Scary Summer Camping Horror Stories to Give You the Creeps
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What eerie event happened near the Valley of the Gods?
I have never liked telling people this happened near Valley of the Gods. Because as soon as you say that, people either want to turn it into a travel story, or they want to act like the place did something wrong. It didn't. The land out there is not the problem. The desert was quiet, old, dry, and beautiful in a way that made you feel small without making you feel unwelcome. What happened to us felt separate from that. It felt like something using the place because it knew people like us came through there thinking distance made us safe. This was in July a few years ago. I went with my friends Chris and Mark. We had known each other since high school. But we were already at that age where everybody had jobs and bills and weird schedules.
And taking a full week off together felt like getting away with something. Chris was the planner. Mark was the one who said yes to anything as long as there was a cooler and somewhere to sleep. I was in the middle.
What preparations did the campers make before setting out?
I liked camping, but I liked it more when there was a gas station within a reasonable drive and I knew exactly where the truck was pointed. We left from the Phoenix area early on a Saturday and drove north through Flagstaff, then up through the open country toward southeastern Utah. The plan was loose but not stupid. We were going to spend a week dispersed camping around the Valley of the Gods, Mexican Hat, Muley Point, and a few areas near Bears Ears. We had two vehicles because Chris insisted on it. He had an older Tacoma, and Mark and I were in my 4Runner. We had paper maps, extra water, tools, two spare tires between us, a shovel, a first aid kit that was better than most people's, and enough food for longer than we planned to be out there.
The heat was the first thing I remember clearly, not just hot, but heavy in a dry way, where every piece of metal on the truck hurt to touch, and the shade under the hatch still felt like you were standing in front of an oven door. By the time we hit Mexican Hat, all three of us were quiet. We stopped for fuel, ice, and jerky, and an older man at the pump looked at our water jugs in the back and said, "'Take more than you think.'" We did. That was one of the few smart things we did without arguing. Our first campsite was off one of those dirt pullouts where the land drops into a wash and the monuments sit out in the distance, dark red and unreal in the evening light. Chris had found the spot years before on a trip with his brother.
It was far enough from the main road that we didn't hear traffic unless the wind carried it right, but close enough that we could leave if the weather turned.
What unusual occurrences did the campers experience on their first night?
There was a fire ring, though we were careful about fire because it was summer and everything felt ready to burn. We set up two tents, my smaller two-person tent and Chris's bigger one. Mark slept in Chris's tent because he always forgot something, and that time it was his tent stakes. The first night was normal, until it wasn't. We ate canned chili and tortillas and sat in camp chairs waiting for the sky to go fully dark. If you have never been out there in the summer, the stars are not just above you. They fill everything. The ground loses its edges. The rocks go black. You start hearing small noises you would never hear at home. Little ticks in the brush. Sand moving under beetles. your own water bottle settling against the chair leg.
Around 10 or so, Mark said, He said it in a flat voice, not scared, just pointing something out. There was a dog standing down in the wash.
How did the campers react to the strange dog they encountered?
I could see it because the moon was up enough to put a weak light over everything. It was maybe 40 yards away. Thin, medium-sized. The kind of dog you see around rural areas, mixed with everything and built to survive. Its head was low and its body was turned sideways, but its face was pointed straight at us. Chris stood up and told it to get out of there. Not yelling, just using that voice people use with strange dogs. The dog did not move. It did not wag its tail. It did not bark. It did not do anything that made it feel like an animal deciding what to do next.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What eerie event happened near the Valley of the Gods?
0:22–1:20
2
What preparations did the campers make before setting out?
1:20–3:00
3
What unusual occurrences did the campers experience on their first night?
3:00–3:58
4
How did the campers react to the strange dog they encountered?
3:58–4:58
5
What unsettling events unfolded during the second night of camping?
4:58–5:43
6
What led to the campers deciding to leave their campsite?
5:43–6:57
7
What strange encounter did the campers have with a local man?
6:57–7:50
8
How did the campers' trip end with unexpected consequences?
7:50–1:40:55
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