As a rising junior at Park City High School, I, along with my friends, live for summer break.
But inevitably, as the days pass and we realize we’re all slowly devolving into bed-rotting, sleeping in until 11 a.m., not knowing what day it is and just generally becoming sleep-deprived gremlins, the search for something to do (that does not involve a screen) levels up.
So, what can we do to get off of the couch and out of the house for a reasonable amount of money and with an exceptional amount of air conditioning?
The answer on this particularly sweltering Saturday evening was a trip to the Black Star Escape Co. in Heber.
After much coordination, I gathered together the squad I knew would be most likely to survive being trapped alone in the jungle (or who would at least make being trapped alone in the jungle hilarious and entertaining).
Our group of three descended an out-of-the-way staircase on the sidewalk of Heber’s Main Street and entered the Black Star Escape Co., excited to have a new experience and likely a milkshake from the Dairy Keen afterwards, assuming we survived the trials ahead.
When we walked in, we were greeted by a staff member who welcomed us and set us up with two brief videos, one explaining the rules of the escape and the other telling us the storyline.
After the introductions were complete, we were ushered through a door that looked as if it had come straight out of a military bunker and found ourselves transported into the depths of a jungle island.
An air-conditioned jungle island, you ask? Miracles upon miracles. We were told we survived a suspicious plane crash and, in order to escape, we would need to reconstruct a transmitter radio.
The three of us immediately spread out, looking around and keeping an eye on the time glowing from an iPad: 59 minutes left.
We began to explore the room, quickly realizing that not only could anything be a clue, but it was also all incredibly immersive and realistic to the time period. Several times, I became distracted by the authenticity of the props (such as an old gas lantern that you could turn on or off, or a toolbox that actually opened or — I guess it really is no surprise that my friends had to keep reminding me to actually solve the puzzles and stop getting distracted).
As we continued to explore, we found an entirely new room that brought us into a completely new environment. Inside this room, we found a surplus of additional puzzles, as well as a lot more delightfully realistic props (one of which was an antique typewriter and I’m now seriously considering buying one off of eBay to fully embrace this whole journalism thing. Seriously, computers are so last season).
One of my friends shoved a cypher in my face and I proceeded to fight with it for ten minutes, repeatedly saying “No, of course the code is right, the thing just won’t open —” (it’s possible the code was a little off).
I eventually gave up and handed it to my friend, telling him what I thought the code was and moving on to a puzzle that hopefully wouldn’t bruise my ego.
As we progressed, we could feel our chances of escape dwindling away, slipping through our fingers, just like the waterfall in the corner of the room that I kept staring at. After some bickering about the morality of requesting help and whether or not that would technically be cheating, we gave in and gathered around the iPad. The clue popped up with a little chime, sending us scrambling back to look at all of the ciphers and papers and clues that we’d already uncovered.
After a brief reenactment of that one Spider-Man meme where they all point at each other, we determined who had found the missing clue originally and our quest continued — fruitlessly. Eventually, the Island Jungle Gods took pity on us and delivered another, this time unsolicited but necessary hint, which led us to our very last puzzle and a fight with the clock to reassemble our radio in time. We delivered our escape message (all in unison in the spirit of friendship) and were very dramatically rescued!
My favorite thing about this escape room was how immersive it was. There were a lot of puzzles to keep you busy and while they were often connected, they didn’t need to be solved in any specific order, so everyone could be productive and there was always something for someone to be doing (whether that be staring at props or actually trying to escape).
Every room was meticulously designed to make you feel as if you actually were on an abandoned jungle island and the puzzles, while difficult, weren’t impossible.
So, if you’re looking for something to do to get out of the summer heat, I recommend Black Star Escape Room. Also, honorable mention goes to the root beer float at Dairy Keen because we do not live in an air-conditioned jungle island and it’s hot out there!
For information about the Black Star Escape Co., email [email protected], call 435-659-7988 or visit, blackstarescape.com.