This Is The Scariest Place In Southern Utah

The scariest place in Southern Utah doesn’t have ghosts, but it haunts me and gives me nightmares. You want to see the blood drain from my face, mention the Bloomington Cave. I may have a certain amount of Closter phobia. I don’t get nervous in elevators. I am fine in a full airplane, but spelunking in a cave seems to bring it out.  

It was a beautiful Sothern Utah day about 10 years ago when I headed west of Bloomington. I was with a group of 16-year-old kids who wanted to explore the 1.4 mile long cave. I told them I would take them there, but I was not going inside. 

When we arrived, we were the only ones there and if you have been to the cave, the first part going down is fairly large. With some prodding, I agreed to go down the big part and then I would leave when they came up the tight other side. 

As I headed down, many other groups arrived. They piled up behind us and it slowly dawned on me that I was not getting back the way I thought. When I ended up at the bottom, there only seemed to be one option for getting out, following the much tighter and technical way. I was assured it wasn’t as bad as I thought...It was as bad as I thought. 

As we made our way through tight crevices, I began to feel panic well up in me. I could feel the mound of rock weighing down on me. Luckily, another adult I was with told me to wrap my arms around myself and squeeze as hard as I could. This actually lessened the tension I was feeling, and I would recommend it for anyone feeling panicked. 

We slowly made our way to the surface. At one point, I had to slide down a crevice with a rock face an inch from my face. I still dream about that one. 

After a couple of hours, we were nearing the end when we discovered there had been a cave in and our way out was blocked. Some of the others were looking for a way around the blockage and as I stood there in the dark thinking about going all the way back down the way we had come, I found a new level of pleading to my maker.  

Blessedly, they did find a way around and I felt like I had been pulled from a rocky grave to the light as I stepped out of that hole. You can have your haunted castles, your scary corn mazes, the spot in Southern Utah fills me with fear, is out in Bloomington.