National Park After Dark - Underwater Grave: Death Valley National Park

Episode Date: April 10, 2023

When four young men learn about a mysterious underwater cave in Death Valley, they sneak in to explore it in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, not everyone makes it out alive.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Zocdoc: Use our link to download the Zocdoc app for free.Skylight Frame: Get 10% off, up to $30 off at SkylightFrame.com/PARK.Apostrophe: Use our link and code NPAD to get your first visit for only $5.Lume Deodorant:  new customers GET $5 OFF a Lume Starter Pack with code NPAD.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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There is something magical and alluring, knowing that the deepest corners of the world remain unmapped. From the unknown of the depths of the deepest ocean floors to the corners of the rainforests that have yet to be explored, or the news of discovery of New Islands and ancient ruins, it keeps us excited and wanting to find out more. While the earth feels so inhabited and known, it still holds so many mysteries that are yet to be explored. For the most part, though, these baffling places feel worlds away. But when a group of guys discovered one of the world's strangest phenomenon was basically in their own backyard, they wanted to explore it for themselves.

But this exploration came with dire consequences. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Is this like a treasure thing? It's not a treasure one. Oh, okay. It is kind of an, it's an adventure exploration episode. Okay. I'm excited.

Where are we going? We are going to Death Valley. We're revisiting Death Valley for this episode. This is like the third time, I think, which is cool. Yeah. We've each done one, I think. Yeah, we have. So this will be the third one. And this one is cool because it's technically Death Valley National Park, but it's actually an outlier of the park. It's a detached portion. So we've never visited the section before. Oh, interesting. Okay. Yeah. Very interesting. And I have to say that it has been a struggle to research this episode because, so when I'm writing this and researching it and everything, there is a huge story. storm hitting New England right now. And we are getting dumped on with snow. And my Wi-Fi and even

my cell phone reception has been out all day. And very luckily for me is I have a book that I'm researching from. So it's called Death Daring and Disasters by Charles R. Butch Farabee Jr. Long name. And then all of the web pages that I got my research from, I had opened them all. So I didn't have to like go on the web page to write this. But it's been like for little things. And even my cell phone reception isn't working. And I like was sitting on my phone for like 20 minutes waiting for like things that I wanted to know to pop up. So it's been it's been an adventure today. I knew something was up before like I knew that it was snow because you kept sending me texts and it would come like, you'd be like, I don't know if you're getting this. I don't know if these are coming through.

I don't know if these are coming through. And you know when they like come through like all of a sudden and there's 10 of them of the same thing. I'm like, okay, she is struggling somehow. And I don't know if she's okay. Like, I thought maybe you were hiking or something. You know how when you don't get. Nope, just in my house. In my living room, just not.

I even had Al text you too. Yeah, I know. My phone's not working. And he didn't text me back. I was like, okay, is anyone getting any of this? Like, hello? His phone, he has a different service provider and his phone was being crazy too. So I don't know what's going on.

Either way, well, so mentally we're going somewhere that doesn't have snow, which is nice. Yeah. But it probably doesn't have reception. It definitely doesn't. Yeah, I can personally attest to that. Well, so because we are visiting a different part of Death Valley, I do want to just do a little, like, recap of Death Valley itself, and then we'll dive into this area as well. Because while Death Valley is known for its hot and arid climate, there are remnants in the park of water and life that has survived. survived since the Ice Age. Is this the pupfish thing? It sure is.

Is this what that episode's about? Pupfish? Yep. Oh my God, really? Not fully, but pupfish are a big part of this episode, yeah. Okay. Why? I'm so excited.

Are you really? I can't tell or if you're laughing. No, I'm actually like really excited. So my gal, Caitlin Doughty, who runs the Mortician YouTube channel, Ask a Mortician, and she wrote all the books that I love. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. She did, I mean, it's probably a couple years old now, but she did a video on Death Valley and the Pupfish, but I forget, like, what it's about. I just, the Pupfish and Death Valley and Water are like key phrases that are bringing up that video from the recesses of my mind. Well, I will say this whole episode is not about Pupfish. It's a adventure story, but the Pupfish play a big role in the story. Okay. Cool.

I just made a whole episode about pup fish and I'm just going to like spit facts at you for the next hour. It's like, okay, this is an episode about a fish. Strap in. It's brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already

read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and M. more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Well, Death Valley National Park is located along the California, Nevada border. Inside this park, there's the Great Basin and the Mojave Deserts. It is made up of salt flat, sand dunes, badlands, valleys, canyons, and dramatic mountain peaks. It is not only the largest National Park in the United States. It is also the hottest and driest in the country, and it sits 282 feet or 86 meters below sea level. And we've talked about this before, but I just like this fact.

It was established as a national park on Halloween, October 31st, 1994, and it was previously a national monument. So it's been preserved for a long time. Well, pop quiz. What's the other park that was established on the same day? Joshua Tree. There you go. God, I know my facts. That was is the only question you've ever asked me on the podcast I've gotten correctly, by the way. And you also responded very quickly, so that's great. Yeah, as soon as I said it, I like second guess myself for a minute. So while those park might seem like it would be in area of barren land, it is far from that. There are species such as big horn sheep, coyotes, bobcats, bats, fox, tortoises, hares, there's Joshua trees and more that have adapted to these harsh climates and live here.

Oh my God, that reminds me of the thing I sent you last night of the bobcat, allegedly the bobcat. Oh, yeah, you sent me a video of the sounds of a bobcat somewhere nearby. I Googled it after. And it is a bobcat, huh? Yeah, I think so. Should I play it for everyone? It's like this screeching, yeah. Okay, hold on.

Yeah, Danielle recorded this like screeching a bobcat noise that it sounds like a woman like screaming, kind of like a fisher cat. but it's very loud. It sounds like it's in her driveway. This is the third time I've heard it in my neighborhood. And like over the last couple of months, I almost sent it to Wes, actually. I was like, can you confirm what this is? But he's in Mexico right now, so I don't want to bother him with something that he's probably like, how do you not know what that is? Okay, I'm going to try and play it for everyone.

Hold on. Hold on. Can you hear it? A little bit. Okay, so it just basically screams over and over. So that Death Valley is just full of that. Yeah, full of those noises at night. Imagine. Oh, my God. I'm so glad I didn't hear that when I was camping in Death Valley.

You're just like sitting there. Well, you had a camper. I feel like if you were sitting in a tent or just under the stars and you hear that, you're like, all right, I'm either being abducted by aliens or I'm being eaten. Well, continuing to Death Valley, it is filled with some of the world's strangest phenomenon from the sailing stones, which we talked about before in an episode, which are the rocks that move along the desert ground with no gravitational cause. And if you look up photos of it, it's pretty crazy. They call it the races and you can see the trail marks of all of these stones that go

across the desert floor. There's lost cities, hauntings, and mysterious UFO sightings that are frequently reported. And of course, one of the most unknown and arguably the most fascinating features inside of the park is Devil's Hole. If you don't know what Devil's Hole is, it is a geothermal pool whose water stays at about 92 degrees or 33 degrees Celsius year round. And it's within a limestone cavern inside of Armagosa Valley in Nevada. Now, like I said before, this is a part of Death Valley National Park, but it's actually detached from it, several miles out of it, and it's a 40-acre or 16-hectar unit that is also part of a wildlife refuge. It was added to the park while it was still a national monument in 1952. So this is jointly managed by the Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

The surface area of Devil's Hole is 72 feet wide by 11.5 feet long, which is 22 meters long by 3.5 meters wide. But what makes this geothermal pool so interesting is no one knows how deep it is. It is believed to be over 500 feet deep or 152 meters, but no divers have ever been able to reach the bottom and it has never been mapped. The farthest anyone has ever gone was about 425 feet, which is 129 meters. I am really surprised. Are we, so are you going to talk about exploring this cave? Yeah. I'm really surprised you're doing that.

Because I hate caves. Yeah. I feel like I always find myself in these situations where I, I, I'm really surprised. I'm so claustrophobic. I'm like, I'm going to sit down and just stress myself out for a while and research claustrophobic areas. And arguably, it's scarier than regular cave episodes because it's filled with water. Which is also a fear of mine.

Is there a term for that exploring like underwater caves versus just spulunking? Everything I was reading in research, they called everyone divers. Okay. I mean, I guess that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. So this story is going to be a story about four people who, down to explore the cave in their adventure down there.

For the pupfish? I'm just trying to weave the pupfish. You're like, I want to hear about the pup fish. We're getting to it. Okay, sorry. We're getting to it. Back to Devil's Hole, it is filled with narrow waterways, pockets of air, and caverns that stand over 50 feet tall that are underground.

So you can swim to these caverns and sit in this 50 foot tall airspace. The walls are some of the most beautiful stones that are. divers have reported ever seeing. They have bright colors of green, bright blues and white. There's quartz and bronze colors along with every color in the rainbow. The water is exceptionally clear and looks to be a bright turquoise blue when you look at it. While the depth is unknown, scientists believe that its waterways could be connected to other parts of the world thousands of miles away. What? Insane, right? So, scientists have observed small tsunamis inside of devil's hole with the water levels changing dramatically. And they have scientific evidence to prove that these are

directly linked to earthquakes as far away as Japan, Indonesia, and Chile. I don't understand. It's wild. So they reported, I think it was March 12th, 2012, don't quote me on the year, but they observed a tsunami that was happening inside of Devil's Hole. They were watching the waters plummet to hundreds of feet down, to hundreds of feet up. And they were trying to figure out what was going on. And they ended up through their measurements and their data and stuff linking it directly to an earthquake that had just happened in Mexico. Wow. That's really cool. Isn't that wild? And then they have been studying it extensively for years and they've linked it to earthquakes in Japan, Indonesia, and Chile, and more. I mean, those are just some of the farthest points that they've linked it to. So this is somewhere that's

being actively studied. Very much so because they one think that this is or they're pretty positive that this is remnants from an ice age and remnants of living life is down here that was part of the ice age. And they also think that this is a way to study different weather patterns and different disasters around the world because they really do think that somehow this water system is connected to other water systems around the world. I just don't get, okay, I'm probably, you haven't even started the story yet, but it just, I don't understand why they don't. I mean, they have, like, machinery as far as, like, cameras and scopes and things that

they plunge down to, like, the Titanic. So why can't they put, like, a little underwater drone guy down there and see just how far it goes? I mean, you know, obviously it's not going to go to Chile, but it could get farther than a human at 450 feet. You know, I don't really know the answer to that question. I know that they can't send divers down because of the pressure and the water temperatures. So because the water temperatures are 92 degrees, which is almost the same as a human body temperature when you're exerting yourself that hard. It drains your energy and you're at risk of overheating water waters. So you need wetsuits and you need special gear and there's algae. It's also an endangered species, the pupfish that we're going

to jump into right now, pretty much. We're going to jump into that. That's my next section I have written in here. They're extremely endangered, so they have to be really careful about what they do there. So I don't know if that affects it. I also don't know they might have, let me Google it. So when I look it up online and maybe someone listening knows more than we know, there are, it looks like they do send cameras down here. But I don't know if the cameras and the technology that they have is able to get to the depths of the water based on how it's formed because it's not a straight shot down like the ocean. There's a lot going on down there and the temperatures are different. So I don't really know, but they have sent cameras down there. Interesting. Cool. I mean, I'm sure they've got it figured out.

Yeah, I'd be curious to know more. If there's someone listening that is a diver at Death Valley and researches this, like, please send us like a full scope of everything. It's super interesting. And I kind of went into a hole, like, researching this because I didn't know Devil's Hole existed before I started researching this. I had never heard of the pupfish. So the pupfish are the rarest fish in the entire world. And they are also known as the Devil's Hole pupfish because they can only be found here in the entire world. They've never been found somewhere else. They're small fish that vary in color based on age, but the males are a bright metallic blue and the females and juveniles are more yellow in color. It is believed that thousands of years ago, this area was entirely underwater, and these fish

have survived and adapted ever since. The population fluctuates between 100 to 200 during the winter and 300 to 500 in late summer. The devil's whole pupfish was the first species actually to ever be deemed in endangered species, and it is believed that it's possible that they will go extinct in the next few decades, and I read one article that said even by 2030. They could be gone. Oh, wow. I mean, with what, 100 to 200 individuals, that's a precarious population to say the very least. It sure is. Yeah. And that is why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, along with the National Park, have been studying the area extensively and trying to conserve it for years. And they've certainly met a lot of obstacles just with people in the area with there's a farm. It's kind of a farm. It's like a well farm nearby where they extract water. And they've had issues with that. And then there's also been. people who just jump into the park. And because it is such a fragile environment, the park only allows special permissions for people to go there and especially special permissions for divers

to explore the cave systems. But on June 20th, 1965, four friends decided they wanted to explore the thermal pool by themselves. Without permission. Without permission. Very much without permission. Paul GM Kintiri, his new brother-in-law, David Rose, and two brothers, Bill and Jack Alter first read about the caves in a newspaper article. This article had detailed a research expedition of a massive, quote-unquote, underground lake that lie below the desert of Death Valley. This expedition was led by a professional diver Jim Houts, who told reporters, quote, It's beautiful in there. It goes straight down 160 feet like a pipe, then opens up into a room. I dive to 315 feet. Maybe it's a record. I don't know. But at the end,

end of the tube, it opens again into something else. We don't know what the next room is, or if it's a room at all. It's like infinity. He described what it looked like, saying greens, blues, so blue that they are nearly white. Both brothers, Jack and Bill, along with David, all between the ages of 19 and 20, were skilled scuba divers. Paul was not. Living in Vegas, only an hour and a half from Devil's Hole, sparked their interest to go and explore it. But it was known that you need special permissions to do so and permits that they knew the park service would probably not grant them. So instead, during the late hours of June 20th, the group packed their car with all their scuba gear and flashlights and set out for Death Valley. So one of them is not experienced? One of them's not and

three of them are. Okay. They arrived at Devil's Hole just before midnight and the area was completely vacant of people by this time, which was their plan. They pulled in next to the National Park sign, reading, Devil's Hole. In the small pool at the bottom of this limestone cavern lies the entire population of the Cyprinodone diabolus, one type of desert pupfish. These fish live in what is probably the most restrictive environment of any animal in the world. The four of them gathered up their gear and their flashlights and walked up the hillside along the trail that led to the entrance. When they arrived, they were met by a wire fence with warning signs strung around, reading things like restricted area. Due to scientific importance of this area and its fragile nature, unauthorized

entry is prohibited. Undeterred from these warning signs and excited for this adventure they were about to go on, they found an area in the fence that they were able to climb underneath. They found their way to the entrance of Devil's Hole, a rock wall opening the size of a car, and they suited up. They had scuba tanks, masks, and dive lights. All except for Jack put their suits on. Jack sat on the rock wall as a lookout, and as a safety, if anything bad were to happen. After a quick conversation, Bill, Paul, and David lowered themselves into the water. They slowly swam deeper into the narrow tunnels, seeing the bright colored walls, algae, and pupfish along the way.

The tunnel went straight down, but it branched off into other tunnels, leading to different directions. To help prevent them from getting lost on their way back up, they tied a flashlight along one of the ledges, pointing upwards, and shining where they needed to go. When they reached 200 feet, Bill noticed that his oxygen supply was already running low and he needed to go to the surface quickly. He showed the others and collectively as a group they swam back to the opening. Bill and David emerged and waited for several minutes. But Paul didn't resurface. With the help of Jack, who was still on the lookout at the opening and waiting for them,

they switched out their oxygen tanks with the extra ones they had brought that were still full. They moved as quickly as they could before diving back in. They swam feverishly in their search for him. As they dove deeper into the tunnels, David picked up the speed ahead of Bill. And around 175 feet below the surface, Bill lost sight of him entirely. He took a moment to look for any signs of David or Paul. But again, Bill realized his oxygen levels were low. He had no choice but to turn around and go back to the opening with the hopes that David

would be behind him shortly. When he resurfaced, the only other person there was Jack. They waited for several minutes for Paul. or David, or both of them, ideally, to resurface. But quickly, they realized the gravity of the situation. They needed help and they needed it fast. While it was possible that Paul and David had found some of the caverns and the air pockets underneath the surface and had gotten lost on their way coming back up, it would be impossible to swim back up without more oxygen. So their only choice was to leave and go get help. And remember, this is in 1965. So there's no cell phones. You can't call 911. They're

out in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing around. So with no cell phones, no means to communicate with anyone, they left their friends behind. They ran to their car as quickly as they could and they made the hour and a half drive back to Vegas to get help. Oh my God. That is just so excruciating. Imagine you just know your friend is underwater and you have to drive an hour and a half away. They had to go all the way to Vegas. I guess. I was even looking for other places that they could have gone on the way. But everything that I read when I was researching it, everything said that they drove all the way back to Vegas. So I'm guessing they just didn't have another option. And I will say it does look pretty desolate between. Right. Yeah. And I guess for the sake of time, like not wanting to waste

time at like rolling the dice and maybe a small town. This is also like one or two o'clock in the morning. So nothing's open. There's no one around. Right. Right. Yeah. So they get back to Vegas and they notify authorities immediately. As soon as authorities were notified, a full force rescue team was put into place. Within a few hours, the Clark County Sheriff's underwater rescue force was in the water. Then the Navy showed up, along with volunteers from Nevada and Southern California, and the Air Force flew in divers from a trained rescue squad in the District of Columbia. All within a matter of a few hours, by the following morning, all of these teams were here. Well, I guess Vegas was the right choice. They got word out. We got you. We have. We had.

have a lot of people we can send down. So all in all, there ended up being around 45 divers that came to help out. And some volunteered and a lot of them later said, because this wasn't a, this was a pretty dangerous mission for them to go on, a rescue mission. And a lot of them later said, you know, diving is something that we love. And we want to save. We want, we want to dive first off. And second, we want to help other divers if we have to. So some people were there strictly volunteer. And sending dives teams down for them was especially risky because of, of the depth of the water and also the temperature, like I mentioned before. Because the water was almost the same temperature as normal body temperatures, it added an

extra risk and it required special gear, but it was also extra difficult because they were in the middle of Death Valley in the middle of the summer. So the temperatures were exceeding over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which is over like 40 degrees Celsius. The air temperature, let alone. The air temperature and then diving into hot water. Oh, God. When they arrived, their teams were able to estimate that a diver could successfully get to about 250 feet in depth safely, but that they would only be able to stay at that level for about five minutes.

When the news got to their families, they rushed to the scene. David's mother showed up, and it happened to be her 53rd birthday. She watched as a team of over 45 rescue divers looked for her son. Paul's mother was there beside her, both waiting and hoping, knowing that it was possible, there was an air pocket that they had found. Paul's sister, Paula, who was just 20 years old, was there too. And she was also David's wife. They had only been married for about two months.

She stood at the entrance of the cave, sobbing and waiting for news of her brother and her husband. Oh my God. That is just so awful. That is so awful. It's awful. You're newlywed. You're with two of probably the most important people in your life are missing. are in deep trouble, yeah.

But they held out a lot of hope. They were up there. They were obviously very scared, very upset, but Paul's mother was reported saying, I'm sure he's still alive, he loves life, and knew the risk, and said that he would be careful. Rescue divers worked around the clock in search of them, looking for any clues that they could find, any of their gear left behind, any markers, anything that indicated a direction that they could be. They were diving as far as 200 feet down, which is 76. meters and were finding no signs of them at all. They searched the air pockets, the tunnels that they

were able to get into. Largely though, these areas are very unmapped and people don't know where they're going. It wasn't long before they brought in another professional diver named Jim Houts, who brought his own team of five divers to help. Jim Houts was a very experienced diver and he had the most experience here than anyone else because he had explored Devil's Hole over 300 times for research. Wow. In fact, it was the article that was written about his exploration that was the inspiration for these four guys to go and explore it. Talk about ironic. I know. This guy shows up. It's coming full circle. Now, Jim was originally from Colorado, but his family moved to California when he was about four years old. His mother ran a Girl Scout camp on Catalina Island in the summer,

and he spent his summers doing any type of sport that he could in the water. He started experiencing, diving during his time there. When he was old enough, he joined the Navy and was part of the submarine forces. And at this time, the Navy SEALs didn't exist, but he was part of the underwater demolitions team. He spent a lot of his time in the water working on test launches for the very first nuclear missile submarines. When he was discharged from the military in 1960, he continued being very involved in the water. He conducted rescues and taught diving techniques. He worked on the start of developing heli oxygen, which was meant for deep divers off the shore of Santa Barbara for the oil platforms. He was regularly 225 to 400 feet in the depths of the ocean operating for the deep

divers and teaching private specialized classes at the National Association of Scuba instructors for people who wanted to do commercial dives. So he was like the person to call. He had so much experience. And when divers go down really far in depth, the pressure changes and they have to adapt to these changes. And he was already regularly as far as they were trying to get down to find these guys. So he was like the person that could get deeper than anyone else into these tunnels. Yeah, his body was already conditioned. And also, on top of all the work he was doing, He was also experimenting on deep diving with just compressed air. He was actually actively working on developing diving techniques to allow divers to get further into oceans or places like Devil's Hole and also to stay for longer periods of time.

So he was very much researching how to conduct these searches better, longer, go farther. He was all around. He was the best person that they could call for this. When he arrived, it was an excruciating day to be out in the day. desert, temperatures that day reached over 105 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 40.6 degrees Celsius, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and there wasn't a breeze. And then his team had to jump into this geothermal pool. Jim and his team dived down in search of them, and when they did, they were able to get further than anyone else had. They dived down about 315 feet or 96 meters, and they found evidence of the

boys. They found a snorkel and a mask, and they had. And they also located the flashlight that they had tied to the ledge. But when they found no other sign of them, they had to return to the surface. They didn't give up their search, though, and they kept going back down, looking for more clues, checking out more caverns, looking for more air pockets that they might just not know about. And they spent day and night doing this. Unfortunately, though, after 36 hours of searching, the teams had to call off the search. They deemed that it was not possible for them to still be alive. And also that the search was too dangerous for the dive teams. On top of this, this rescue mission had severely compromised the fragile environment for the pupfish that lived here.

The skin oils and gear that was brought down impacted the environment drastically, which was why they had permits for certain amount of people at certain amount of times to go down there. And the risk of them being down there could kill a large amount of this population of pupfish. Because of the risk to these endangered fish and because Paul and David were deemed that there was no hope in finding them, rescue teams decided that there would be no recovery mission to get them. I have mixed feelings about that. What about you? I also have, I feel like it's, it's tough because I think that if they're in an air pocket, they would certainly still be alive after 36 hours.

Yeah, depending on how large the air pocket is. is. And regardless of if they are still alive or if they're deceased and it's purely a recovery mission, I mean, just a, I, and let me just preface this, mixed feelings because I understand both sides of this, but imagine your Paula. And they're like, hey, so there's some fish down here that are really endangered and for that reason, we're not going to be able to get your husband or your brother. Yeah. You know what I mean? I know they were there illegally and I know that the Pupfish population. I mean, I love pupfish as much as the next gal.

But it's just, God, like getting told that reasoning is kind of like a dagger to the heart. Absolutely. And I think I agree with you in that aspect where if you're solely basing it on the pupfish and not getting your loved ones, that would be such a gut punch. But at the same time, you have to think about the rescue divers who are risking their lives every time they dive into this water for people who very intentionally broke a federal law to go into a place that they weren't allowed. And it's just, it's a horrible situation on both sides, especially the people who are really paying the price here. I mean, of course, the people who lost their lives,

but the families that now have to deal with this in these decisions. And right, it's horrible. I see both sides too. If it was my family member or my loved one and they're like, we're not going to search anymore. I would be like, if they're in an air pocket, they're still alive. Like, please go back down there. And if there was no hope for them to be alive, it would still be. Please go back down there. Like, we need to be able to bury them. I need closure.

Right. But in the same time, I don't think personally, I think it would be a long time to get to the realization. But I think personally, if I realized the risk of all of the other people's lives that were going down there, eventually I might be like, okay. Well, let's hope that they framed it that way and left the pupfish out of it. Yeah. And weren't like there's endangered, there's endangered fish down here.

But the endangered fish, I mean, they hold a lot of history and they hold a lot of interesting facts for scientists. But science aside, no one cares about science when it's your loved one. Right. Exactly. Let's just be that as it may. Let's just place that over here for a second. Ignore that.

Because there is other very, very valid reasons that are easier to swallow in the moment for the family that's being affected. Mm-hmm. You just said something that reminded me of the episode you did so long ago. So it's a bonus one, the Nutty Puddy Cave episode. Oh, yeah. I hated that episode. Well, here we are again in tight spaces.

The Nutty Puddy Cave was in Utah, and I did an episode on, it's on our Patreon and our Apple podcast subscription if anyone's interested in listening to it. But it is labeled the worst way to die, and it is someone who got stuck upside down in the Nutty Puddy Cave in Utah, and they weren't able to get him out in time. Right. And they weren't able to recover him for similar reasons. Sons fish, but still. But dangerous landscapes.

Yeah, the same type of situation. Yeah, and that episode was really hard too because, again, there were loved ones at the entrance waiting. Yeah, his wife. His wife, they were talking, weren't they with a walkie-talkie and stuff? Oh, my God. She had been, that's like even where, I don't know, they're all horrible. It's all like gut-wrenching. So with this decision finally made, they called off the search and it was ended and they were

deemed deceased. The tragedy that struck Devil's Hole brought a spotlight to the public about it for a brief amount of time. And it started conversations on the need to preserve the area, but also the dangers of visiting it. And people started saying we need to really make this a point that people cannot be going here, that this is something that can happen. We don't want this to happen again. Now, while this was a brief spotlight in Devil's Hole, it wasn't the last time this area got a lot of public attention. Just a few years later, Charles Manson used Death Valley as a hideout for himself and his followers. At one point in time, Charles Manson scoped out the cave as a potential shelter for his very delusional and murderous, quote-unquote, family.

We won't get super into his story because that would be like a seven-part thing, but just a short tidbit for him. He was ultimately caught very close by hiding out in Barker Ranch in October of 1969, which is relatively close. to Devil's Hole. Over the past several decades, the National Park Service has increased security around Devil's Hole to protect not only the pupfish from people, but also to avoid any other deaths. They installed a tall fence,

one that could not be crawled under, along with surveillance cameras, but still, these measures have not always been enough to keep people away. In 2016, three men were found to have gone on a drunken bender to Devil's Hole, and it was all caught on their surveillance camera. The men were camped out in a nearby town drinking lots of rum when they decided to chase rabbits around the desert with shotguns in the middle of the night.

This escapade led them to Devil's Hole and in a drunken stupor, they shot out one of the surveillance cameras. But it was then caught on another surveillance camera that they scaled the fence. They all stripped naked and then on camera it was caught that they started punching each other in the balls. What in the world is going on? What did men do for fun? Like, there is no world where, like, you and I would get super drunk and then just start, like, hitting each other in the vagina. And shoot small animals with firearms. Yeah, there's just, like, there's no world that that would, the craziest our night would get is we'd both be, like, throwing up in the bathtub.

And that would, that wouldn't even happen because neither of us can handle alcohol. I know. Oh, my God. I, okay. So I'm assuming it didn't just stop with the ball slaps or hitting. They obviously plunged into the pupfish habitat. The pupfish. They sure did. They were caught on camera with further shenanigans as one man was seen vomiting on a nearby boulder and another one went into the water completely naked. The following morning when Rangers came into the area, they obviously found it was a little disrupted. and they found underwear floating in the water next to a dead pup fish. Oh, God damn it. I know. My God. There goes one out of 100.

Yeah, 99 left. Come on. After reviewing the camera footage, the park service was able to identify all the men. And can I just say, like, as a ranger, if you're going through the park footage and you're watching this? Just imagine being a fly on that wall in that room. just watching these rangers looking through this footage like, what happened here last night? Someone went swimming here, obviously. And then not only were they swimming, but it was a bunch of guys stumbling over themselves,

falling everywhere, shooting guns, and punching each other in the balls. No, you know what this reminds me of? What? I think it's the hangover too when they steal Mike Tyson's tiger. Oh my God, I know. That's funny. And they, like, review the footage. Like, Mike Tyson is like, you don't remember?

Like, let me show you. and he makes him sit down and watch the camera footage of them being absolute idiots and they're just so embarrassed. Like, that's what I picture happening here. I think that's exactly what happened because later the men apologized and they were like, hey, we don't remember literally any of them. Oh, classic excuse. Like, what did I do last night? My underwear is missing and then they get a phone call when the park service identifies them and lets them know exactly what they did. And they were all charged in violations of the Endangered Species Act, and one of the men, the man whose underwear was found in the water, was actually sentenced to one year in prison.

Oh, damn. They took it very seriously. Yeah, you don't. Like, you killed an endangered species in this escapade. Like, someone has to pay for this. Yeah. Damn. Well, it's not taken lightly.

You don't fuck with endangered species, so. Nope. And especially not in a national park. Right. Yeah. Oh, my God. That's just asking for trouble. Well, today, the efforts of the Park Service has been proving to help protect the pupfish with the populations on the rise as reported in 2022.

While the tunnels are yet to be fully explored or mapped, it is believed that it connects to an underwater lake or river that extends much farther than they know. On August 15, 1991, divers Alan Riggs, Paul DeLoche, and Sheck Exley reached 436 feet below the surface. which is a record that is still held today. Although there has never been any signs of missing Paul and David, there is a chance that one day when divers have more technology and the ability to reach farther depths, which is being worked on and explored every day, that they may finally be able to recover their bodies.

Well, I hope so. I really do because that would bring a lot of peace of mind to the families. Wow. Yeah, and I don't know where their families are at today. It was in 1965. So I don't know what's going on. I didn't find anything on the families today. This is an older story.

But I do hope that at some point they are able to get closure. And even though they know what happened, it would be nice to be able to have a proper burial for your loved ones. Right. A thousand percent. I agree. Yeah. But that's everything. That is my death valley diving, deep space or small space episode for this week.

Hashtag PTP. Protect the pupfish. Protect the pupfish. PTP. And look them up because they're cool. They're cool to see they're like the bright metallic blue color. Yeah. I'm really curious now about Caitlin Dowdy's YouTube video because I really don't.

Now that you mentioned the whole Manson thing, that definitely did come up. I don't know. I really don't know. Maybe the whole thing is about the diving story and I just totally forgot. But I'm glad you covered it. And we should say we're taking a break next week. No episode next week. are. This is the first break we've taken in two years. Yeah, except for when Ian passed away and we had to take a beat. Yeah. But this is like an actual vacation. Right. So we will have a trail tales this Thursday. So you still have one other episode this week to look forward to. And it's a very special one. So you should listen to it. But yeah, next week, it's kind of our week off. If you're a Patreon member or an Apple subscriber, there's tons of bonus content. You can always catch up on that. That's always available to you. But we'll be back the 24th. So.

Yeah. Wow, vacation. I know. Who is she? Amazing. What am I going to do? What are you going to do? Probably write another episode. I know. I know. What do you do when they're going to be like, well, now I can catch up on more episodes. Yeah, I literally have a book, like literally looking at me in the face right now for that date. I'm like, God damn. It's fine. It's fine. I love my job. I have so many books. I mean, I do. This is amazing. I have so many books on the back burner, though. Like, I have some on my desk. right now. And this, well, this story was interesting because I had a lot of stories in mind. I didn't know what I wanted to cover this week. And I wasn't feeling inspired by any. And I asked on Instagram, I said, does anyone have recommendations and what we should cover? And tons of people came forward. And I was like, quickly Googling some of the ones that I hadn't heard about. And this one came up.

And I just thought, wow, this is interesting. I just thought devil's hole is super interesting, especially because it can be connected to like places all over the world. I just thought it was a cool episode, but now I have a ton still in my back burner that will be coming out, I'm sure, eventually, and I have lots of books and book. I feel like we're going to have whole book recommendations. We really need a book club. I can't mentally do it. One day, one day, we'll have a book club and we can all chat about the books. Yeah, that's true. That would be really cool, but yeah. It would be fun. Just can't mentally make space for it. But I can mentally make space for vacation next week. So we'll see you guys on Thursday for Trail Tales and then we'll see at the end of the month.

So yeah. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at Stories at NPAD Podcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Join our outsiders-only community on Patreon or Apple subscriptions to listen ad-free, unlock monthly bonus episodes, and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our sponsors, you are supporting our show. For our exclusive discount codes and source information from today's episode, check out the show notes. For more information on our show, our book recommendations, merch updates, and more.

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