theory would also explain the lack of evidence & the fact that none of Garrett’s belongings were located. Had he been snatched off the trail, his supplies could have been taken with him & the search dogs wouldn’t have found anything, including a solid scent to track.
However, this theory has been questioned since no campers reported seeing anything unusual. There were no unfamiliar people reported at the trailheads & no sightings of an abductor with Garrett. Since the hike to camp was more than three miles, this could be considered unlikely. However, as anyone who is familiar with true crime knows, predators can be lurking in plain sight, blending in, looking like an ordinary, unsuspecting camper or hiker.
Some who have speculated what could have happened to Garrett have even mentioned the idea of the unknown or paranormal. There have been many stories of people vanishing without a trace & without an explanation in the wilderness.
After the search was called off & all of the volunteers packed up their belongings, the Bardsley family were left without answers, without closure & without their son. Since they wanted to create something meaningful in honor of him, they started the Garrett Bardsley Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping to locate missing people, especially within the wilderness where time & resources are often limited. The foundation also works to build schools in impoverished nations, something they know their son would have loved since he had such a passion for school & learning.
Less than a year after Garrett went missing, another Utah Boy Scout, 11-year-old Brennan Hawkins, went missing on Friday, June 17, 2005. He was last seen at about 5:30 pm near a climbing wall at the Bear River Boy Scout Reservation in the Uinta Mountains where Garrett had gone missing.
Brennan had been at the climbing wall with his 11-year-old buddy, Brian Christensen, & when he tried to wiggle out of his harness, Brian ran off yelling, catch up with me! He ran off to have a steak dinner with the Boy Scouts & as Brennan tried to catch up, he made a wrong turn & spent the next four days wandering the Utah wilderness until a rescuer found him.
Brennan had always been given two instructions from his parents: Never leave a trail & never talk to strangers. When people arrived on his trail on horseback on Tuesday, four days into his disappearance, he crept off the path & hid until they were gone.
Under Scout rules, Brennan & his assigned buddy were always to stay together & keep an eye on one another. Brian indicated that he figured that Brennan wasn’t far behind as he ran ahead for dinner along a quarter-mile jog on a familiar camp road.
Because Brennan went uphill, climbing 400 feet over a mountain ridge, rather than downhill as 90% of children do when they’re lost, his rescue was delayed. It wasn’t until Tuesday when a volunteer on an ATV, came upon the boy who just happened to walk out on the road while he was there. He was five miles away from where he was last seen. Brennan was in good shape & believed he had only been missing for one or two nights rather than four. He was reunited with his parents & four siblings & taken to a Salt Lake City hospital for evaluation.
Brennan has little memory of his time missing. He recalls drinking water from a stream, but he went four days with no food & spent the cold nights huddled with his sweatshirt pulled over his legs. Brian’s father, Martin Christensen, reconstructed Brennan’s most probable route & determined that he immediately took a wrong turn from the 60-foot climbing wall. He would have walked toward his tent camp rather than the mess trailer & when he realized his mistake, he doubled back through some burned woods, but took another wrong turn at the Smith’s Fork Trail.
Kevin Bardsley was one of the searchers looking for Brennan as he has vowed since his own son vanished the previous year that if anyone ever went missing, he would be there.
After the search for Garrett was called off the weekend after he went missing, the family & many friends & volunteers continued to search. They returned at least two or three times each week until October. Further searches that were held after winter 2004 turned up nothing.
In 2006, a hunter came across a shoe while out near Cuberant Lake. Because it looked as if it had been in the elements for an extended period of time, he wondered if it could belong to Garrett. However, after it was more carefully examined, it became clear that it hadn’t belonged to Garrett since it was larger than the size shoe he wore.
Garrett’s disappearance shook the tight-knit community of Elk Ridge, Utah & haunted the searchers who were convinced that he couldn’t have gotten that far. However, nature can be very unforgiving, unpredictable & dangerous. His case is a reminder that when you’re enjoying the great outdoors, please take every safety precaution because sometimes, the smallest details can mean the difference between tragedy & survival.
More than twenty-one years have gone by since Garrett, who would now be 33-years-old, vanished in an instant & without a trace. His parents are left grief-stricken & heartbroken, not knowing what happened to their son. Garrett is never far from their thoughts & they remain devoted to keeping his memory alive. In his short 12 years of life Garrett was a funny boy who was quick to crack a joke or encourage a friend. He was posthumously awarded the Spirit of the Eagle, an honor given to Scouts who are on their way to earning Eagle Rank, but passed away before they achieved that goal.
References:
- CBS News: Utah boy’s ordeal details emerge
- NBC News: Missing Utah boy found alive
- TheDoeNetwork: Garrett Alexander Bardsley
- Strange Outdoors: The weird disappearance of Garrett Bardsley from Cuberant Lake in Utah
- The Charley Project: Garrett Alexander Bardsley
- Medium: The boy who walked back to change his socks.. And disappeared forever
- YouTube: The Missing Enigma: Garrett Bardsley: The vanishing at Cuberant Lake
- Medium: Garrett Bardsley: Utah Boy Scout vanishes without a trace
