I've been obsessed with this post for years, so I've decided to pay homage by writing my own version of it with my opinion on which bodies of water are the scariest. Also, I added new photos that either show a different angle or explain why I find it particularly scary.
There's been some news since the original post. Scientists have potentially figured out the answer to where the water goes, by measuring the flow of the river above and below the falls. It turns out to be the most boring answer: it immediately re-joins the river. The ping pong balls and GPS trackers never re-surfaced because the falls are so violent, and I'm not sure what happened with the dye. Oh, well. Anyway, powerful waterfalls are scary, and in fact there should probably be a list of scariest waterfalls, but in the end, this is just another waterfall to me, so it earns 1/10.
Flathead Lake (AKA Salish Lake, after the local native people)
I'm not particularly bothered by the pictures of how clear it is. In fact, I'd prefer that, because then I know what's under me. But look at this picture. There's at least one dropoff at the green-blue boundary, possibly two, depending on what's going on with the tan-green boundary. And like OP, I HATE dropoffs. 2/10.
For a while, I worked at a summer camp where we went to local springs to swim about once a week. When I started there, I couldn't even look at the slope down to the source of Juniper Springs, which is only about 20 feet. I had to force myself to swim closer and closer until I could go over it while looking down. By the time we got to Alexander Springs, which has gorgeous clear water showing a rift about 30 feet down with no walls to swim to, I could enjoy it. Anyway, I think I'd be okay with Jacob's Well, since it doesn't go down much farther than Alexander Springs before it starts going sideways, which is a part I don't plan to ever see because I'm not stupid enough to go cave diving. So I'll give it 3/10.
(On the subject of springs, I somehow became convinced that the Blue Springs in High Springs looks like this. It does not.)
No thanks, I don't like that dropoff. Or the dead trees. On the other hand, there's nothing over the lake for you to fall off of and you'd probably have your feet freeze before you reached to the dropoff if you decided to wade into it, so it's only a 4/10.
I was originally going to put Lake Baikal as 1 or 2. Somehow, I've never really been able to process how deep it is, so it doesn't have much impact on me. I mostly think it's cool. Like, did you know there are mud volcanoes on the bottom? Also, it has the only freshwater seals in the world, which have huge eyes because they hunt by sight in the super clear water, but they also go really deep, so they have to be able to pick up on every bit of filtered sunlight. Cool.
What really interests me in Lake Baikal is the ice. It's in Russia, so of course it gets incredibly cold. So you get feet of ice with gorgeous patterns, and unlike the depth of the lake, I can feel the depth of that ice. Then, I learned about the retreat of the White Army after the Russian Revolution. In the winter, the ice is strong enough to take an army (or its remains) over. But even though it's not actually that big compared to its depth, it's still big enough that you can't see the edges from the middle. Imagine being starving, freezing, terrified, convinced you're going to die, unable to see anything but your dying comrades and this beautiful clear ice. And below that ice, the lake goes down, and down, and down... Now that's chilling. 5/10.
I don't care if it's harmless. Blue holes are terrifying. In fact, I think pictures of the Great Blue Hole were what originally made me scared of seeing dropoffs. Also, apparently there's a cave down there, which makes it worse. I'm giving it a 6/10.
It's hard for me to understand exactly how a standing whirlpool works, but the diagram does kind of make sense. When the tide is coming in from the east, the water drops down to fill the hollow there, creating the whirlpool. Then, it hits the pinnacle, which creates something even scarier: a standing wave. Apparently, there are times when you can hear it from ten miles away. Fun fact, the British navy officially considers it to be navigable waters, which nobody seems to understand. I guess it's navigable during ebb tide? Another fun fact, George Orwell almost died in the whirlpool when he calculated the tides wrong. I think I'd like to see it from a distance, but not anywhere I might accidentally fall into it. 7/10.
Look, I wanted to give it a 10/10, but it's just not that scary to me. I mean, all you have to do is not step in. Granted, I have to imagine that there's an enormous temptation to just put one toe in. Also, there's obviously no fence, and the rocks look slippery. I think 8/10 is a solid rating, and I'm never going to visit.
You know how I said the Strid was less scary because you could just avoid it? Well, this is the opposite. If you live alongside the Lower Congo River, or any river, that river is your life. You can't avoid it. People go fishing in these waters. This is the place where Jeremy Wade, the River Monsters guy, came looking for a giant fish to explain myths of a river monster that drags you to your death, only to decide that you don't even need a medium-sized fish to pull you overboard (also the episode where some locals wanted to stone him to death). And that's not even considering the crocodiles which will actually eat you, or the underwater caves OP discussed, which honestly should not exist in a river. This is a 10/10, scariest body of water in the world.
Honorable mention: that river that keeps showing up in my dreams with the boardwalk/bridge that's submerged when waters are high. I don't know where you are, and I don't know what you want, but I'm ready for you to leave me alone.
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