May 1

Deer Creek Reservoir

A listener writes “My son and I appeared on your show with regard to seeing a creature in Henderson Nevada. I am not sure if you recall it or not. Regardless, the whole thing still strikes me as being odd that it was sitting there at the top of the road like it was waiting for us, but I digress.

The reason for my email was with regards to your recent show 3 months in hell that took place up Provo Canyon, UT. I am from Provo and grew up there and most of my family still lives there so I visit quite frequently. In fact, my sister lives up Provo Canyon up South Fork canyon and I worked for about 7 years at Sundance Ski Resort up the North Fork of the Canyon. In essence, I have spent more time up that canyon than most people from the area.

The reason I want to mention that is because the moment he started telling his story, I knew exactly where he was talking about and its just below Deer Creek Reservoir on the left hand side of the road. My sister lives about a mile further down the canyon off the right hand side of the road. I confirmed I was correct by looking at google maps and finding the exact homes in his picture.

I believe he is telling the truth because of several things that have happened to me, as well as a story my brother in law told me just at Christmas that happened to him a few months before at their home in the south fork canyon just down the canyon from where he had his experience. 30 years ago, there was only a single home there and there were a few trails you could hike or bike up. When I was 18, my friend and I went up one afternoon and hiked up one of the trails that runs through a little valley or canyon right there. The trail ran just above the little valley that had a little creek bed at the bottom that was close to dry due to the time of year. My friend and I went down into the bottom of the little valley and into the creek bed that had walls on each side of looser type soil that were about 10 ft high and were fairly steep, but you could climb up and down them. On each side at the top were large amounts of scrub oak- essentially it ran through a forest of it, but scrub oak only grows about 10-12 feet high unless its very very old in which case it can get to be about 20 feet but it’s a big mess of limbs and trunks kind of all grown together and intertwined. We were in the bottom of the ravine that had a trickle of water running down it and was only a few feet across and the runoff had cut through over the years and reached the bedrock under the loose soil so you were not walking on dirt. From side to side at the top of the embankment it was probably 20 feet across and 3 feet across at the bottom where we were at and running up at a sligh incline. You could not see over the tops of the embankments and could only see the upper part of the trees close to the edge. I had been hiking all over that canyon my entire life and we lived right in the foothills at the mouth of the canyon. I have heard deer running through scrub oak and animals of all sorts including moose moving through the same type of landscape. Back in 1990 there were really no bear there at all, but there are a few now. I cannot recall ever hearing anyone that had seen a bear in a couple of parts of that canyon until my late 20s and even then it was up American fork canyon on the far side of Mt. Timpanogas.

While we were in that ravine we were talking and laughing and suddenly we heard something breaking through the scrub oak about 50 to 60 yrds away as best as I can estimate, but we couldn’t see anything because we were in the ravine and it was coming from up over the lip of the ravine and through the scrub oak little forest at the top. I have heard every animal move through that stuff my whole life, including moose. I have heard them running through it also. First of all- its never towards you and secondly they don’t break down trees when they move through it. Whatever was coming towards us was breaking trees and sounded massive. We crouched down and right as whatever it was got to the lip of the ravine just above us and suddenly stopped. We sat there dead silent and listened as whatever it was just above us had stopped just 20-30 ft away and you could tell was sitting there listening also (I assume listening for us). It was dead silent. I mean dead silent. In late summer there are so many insects and grasshoppers around and there is almost a constant background buzz, but there was no sound. It was eerie. We did not dare move. We sat there for about a 2 minutes and listened and it had to have been doing the same. I expected to hear feet shuffling or even breathing from a big animal like a moose (which I had never seen in late summer there and when I did see them it was usually at a little higher elevation and never in a drier area of the canyon- which is why it was scrub oak and tall dead grass because it is the south facing part of the canyon and is far drier from always facing the sun than the northern facing or eastern facing sides of the mountain and canyon- so there is not the type of vegetation moose eat). There was no noise. No breathing I could hear other than our own. It was one of the scariest moments of my life. If you hear moose or even bear, they constantly make noise and are not quite air sniffers, breathers or foragers. The fact that you could hear nothing and no movement and knew and could sense that it was just above us waiting scared me like at no other time in my life. After a couple of minutes we signaled to each other to start backing back down the ravine towards where we could easily get out and run for our cars which is exactly what we did. To this day, I do not know what it was other than I know it was no typical animal from the area. Nothing does that. A mountain lion can be in that area but they are silent and do not break down trees that have 4-5 inch wide trunks. We never heard it move off and never saw it, but to this day I believe it was something unusual and something that had above normal animal awareness and had intent. It knew we were there and intended to make a lot of noise as it came towards us and then intended to remain completely silent. It was weird.

Just across and down the road a mile or so is the turn off for the south fork of the canyon where my sister lives and where it is much greener. There is just a single road with about 20 homes on it that are next to each other because the canyon is so narrow. It has a year round stream that runs into the provo river. The lived on the northern facing side of the canyon and were built into the hillside with a pine forest that ran right up to the back of their house and all the way to the top of the mountain so it is a very large area of forest, but the canyon wall is fairly steep and has a ton of bushes and brambles and looks like a very over grown forest. They have a hot tub there right before the forest and canyon wall climb up. My brother in law sits in it most nights and one night he was sitting in it facing the canyon wall and forest and listening to all the crickets and night noises. He suddenly heard the insects going silent until it was dead silent and he said the silence was oppressive and he started to get a very bad feeling like something was very very wrong. It night time and he sits in the tub in the dark and could only make out outlines of the trees. He said he suddenly smelled a very very bad smell and he was wondering what on earth it could be when he sensed a little movement out in the trees out of the corner of his eye so he stared intently up into the forest and he said he started to make out an outline that was far darker than anything else and was pitch black. He noticed that it moved slightly. While he stared at it he said it suddenly moved sideways a couple of feet and stopped again and he could tell it was staring at him, but he could not make out any facial features or eyes. At this point my brother in law said he was petrified, but started to think that it was actually possibly a sasquatch in front of him (keep in mind there are no homes anywhere behind his for about 50 miles) and the hill has no trails and would be too hard to hike up or down in the day let alone the dark). He said he mustered up some courage and said “What ups big guy?” He said it stood there about another 30 seconds and then gave a little chuff like it was irritated and started walking through the forest parallel to his home through the trees and this time he could hear it as it made its was through the forest.

Just a couple of stories that maybe back up the persons story from 3 months in hell. Those are not all of my experiences me or my family has had there, and I believe him whole heartedly.”

7 Responses to “Deer Creek Reservoir”

  1. CheekyMonkey

    Man, I know EXACTLY where that took place because I’ve hiked all over that canyon and even tried several times to climb up that ridge to the summit.
    However, when I was doing it I hadn’t yet had my two Bigfoot experiences, one of which happened a few miles away up Rock Canyon at the campground at the top of the canyon.
    About 2 AM, we had a BIG male Sasquatch lumber into our camp.
    The ground shook with each step it took. Slowly and without a care in the world it walked into our camp, circled our tent, then it stopped and listened for an eternity.
    My climbing buddy and I laid in our sleeping bags staring wide-eyed

    • Chuck P

      @cheekyMonkey
      Hey there.. I also believe Jerry from the episode of “3 mos of hell”.. I from Ut. County and currently live in Provo and frequent Provo canyon on a regular basis. Very familiar with where the incident occurred from 3 mos of hell episode. Deer Creek Resivoir is just right there. Anyhow I’ve heard of a lot of sasquatch accounts up in south fork canyon and into the girl scout camp there. I’ve also spoken to folks who have had encounters up in Rock Canyon as well. The whole Provo canyon, Rock canyon, South Fork, and Squaw Peak area have had numerous accounts.. Feel free to email me for more that’s going on in those areas. Have a great day! chuckliftsbig@gmail.com

  2. JC47

    Thanks for all the support for my little addition story. I love Provo Canyon and great to hear that other people have had weird experiences there. I live in Idaho now and have had a few experiences up in Island Park that I cannot explain nor
    can the people that were with me. I need to find the time to write about them. My kids were with me on a couple of those and they have had some weird things happen right by our house. I saw one of them, but not. bigfoot related, but they did see something weird running behind the house in the irrigation canal and I need to write about mine and theirs when I get a few minutes. Thanks for the support – its sad to read comments of
    the people doubting others on here after some posts. i dont think its my place to do that because what do I know
    in the end? all I know is what I have experienced and its true even if it sounds to some people like it isnt. thanks again and maybe I will see if Wes wants me or my kids back on to share any of the stories we have experienced the last few years or will find
    the time to post more about them

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