While sitting here this morning trying to pry my eyes open with some Folgers coffee, I thought I would sit here and come up with some possible scenarios on what may have happened to this little boy and where he could be.
I'm going to stay away from the wild animal theory and the abduction theories. First of all, predator type animals don't usually hang around areas with a noisy human presence. Secondly, the roads in and out of there are gravel. Nobody "sneaks" around on gravel roads, you can usually hear a vehicle coming down one of them for a 1/4 mile before you see it. The family reported not seeing or hearing any other vehicles during this event, nor did they see anyone walking or hiking near their camp.
Now.....where did he go ? He definitely walked off for a ways during the timespan that his parents were off exploring, most likely out of earshot, but not necessarily. His parents stressed that he was "almost" three, which means he's pretty mobile to me and can move at a pretty good rate if he wanted to. At three years old, he would still be pretty small and close to the ground, so what does that leave us with ?
A) He got up under some shrubbery or bushes and got himself snakebit. Rattlesnake, water moccasin, coral snake being the most likely culprits. The poison could have taken effect within minutes in a little guy that size, depending on where the bite occurred.
B) He found the home or den of a burrowing animal, tried to crawl down inside of it and got himself wedged and stuck underground or partially underground.
C) He tried to climb up or down some kind of cliff or embankment, fell and knocked himself unconscious, maybe fatally. A fall from any height could prove to be fatal, depending on how one landed. People have died falling off of step ladders.
D) He tried to take a shortcut through some thick shrubbery or bushes, and got his foot wedged or stuck to where he became immobile. The problem with this theory is that he would still be able to cry for help, unless of course he somehow got turned upside down or was impaled in some way by the branches.
E) He climbed up a tree and.........see (D) ....... Searchers, look UP !
F) He went down by the creek and fell in headfirst. (Yeah, yeah....I know.....SEARCH IT AGAIN.)
The entire length of the creek needs to be searched, he could be wedged under something such
as a large rock or a submerged log. He could be trapped in an underwater void or wallowed out pocket not visible from the surface.
G.) He wandered off down to the reservoir........ enough said.
H) He started walking down the same gravel road they came in on, got well out of earshot, wandered off out into the surrounding foliage, maybe he saw some rocks he wanted to climb, then .......(See A thru E above.)
I think he is still in the general area, but there is a good chance he may have gotten further away than they are anticipating. The clothes he was wearing are going to be a hinderance because he will easily blend in with the surrounding terrain and may not be recognizable as a human even from a short distance, such as 20-30 yards. I think the highest likelihood is that he crawled down UNDER something and became wedged or stuck, possibly even a void or crevice between two rocks. His cries for help would not be heard if he was headfirst down in a hole, nor would he be visible to searchers. If it was a sudden or catastrophic event, there may have been no cries for help.
Keep searching, he's right there somewhere. I'll keep my cynicism to a minimum, but I remember a few quotes in the media lately that sounded something like this, "Well, we searched that area three or four times already.....I don't know how we could have missed him"...........uh-huh.
((HUGS)) 
