DEVIL’S GATE: Pasadena’s Personal Portal to Hell

123 Oak Grove Dr, Pasadena, CA 91011

Making it to hell has always been a personal goal of mine, so imagine the thrill felt to finally visit Pasadena's infamous Devil's Gate, aka one of life's true"Portals to Hell".

Nestled amongst the aptly titled Devil's Gate Dam-- a sprawling concrete behemoth that lies below the 210 Freeway in Los Angeles-- the journey to high five and/or watch some television with satan is a hiking path that's as sketchy as they get.

You'll traverse creeks, completely broken paths, slippery rocks, muddy slopes and terrible GPS directions-- or you could just trespass down the steps below and be there in 5 minutes (sidenote: Fuck those people who decide to take the 5 minute trip. shame them!)

Either way you choose to tackle this adventure, the journey always begins at Hahamongna Park, a lovely piece of land that resides on the border of the LA mountain town La Canada Flintridge. It's a very unique park space, mainly due to the terrain being entirely blended with an enormous concrete dam located near the always busy highway, and witnessing this very weird hybrid of nature and urban decay makes the trip worth it alone.

Look at this-- there's truly nothing more awkward and epic in scope than looking at the vast/empty vessel of an abandoned dam. Random staircases abound at every turn, and the cream-colored cement radiates against the sun. Gazing upon this madness, one could only imagine the better days where actual water flowed like wine at Devil's Gate Dam. However, now it lies dormant, a dry and desolate shell of its former self.

But let's get down to business here-- we didn't come here to give a history lesson on a dam, we came to visit Satan's lair so let's start with the directions: park the car and start walking toward the freeway. That's the easy part. You'll eventually come across this snazzy bridge, which actually has some pretty amazing views of the surrounding Valleys. Stop and stare.

Walk past the bridge and you'll find a tunnel on the right (there's also one before the bridge, don't go there) that takes you underneath the highway.

Keep following the path downhill until you come across some creepy wooden things (you'll know em' when you see em'). Then turn right, which will lead you toward a creek in the woods. From here, you'll scale an unkempt path-- a word I use very lightly-- with the end goal of making it toward any area under the bridge. Just keep making moving forward, even if it takes switching paths or knocking bushes down.

And now you've finally made it, the so-called portal to Hell!

Graffiti welcomes you as you inch closer toward eternal doom, but where's the man with the horns and pitchfork?

Ah! Finally something here that thematically ties this all together, as the large rock you located above the tunnel is said to resemble Satan's face profile. You be the judge. Satan or Mac tonight? I dunna.

Satan or Mac tonight? I dunna. But it's time to enter.

Now that's a great place to have a picnic! It's like a nightmare tunnel ripped straight from every 1980s action movie shot in NYC and I was fully expecting a group of no good punks to come and rough me up for my walkman. The tunnel itself goes back a solid 100 feet or, so if you're feeling up for it, hold your nose and dive right. This is hell after all.

What is "hell" really like? Well, pure darkness awaits (assuming you went at dusk like I did) and walls of graffiti that would make the cabrini green projects from Candyman proud serve as the welcoming committee. You can dabble, and stick your head in for a second, or walk deeper and deeper into the dark abyss for some pretty scary and unsettling stuff.

Just let the flashlight guide your every step and pray the entrance fence doesn't close on you.

And once you've finally made it to the end of the line, slightly disappointed that hell is just concrete walls, some graffiti and trash, you can scurry back to the world of mere mortals with a new lease on life.

HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?

The dam was built in the 1920s and named Devil's Gate because of the rock formation's resemblance to Satan. In the 40s the area became a ritual magnet, bringing in a group of occultists (spearheaded by L. Ron Hubbard and some early disciples of Aleister Crowley) who attempted to evoke an antichrist from within. Following decades brought reports of missing children in the area and bouts of manic laughter coming from the tunnel.

Nowadays, Devil's Gate Dam is a hotbed for adventurous hikers, paranormal activity investigators and has been featured on numerous TV shows about the world's most haunted places.

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