EP: 420 She Almost Vanished *members only trailer

Blurry Creatures

Nature, Science, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2026

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gaby never planned to leave the trail. She was sick, alone, and wandering near Vernal Fall while her family hiked in Yosemite. When she walked off the trail to photograph a tree, she stepped into something she still cannot fully explain. The forest went quiet. The trees started moving in a gentle, rhythmic dance that felt like an invitation. And for the next four hours, she was somewhere else entirely, though it only felt like two minutes. Her story is one of the most vivid firsthand accounts of the Missing 411 phenomenon we have ever heard, and she is here to tell it because her love for her five-year-old son pulled her back before the door closed behind her. And the photo of the tree that started it all never showed up on her phone. We unpack Gaby's experience alongside the broader mystery of people vanishing in America's national parks. From time slips and sound vacuums to the role of granite, quartz, and physical ailments, her account checks nearly every box that David Paulides has cataloged over decades of research. She also shares a wild encounter at Sequoia involving massive eyes in the trees and her stepdad's own strange experience at Zion. This is one of those episodes that will make you think twice the next time someone says "stay on the trail." Want to listen to this episode and a catalog of more than 100 other members-only episodes? Check out the vibrant community, extra episodes, and perks of being a Blurry Creatures member at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://blurrycreatures.com/pages/members⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The weird thing with me, it was, again, that really beautiful, peaceful call, if that
0:11.8	make, it was a call.
0:12.8	I feel like it was a call.
0:14.0	It was a welcoming to like come here, you know.
0:17.7	But my responsibility as a mom and my love as a mom overcame my curiosity.
0:22.6	And I think that's what brought me back.
0:24.6	If not, I would definitely be one of those missing.
0:26.6	I feel it in my heart that I know.
0:29.6	And the reason why, it's because when I came back and I heard the noises and the stuff,
0:34.6	I was totally off trail and four hours had passed.
0:40.3	And four hours had passed.
0:48.3	And four hours had passed.
0:51.3	Something in me, my six cents, I strongly think, was like, wait, hold up.
0:57.8	This isn't supposed to happen type of thing, you know?
1:01.3	And that's when I kind of came in.
1:03.2	Because honestly, like, and I can understand why so many people do go missing because it's
1:09.5	kind of like a numbing thing.
1:11.6	Like it's so mesmerizing, you stop thinking about anything in everybody, right?
1:16.6	Like you don't think, oh, this is going to happen.
1:19.6	Like it looks so beautiful.
1:21.6	And obviously if you're in Yosemite or hiking anywhere else, you love nature,
1:25.6	so you're able to appreciate it. And so it just calls you in.
	...

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