America’s national parks are full of beauty and natural wonders, but there are many things that can strike fear into the hearts of hesitant hikers, including dark caves, wildlife, and complete isolation. Most of the time, there’s nothing to fear, but if you want to add a little spooky spice to your next outdoor adventure, check out these parks. Home to local legends, historical ghosts, and spooky creatures, these national parks are great places for hiking in any season.
mammoth cave
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With more than 150 recorded paranormal phenomena, the caves of Mammoth Cave National Park have been called “the world’s most haunted natural wonder.” Rangers have reported seeing ghosts resembling the slave guides who led cave tours before the Civil War, but the most frequently sighted slave is Stephen Bishop, a National Park Service official. The website describes him as “one of the greatest Mammoth Cave explorers ever.” Bishop is buried in the Old Guide Cemetery not far from the cave, and Violet His City His Lantern is often seen during his tours, where rangers lead visitors through the cave lit only by kerosene lamps.
During the 1800s, Mammoth Cave briefly served as a tuberculosis hospital, and visitors can see the remains of the “consumption huts” where patients stayed. Outside one of his huts there is a stone tablet on which the bodies of deceased patients were placed before burial. Today it is known as Corpse Rock and is the place where some people claim to have heard ghostly coughs.
Devil’s Den, Gettysburg National Battlefield
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Gettysburg suffered 51,000 casualties and was the site of the Civil War’s bloodiest battle. Reports of ghostly soldiers are common here, especially at Devil’s Den, a rock-strewn hill used by artillery and infantry. The most common sighting is a barefooted ghost wearing a floppy hat known as “Hippie,” believed to be a member of the 1st Texas Infantry. People who have met this spirit report that he always points at Plum Ram and says the same thing: “What you’re looking for is over there.” People who claim to have photographed ghosts say they don’t appear in photos, and devil’s lairs are known for causing cameras and other electronic devices to malfunction.
Norton Creek Trail, Great Smoky Mountains
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The foggy ridges of the Great Smoky Mountains are home to many ghost stories, but few are as horrifying as the Cherokee legend of Spearfinger. Legend has it that the witch had long, sharp fingers made of stone and would disguise herself as an elderly woman and walk the path of the Smoky family, seducing children far from the village. She held her children and sang them to sleep, then used her stone fingers to cut out their livers and eat them. There are also stories of settlers killed while searching for their daughters on the north shore of Lake Fontana, and lost hikers report mysterious lights that bring them back.
If you want to see this light for yourself and walk the mountain where Spearfinger is said to have lived, hike the Norton Creek Trail, which takes you past several cemeteries. This path, an old roadbed, is still used on Decoration Day, when the families of the cemetery’s dead come to decorate their graves.
Batna Trail, New Jersey Pinelands
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Since the 1700s, thousands of Jersey Devil sightings have been reported in the New Jersey Pinelands. The kangaroo-like animal, with a dog’s head, bat-like wings, horns and a forked tail, roams the wetlands of southern New Jersey and is said to terrify people with its terrifying appearance. . Residents of cities near Pineland have reported hearing demonic cries late at night. For the best chance of catching a glimpse of the Jersey Devil, hike part of the Batna Trail. The Batna Trail is a 79-mile route that takes you deep into this creature’s habitat.
Star Dune, Great Sand Dunes National Park
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Home to the tallest sand dunes in North America, this park is also a hotspot for flying saucers. More than 60 UFO sightings have been reported in and around Great Sand Dunes National Park, and the region is also known for a spate of cattle mutilations that made national headlines in the 1970s and continue to this day. Masu. If you can’t make it to his nearby UFO watchtower, the 750-foot-tall Stardune top provides the perfect view for spotting UFOs.
Bloody Lane, Antietam National Battlefield
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This Maryland park was the site of one of the bloodiest single-day battles in American history. On September 17, 1862, the first Confederate invasion of the North ended after the 12-hour Battle of Antietam, with 23,000 soldiers killed, wounded, or missing. The sunken road, now known as Bloody Lane, is said to be haunted by soldiers who lost their lives. Witnesses reported hearing phantom gunshots, screams, and songs, and some said they saw soldiers in Confederate uniforms suddenly disappear.
Visitors, park rangers, and Civil War reenactors have experienced strange phenomena at several other Antietam National Battlefield sites, including Burnside Bridge. They have reported seeing blue balls of light moving through the air and hearing phantom drumbeats. According to historians, many fallen soldiers were buried under the bridge.
Transept Trail, Grand Canyon
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Park rangers and visitors have reported sightings of the Grand Canyon’s “Weeping Woman,” said to haunt the North Rim. Legend has it that in the 1920s a woman learned that her husband and her son had died in a hiking accident, and she committed suicide in a nearby lodge. Wearing her white dress printed with blue flowers, she floats along the transept trail between the lodge and campground on a stormy night, weeping in memory of her family she lost in the canyon. , groans.
Grouse Lake, Yosemite National Park
Photo: Tom Hilton/Flickr
Hikers who visit Yosemite’s Grouse Lake via the Chilnualuna Falls Trail often report hearing a distinctive crying sound that sounds like a puppy’s cry. According to Native American folklore, the sound was the cry of a drowning Indian boy in the lake. According to legend, he appeals to hikers for help, but anyone who tries to enter the lake will be dragged below and drown.
But the crying boy isn’t the only scary ghost in the park. The Miwok Indians believed that Yosemite Falls was possessed by an evil wind called the Pohono that lured people to the edge of the falls and pushed them all the way to the other side. In 2011, three hikers died after falling from the top of Yosemite’s Vernal Falls.
