He hiked the same trails Morgenson hiked, scoured park archives and peak registers, and read the same books Morgenson had read in the months leading up to his disappearance. Was Morgenson murdered by one of the two disgruntled park visitors he had felt threatened by just the summer before his disappearance? Did the guilt he suffered after being unfaithful to his wife and his growing despair with the state of the Park Service drive him to take his own life? Had he simply met with some unfortunate accident and been unable to call for help because of the parks’ substandard radio system-a problem he had complained about numerous times in the past and documented in his yearly reports? Or could Morgenson’s isolation and increasing despondency have prompted him to walk out of the wilderness and begin a new life? He had, after all, hinted about doing just that.Įric Blehm spent eight years piecing together the portrait of Morgenson from journals, letters, photos, and interviews with his wife, friends, and colleagues. The Last Season is an intriguing adventure narrative, complex psychological portrait, and compelling mystery.
But the intense isolation and a series of personal setbacks took their toll, and when Morgenson vanished without a trace in 1996, many suspected suicide or foul play.
For the solitary, introspective Morgenson, the job was a calling, and he became fiercely devoted to protecting the wilderness he loved from visitors-and those visitors from the wilderness. The Last Season tells the true story of the life and disappearance of Randy Morgenson who, over the course of twenty-eight summers spent in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, became arguably the most celebrated ranger in the National Park Service’s most adventurous unit.
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