The Haunted Cave

The title image does not do justice of how terrifying this story actually was. Let’s just say, I’m never going into a cave again. If you’ve ever been in a cave, or if you’ve seen The Descent, or As Above, So Below, you probably understand how unsettling caves are. On a trip to Minneapolis to visit friends, we decided to go up to St. Paul to explore a cave system.

The friends we were visiting said they knew the system really well and could be our tour guides. We entered the cave from a small hole on the side of what appeared to be a small mountain. I later learned the along the Mississippi river there are hundreds of caves formed from the erosion of the water.

We began our descent into the cave, a group of seven, totally unprepared for cave exploration. We had some headlamps and water, but we were also drinking beer, and doing other things you shouldn’t do in a dangerous cave. One of our tour guides Sarah, told us how a few weeks before two kids had died in a similar cave system because they lit a fire which depleted the area of oxygen. I had never been in a cave before, so I really wasn’t sure what to be prepared for.

Our group went deeper and deeper into the cave, laughing and having a good time. Then we came upon a small room with a clipboard hanging off the wall. On the clipboard, someone had written that a group of cave explorers had recently finished digging out a sandstone wall that led to a new portion of the cave system. Our tour guides were excited, and they wanted to explore the new area, and we all foolhardily agreed. Now no one knew the way, as we were all exploring new terrain. To get to the new system we had to climb on our bellies through a sandy tunnel, I almost got stuck because my pack was filled with PBR. When we emerged on the other side, the cave opened up into a massive room, the ceiling of the cave was almost higher than I could make out with my dim headlight.

Someone had attached a rope ladder to the wall that led to another small hole, we climbed up and then through the tunnel which led into an even larger room. The cavern had pathways on either side, but in the middle, was twisted metal and carnage that appeared to be from a hospital.

We continued around the rubble which led to a long hallway, longer than we could see down. Down the hallway, there were offshoots left and right leading to different parts of the cave. We started walking down the hallway, the terrain went from sandy to broken bottles, metal, and all sorts of objects you wouldn’t want to step on with bare feet.

This is when things get creepy. We came upon a room, with skulls carved into the walls, and tea light candles everywhere. Deciding to take a break at this strange destination, we all sat down. Sarah, one of the tour guides said we should all turn our lights off and have a moment of silence. The laughter died down, and as we sat in the dark an uneasy feeling fell over the group. We turned the lights back on and basically in unison said we should head back. Luckily with enough of us we remembered the way we came, so we made it back to the point where the sandstone tunnel was. Unfortunately, my friend Jane had left her favorite hat in the skull room, and she absolutely refused to leave without.

Grudgingly me, Jane, and another friend made our way back to where the skull room was. Our small group quickly lost track of where we were once we got to the large tunnel with many off shooting caverns. Our friend Liz had the idea to follow our footprints to find the cave with the skull carvings. We followed the footprints until we realized they were no longer our own. The footprints we now saw were heading in the direction coming towards us from deeper in the cave. And the most startling thing about these footprints, is that they were larger than normal, maybe size 14 feet, and they were barefoot. You could not be in this cave barefoot, it would be insane. There was twisted metal, broken glass, and carnage everywhere. We were so terrified we quickly found Jane’s hat and got back to the others as quickly as possible.

Later on, I researched and found the system of caves we explored was part of the Lilydale system. Apparently there used to be a psychiatric institute in the area, that would let the unruliest patients roam around freely in the caves. I don’t know what was going on with that cave, but it definitely felt like something evil was lurking.