As I child, I enjoy exploring places where I was warned not to go into or avoid after dark. They were the cemeteries, abandoned buildings, dark alleys and the forest. This curiosity all started from hearing a story about the area such as there’re ghosts, monsters, someone was murder or people went missing. I wanted to know if such tales were real and in the end most weren’t while others had some bases of truth. Most places would have one or two stories surrounding it, but when a location is just drowning in legends would you still go at night say for example the Devil’s Gate Dam.

The Devil’s Gate Dam crosses the Arroyo Seco Canyon in Los Angeles County, California. The structure was built in 1920 to control the floodwater of the Arroyo Seco river. The location is known for its natural rock formation shaped as the Devil’s head. The dam holds many tales about the paranormal involving demons, ghosts, the occult, and portals to hell.

The canyon is believed by local Native American to be haunted and hold mystical properties which their folklore warns to stay away from the area as it’s a portal to the spirit realm. Accounts from early settlers mention experiencing paranormal activity along with disappearance of livestock. What made the Devil’s Gate Dam truly famous didn’t occur until the 1940s.

Jack Parsons, a rocket scientist, would be the one to bring stories of demons, portals to hell and the occult to the canyon. Parson was known to have interests in the occult and was a member of the Ordo Templi Orienti created by no other than Aleister Crowley. Both men believed the Devil’s Gate Dam held great magical powers and even was a portal to hell. Parson was rumoured to performed magical rituals in hopes of opening a doorway to summon a demon into the world. Some had speculated, before his death, a portal was opened and remains to this day, as paranormal activity continues in the area.

Over the decades, strange events had occurred at the Devil’s Gate Dam deepening its mystery. During the 1950s, several children had disappeared within the area some were the victims of a serial killer while the fate of the others remains unknown. Nearby, the Colorado Street bridge, built in 1913, has been the scene of more than 200 suicides. The paranormal activity reported in the area has been encounters with moving shadows, strange ghostly sounds, sudden attacks of anxiety, orbs and most recently UFO sightings. In the research conducted on the Devil’s Gate Dam I found some paranormal groups to advise caution on conducting any investigation at night.

Last summer I attended a rehab out in Phoenix, Arizona, and while I have many unsettling adventures I could tell from my time in Arizona, the most unsettling story comes from my own hometown of Pasadena, California. I had convinced a few of my fellow delinquent brothers in recovery to head out to California with me to visit my fiancé for the weekend. Albeit they did not take much convincing as anyone is looking to get out of the 120 degree hell hole that is Phoenix in the dead of summer. I received the approval from my parents, who had recently moved out to Arizona, to drive their car across the desert, as long as my friends payed for the gas. I hadn’t seen my fiancé in months and it seemed like things were finally starting to turn around for me. Some could say that we were having a bit of a rough patch because prior to attending rehab she did not know I had a drug problem. Regardless, I was destined to show her that I had began to get my life back together and was prepared to continue with the engagement.

I showed up at the sober fraternity house to pick up my friends, Mike, Beans and John. Mike was the first friend I made out in Arizona. He reached out to me day one and really convinced me to give the whole sobriety thing a shot. He threw his back pack in the trunk of my car after pulling out a tattered snap back and placing it on his un-showered head.

“You ready to send it to Cali, Pussy Boy?” he laughed as he sat up in the front seat of my car. The unpleasant odor of cigarettes emanated from his body.

“What the fuck you think you’re doing up in the front seat without handing me a smoke?” I bantered back. I just picked up smoking when I quit heroin.

“Aw Jesus are you guys going to smoke the whole way there?” John complained. John was one of the more attractive guys in rehab. He was more reserved but had the longest time sober amongst all of us. He was one of the few guys that did not use any sort of nicotine in rehab. He reluctantly got into the car and laid his duffle bag between his feet.

“I swear all you do is bitch.” Beans said as he closed the rear passenger car door. I didn’t know much about Beans aside from the fact that he called Xanax “Beans” hence his nickname. In a matter of seconds, Soundcloud rappers filled my cars stereos, Mike and I were smoking cigarettes and beans was in the back seat blowing O’s from his vape toward Johns face as we drove across the phoenix desert underneath the full moon.

We drove for about three hours before I pulled over at some truck stop in Indio for gas. We all stepped out of the car to stretch our legs and use the bathroom. While having another smoke with Mike, Beans walked up to us with a smile across his face. Beans was the master of finding supposedly haunted places, and based off this smile we knew he found something out in California.

“Have you heard of a place called Devils Gate Dam?” He asked through an exhale of smoke.

“No, because I was too focused on getting high to bother with finding spooky places to hang out at.” I said while extinguishing my cigarette into the ash try. We started walking back to my car slowly. John was asleep in the backseat and was not a fan of going to haunted places.

“Apparently it’s an old dam that has a tunnel where people do a bunch of satanic rituals. It’s ranked as one of the most haunted places in California. We have got to check it out.” He opened the rear car door and sat down in the back seat. I removed the gas pump from my car and looked at Mike.

“I mean it’s already one in the morning, Abi is most likely asleep right? I say we send it.” Mike said as he opened the passenger door and sat down. I walked around the car to get in when I could already hear John objecting to the idea.

“Send it where? It’s one in the morning, I am not trying to see any crazy shit.” John said as he opened his eyes from what we thought was a deep sleep.

“Shut up pussy, tell us about it Beansie boy.” Mike said while lighting another cigarette in his mouth. I pulled out of the truck stop and proceeded toward the vacant highway.

“So I saw this youtube video of how to get there. You just have to hop a fence, and go down a 200 foot ladder. Then once you’re at the bottom, you’ll see the entrance of a tunnel.” Beans stated with an odd sense of excitement in his voice.

“That’s it? A tunnel in a dam?” John scoffed at the idea.

“You didn’t see the video, the guys reached the end of the tunnel and there were a bunch of dudes in capes and shit that turned around. Then the camera cut off.” Beans retorted.

“I’m down for the adventure, but that video sounds fake as fuck bro.” I stated as I merged over to the left lane of the highway while accelerating my car to 90mph.

“Sounds like a stupid adventure.” John said as he put his head up against the window and closed his eyes.

“Stop being a bitch.” Mike ashed his cigarette out of the tiny crack in the window.

The next three hours went by fast as we raced across the desert. John was fast asleep, again, and so was my fiancé, or at least I assumed as she hadn’t answered any of my texts for the past four hours. We arrived in Pasadena and Beans gave me the address of the dam.

“So this guide says we have to park by these houses and follow a path to the left.” Beans stated while looking down at his phone. My car came to a halt in the quiet suburban neighborhood and the clock on my car changed to 4:03AM.

“We’re at your place?” John asked as he woke up and eagerly stepped out of the car.

“Not quite.” I laughed as we all stepped out of the car and into the cool Los Angeles air.

“God it feels good to not be in Hell any more.” Mike yelled out as he lit up another cigarette. He passed one to me and we continued down the path.

“We’re going to that fucking tunnel aren’t we?” John asked as he moped behind us.

“Is a frogs ass water tight?” Beans laughed out. He looked down at his phone then over to the right of the trail. “Ah that’s the bridge they’re talking about.” He pointed over to a small wooden bridge to the right of the path. We followed behind him eagerly.

“This isn’t illegal right?” John asked as we walked under the bridge.

“Well it’s trespassing so.” Mike stated as he pointed at the sign that had No Trespassing written across it.

“I mean the No is practically faded off so maybe it’s a sign that is saying were allowed to trespass.” I said jokingly as we hoped over the small rusted chain link fence. We walked down a few cracked stone steps that overlooked the massive canyon below. Trees covered the floor below and to the right we could see the massive Dam.

“All my time here, I never knew there was a dam.” I laughed out as I followed immediately behind Beans. We stepped out onto a metal bridge that stretched over the canyon. At the end of the rusted bridge was a metal bar door that lead to a ladder. We carefully opened the unlocked door and stared over the edge following the ladder that ran straight into darkness. I looked over at beans.

“You think this old thing will hold us?” I nervously asked.

“I mean the video says this is a short cut, we could have walked through all of those trees at the bottom, but it would’ve taken over an hour.” Beans whispers out hoping John wouldn’t hear.

“A short cut, so people don’t even use this ladder?” John wined out while grasping onto the side rail of the cold bridge.

“Rela-“ Mike began to say before he was interrupted. A horn like sound came from the bottom of the ladder repeating it self three times.

“What the fuck was that?” John asked. His face had gone completely white. Mine must’ve been too. Of all the “haunted” places we had been to in Arizona, none had ever interacted with us.

“I’m sure it was just the trees.” Beans said as he stepped onto the ladder. The sound went off again, repeating itself three times and Beans froze in his place.

“Bro, we can’t see whats down there.” Mike said. I turned around to see he and John nearly off the bridge.

“Beans, I don’t know, I’ve seen some demonic movies and they do shit in “three’s” to mock the holy trinity.” I said as I walked back toward Mike and John.

“There isn’t a demon down there, you guys are ridiculous.” Beans said as he stepped up from the ladder to walk towards us.

“Shit someone is coming down the steps.” John said as he looked at the top of the stone stairs. Sure enough two people came running down the stairs. It was two kids no older than fifteen. They were laughing with each other as they casually walked down the stairs right toward us.

“You guys going down to the dam?” one of the kids asked as he walked past the four of us toward the ladder.

“I don’t know it sounds like their’s some kind of ritual going on.” John explained as the other kid walked passed him. The kid laughed out loud.

“Sounds like your a pussy.” The fifteen year old followed his friend down the ladder. Mike, Beans and I laughed at the remark.

“Let’s just follow these kids.” Mike said as he walked toward the ladder. The rest of us followed suit with John reluctantly trailing behind. The sound went off again as we were half way down the ladder. The kids laughed out to us.

“That must be the spooky ritual you guys are talking about huh? We’ve been here like a hundred times and haven’t seen shit!” The kids shouted up to us as they reached the bottom of the ladder. John looked down at me.

“Where did these kid’s come from and why are they up at 4?” John rhetorically asked. I did not want to admit that he proposed a good question. I instead thought to myself that it was peculiarly strange that these kids had been here so many times and happened to arrive right when we were about to leave. My heart began to race and my palms sweat onto the frail laddder.

“You guys are a bunch of pussies! Its just a fucking toad. Your demon is a Toad.” The kids taunted at us as we all reached the bottom of the ladder. Sure enough there was a toad floating at the top of the murky water. It made the sound in replicates of three and we all felt like a bunch of children. John’s white face returned with color and he began to smile. We watched the two kids race down the tunnel that was to the right and we followed behind them. We entered the dark tunnel. The walls were filled with graffiti and we joked about how scared we all were from a toad. We reached what must’ve been the half way point when the kids ran past us in the opposite direction.

“That was kind of strange.” Beans said as he moved his phone light from the wall and to the back of the tunnel. We reached the end and witnessed a metal slab on the back wall. It was covered in blood that was still wet. Candles lined the slab in a nice orderly fashion. We stood frozen as the color immediately left our faces.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here.” John stated. For once we all agreed with him and started sprinting toward the back entrance. We could hear the two kids screaming out loud and metal chains scraping against bars.

“Help!” the two kids screamed in unison. We reached the entrance to see that the two gates had been closed shut.

“What in the actual fuck!” Beans screamed out. It shocked me to see the man who never seemed to be scared of anything absolutely petrified. Two figures walked out of a dark hole in the wall that we didn’t see when we came in. I couldn’t make out any features of their face, but to be honest I was too terrified to look up from the floor. I was frozen still as one of the figures began to speak.

“We only need two to complete our sacrifice.” The deep voice echoed through the tunnel.

“Fuck this shit, who’s a pussy now.” John yelled out heroically as he punched one of the kids in the back of the head knocking him out. The other kid turned in horror as John punched him across his small pre-pubescent face. I could hear his cheek bones crack as blood sprayed across the metal gate. The boy collapsed to the floor unconscious next to his friend. I turned around to see more cloaked men. One had Beans in his grasp with a white cloth over his mouth. Mike was already unconscious on floor. That was the last thing I remember seeing.

The sun rose into the sky. The toad was still sitting on top of the murky water. It’s annoying sound woke us up. We were on the outside of the metal gates that were now open. There was no sign of the cloaked figures, or the two boys. We climbed up the staircase and swore to never speak about the events that happened in that damn. I’m writing this know, anonymously, to warn anyone thinking about visiting the devils gate dam in Pasadena. Sure, most of the times you probably won’t encounter anything truly terrifying, however, go there enough like these kids did, and you’ll eventually realize why these tales exist. Hopefully you wont share the same fate as these two boys.