Facing Death at the Skinwalker Ranch Part 2
by Paul Dale Roberts
(Skinwalker Ranch, Utah)
Chantal & Lisa after investigation at Country Inns & Suites Room 319
We met many interesting people. There was one time we thought we might be lost and asked this lady where a certain street was. After we finished talking to her, I placed my two index fingers and thumbs together, closed my eyes and chanted…”ummmmmmm”. Chantal and Lisa quizzically looked at me and asked what I was doing. I said..”you didn’t see her third eye?” Chantal and Lisa busted up laughing..because the lady had the largest zit in the middle of her forehead. We made many third eye jokes and at one point of time, I said that I thought the third eye winked at me and that I asked the lady if she was making a play on me. I know, it’s not nice to make fun of people, but at this time, we were all giddy and trying to beat the fatigue with lattes and energy drinks. I can’t tell you how many Monsters and Rockstars I drank. Lisa mothered us with an assortment of snacks from cheese, salami, crackers, beef jerky, cookies, pudding, etc. If we were stranded in the desert, with all of the snacks that Lisa brought, we could survive easily for 15 days. Plus, we had a case of bottled water.
When we drove through Salt Lake City, we were amazed at the beauty of this city. Salt Lake City has much to offer with the sites of Temple Square, the Tabernacle, Olympic Cauldron Park and much more.
When we reached Salt Lake City, we learned that the Skinwalker Ranch (near the towns of Roosevelt and Vernal in the Uintah Basin was 2 hours or 2 ½ hours away on Highway 40. When I got this news, I almost fainted. I already drove forever into eternity with Lisa helping me to drive. The weather didn't look good, there is lightning everywhere. It’s now midnight, I feel the fatigue setting in. I ask my investigators if they are ready to get a hotel and try again tomorrow. Lisa says if the Sci Fi Channel’s Destination Truth paranormal team can endure the hardships that they do in various jungles, swamps in the world to seek out the truth, then we can endure the hard rains of Utah. I looked at Chantal and say: “Do you feel the same way Chantal?” Chantal: “Yes, Paul, we came too far to stop now.” I look at Lisa and Chantal and said they are both heroic paranormal pioneer scouts that have the courage and heart of a tiger. So be it, let’s get back into The Rift and trek ahead for our destination.
For California paranormal investigators, if you plan to investigate the Skinwalker Ranch, I suggest you drive first to Salt Lake City, get a hotel, rest up and then in the morning head over to Skinwalker Ranch, do not attempt to drive all the way to the Skinwalker Ranch. In fact Utah even has signs indicating they do not want fatigued drivers on their freeways.
The thunderstorm became intense, but I kept driving, there was times when I was driving at 5 mph. The music stopped, everyone was concentrating. You could cut the tension inside my car with a knife. Lisa looked petrified and terrified, Chantal no longer had a smile on her face. I asked, should I go back? Chantal and Lisa in unison….”no”. Driving through a thunderstorm through canyon roads was extremely dangerous and treacherous, many people have lost their lives on their way to the Uintah Basin at night (according to locals). The drive seemed to go on forever, my head was spinning with thoughts of disaster. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Even though the rain was beating down upon The Rift, everything seemed unusually silent and surreal, it was like we were experiencing the Oz Factor. I could see the fright in the eyes of Chantal and Lisa. I can’t describe how terrifying the drive became, but there was no way of going back now, we had to move forward. I remember Shannon ‘Ms. Macabre’ McCabe’s call earlier this morning and how she was wishing us luck on this investigation. I remember Shannon’s laughter as I called her Dana Scully and she called me Fox Mulder. Shannon and I, always communicate on the cell phone and I always brief her about my unusual investigations. I have been on some treacherous investigations, but this must have been the worse and remembering the calming effect of Shannon’s laughter on the cell phone brought me back to normalcy. I trekked on, I asked the spiritual entities that look over my life to be with me and get me to my destination in safety.
Finally, we reach the Uintah Basin, we all clap in unison. We have made it and we were in all in one piece. We all just sat inside the car for a long while in silence, perhaps all of us were saying silent prayers. After the silence, we did the next hardest thing, getting Chantal’s gigantic tent up. Her tent is called ‘3 Room Cottage Cabin’. As the three of us are placing this tent up, we are all falling in the mud. At one point of time, I fall into the mud face down. I was wondering…does Destination Truth ever experience what we were experiencing, I fantasized about a 5-Star Hotel in Tahiti. It took about an hour to get the tent up in the hard rains of Utah.
We had a meeting inside the tent, we would all pull shifts watching the night skies. I would take the first shift. The ‘observer’ of the team would be equipped with a whistle. If we were to see anything unusual, the observer blows the whistle to awaken the rest of the team.
Equipment being used for this investigation: Digital Video Camera (borrowed from Shannon McCabe). Only used Shannon’s camera the next day. I decided not to use it this evening because of the rain. Regular 35 mm camera. Digital camera. Digital Audio Recorder. Binoculars. Laser pin lights (for signal communication to UFOs), 2 high powered flashlights (for setting up base camp and signal communication to UFOs).
During this night, we didn’t sleep well, 15 minutes of sleep here, 15 minutes of sleep there. During one point of the evening, we all hear an unusual animal cry, it was like a loud screeching sound and then ends with ‘wup, wup’. We heard the sound two times, the sound of…eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee….wup, wup. I would love to consult with a zoologist and see if the zoologist is able to identify this animal sound. Listening to my recorder, it only picked up the sound of hard rain. The unusual animal sounds were heard at 3:24am. At 4:12am, Chantal was on watch, I was up and about again and we both saw a lightning explosion that later turned into the shape of a large ball, the first words out of my mouth was…”what the f?” I grabbed Chantal’s whistle and blew it and Lisa came out, the lightning explosion was no longer visible.
