Heart Beat Cave - a real scary experience

I have been wanting to post something creepy in the spirit of Halloween. I first looked on YouTube for some Ghost Pictures and Movies, and well lets just say that the ones I found were too scary, and that experience is a post in and of it's self. So I dug through some old experiences and pictures, and decided to post on an experience I had many years back.

My brother and I were up to our usual antics and went up to the Uintas to do some prospecting. We decided to try a new area that we hadn't explored before. The truck whined as it climbed the steep dusty road. The warm autumn sun was at a low angle in the sky, and cast deep shadows along the canyon walls and cliffs. As we turned off the main road, onto the small jeep road, both us were suprised to notice at the same time, a small entrance to a cave 3,000 feet up a steep mountain side, on the side of the cliff. Well you wouldn't be a prospector if you didn't get out of your truck and jump into every nook and cranny you could find. So we parked the little gray nissan in some thick brush and scrubby ponderosas, and grabbed our gear for the long trek ahead.

We began to pick our way through the buck brush and evergreens toward our goal. Our conversation shifted from how many dead Spanish Conquistadors we were going to find in this cave, to what sort of gold veins would be waiting for us inside. We were sure we were the only people dumb enough to make the arduous journey to the mouth of the entrance, and would be the first. The climb became downright steep. We soon found we were on all fours scrambling up skree and holding onto stunted little shrubs. The slope morphed into a rock slide and we found for every two steps forward, we slid backwards a step and a half. In the rocks we began to find the remains of ancient small corals and bivalves, indicative that you are in "cave country". We also noticed some pyrites, always a good sign for mineralization. We let our thoughts get carried away again, and it briefly let us escape the fact that we were exhausted, sweaty, and thirsty from ascending this mountain side. Our water rations soon ran out, and we realized that the entrance looked easier to get to from the truck, than what it was really taking us to approach. Another odd thing we found, was the closer we neared the entrance, the larger the entrace became. At first we had thought the cave to be about 1 meter square. At about 3/4 of the way to the entrance, it looked like you drive a vehicle into it. We finished the last 1000 feet of the climb on all fours scratching and clawing our way up the loose gravel, that had settled at the angle of repose.

The entrance was massive. You could build a two story house in the entrance, and still have space between the cave and the entire house. It was nice to get out of the late afternoon autumn sun into the cool inards of the mountain. The three hour climb had left us feeling weak and famished. It was time to get down to buisness and explore this bad boy. We jumped into the entrance and were punched in the nose by the smell of ammonia. "Guano" was everywhere. We found that after about 30 meters into the cave it began to really neck down and we could barely stand in the cave. The floor and rocks were stained a dark organic colour, and we were careful not to touch more guano than we had to. We shined our mag light onto the ceiling and saw a thick seem of brilliant yellow calcite crystals. We pulled out the chisels and began to remove a few specimens for posterity sake. It was cool and dark and the light from the gigantic entrance no longer made it's way to this portion of the cave. We pressed onward.

It appeared for a moment that we had reached the end of the cave system (always a dissapointment for an explorer). We shown the light around, and noticed a small section of cave that seemed to continue into the mountain, at a right angle to the main tunnel.

It was small, only big enough to belly crawl through. We pulled our packs off, and Rich did what he always does, and dove in head first. I heard his muffled voice from the hole "there are a few rocks in the way, but it definately keeps going". He grabbed his rock hammer and began to pry at the rocks. He looked like a varmont digging a hole, as the debris began to fly out of the small aperture. He yelled from the hole "the acoustics are crazy back here, I can hear my own heartbeat in the cave". I thought that was an odd statement, I know I had heard my pulse pounding in my head as we struggled up to the entrance, but this wasn't what he meant. I questioned "are you sure?". He casually said it was definately his heart beat. I squatted down at the small entrance and could see the pebbles and rocks stuck in the tread of the bottom of his shoes. I pointed the mag light back in the claustophobic little tunnel (We only had one light and I was holding it to free up Rich's hands). Rich managed to budge a massive boulder that was hindering our further progress. With the loosening of the rock, I was hit in the face with a gust of stale dank air. And then every hair on my body stood on end, much like when you are ontop of the Uintas in a lightning storm, and you can feel the electrons singling you out as a target, but my hair was on end because I heard the faint sound of a heartbeat too.

Now I am a scientific guy and I am VERY skeptical of all things supernatural, so don't think for a second that I am making this up. I told Rich with a shaky voice, "I hear your heartbeat too". He replied totally non-concerned "I know it's getting louder". There was a definate draft now and air was flowing around Rich's prostrate body. The sound grew louder. No longer was it a faint muffled sound but a distinct rythmic heartbeat. Boooom boom boooom boom. We both began to wonder what the heck was going on. It was like knowing how it felt to be the main character in Poe's "A Tale Tell Heart". The sound began to build. I was terrified. It was like there was a giant heart sleeping in the bowls of the Earth, and we had disturbed it's slumber, and it was now mad and coming for us. I finally told Rich let's get out of here. "Right behind you buddy" I heard from the small grave like opening. And then when I thought I couldn't get anymore scared, the beats grew louder. The sound was louder than a base drum. The fear gripped me, and I was sure that my life may come to an end at any moment. It is a fear that is hard to explain unless you have ever been confronted by some sort of invisible fo. I had to shout to talk over the rythmic booms coming from the depths of hell. The repeating beats were echoeing off every wall. It was as if you were inside a giant heart, like the mountain was a living breathing creature, and we were adjacent to the mountain's massive heart. The sound surrounded you, and it wasn't just a sound, it felt so alive. Finally fear shorted my brain out. My legs began to move by their own power. Fight or flight had kicked in, and I wasn't able to fight a giant heartbeat and win, so I ran.

Keep in mind that I had our only light source. The last thing I can remember in the cave is my brother scrambling to put chisels, hammers and crystals in his pack. The next thing I knew I was at the mouth of the entrance. I heard a terrified whimper behind me "You have the light dude, I can't see a thing". Had I just left my brother in the dark to fend for himself against a giant heart beat.? "I am a huge freakin wimp" I thought. Yet I had not the courage to look back. I just stood in the entrance and pointed the light towards the scrambling sound of my brothers footsteps. I saw a flash stream past me as my brother virtually flew out of the entrance. The sound at this point was echoeing from the entrance I was still standing in. I quickly followed my brother down the slope. Now keep in mind we were on all fours for nearly three hours to climb this hill. We were now sprinting! Each step I took seemed to cover 100 meters of distance. It was like I was out of my body watching some athlete below me navigate a course made by the devil himself. Yet both of us were executing each step, and maneuver, with the accuracy and skill of a surgeon. The sound of the heart beat was faint as we began to get in the scrubby pines and buck brush that hid our small truck. It took us but 15 minutes to get back to the truck. We never stopped, or even made a sound on our rapid suicide desent. We threw in our gear, and started our truck. The sound of some electronic music began to play and erase the horrid sounds that we had just been a part of.

We made it to the small diner that we always ate at after a prospecting trip, and finally the shock had wore off. "WHAT IN THE HECK WAS THAT?" We both said in unison. As we sat drinking a gallon of soda and dipping our greasy frys into the fry sauce, we began to try and explain it away. Maybe there was drilling going on, or maybe the draft in the cave caused the cave to make noise, maybe there is heavy machinery near by,,,, and on and on. I am here to tell you I have never come up with a good explanation. I have had cavers, and miners, and forest rangers try to explain it as this or that. The problem is the pure volume of the noise, and the proximity of where the noise was coming from. I am a scientific person and want a scientific answer, but some things are just mysteries, like heart beat cave. Every part of this story is true and accurate even to the part of me shamefully leaving my brother to his demise. I have never gone back, and I will never divulge the location of the cave, and I WILL NEVER go back again as long as I live, well maybe I would if I was talked into it, I am always up for tempting fate.

Rich in the entrance of the cave when we first arrived, below is a shot of me in the entrance upon arriving, both of us oblivious to the experience we were about to be a part of. (sorry all these shots are just some crappy scans) Rich just entering the creepy little tunnel in the back of the cave, moments before the scary experience.
This is a shot from the inside of the cave about 15 meters back looking out of the entrance, if you look close you can see the Guano and the seam of yellow calcite crystals in the ceiling.