by Alicia MacLeay
So, you want to tell a spooky ghost story on your next hike and scare the gorp out of your friends? Or maybe you'd like to scare yourself, but don't know where to go for that spook factor?
Celebrate Halloween with a haunted hike on a haunted trail with the help of a haunted local trail guide.
Haunted Hikes by former National Park Service ranger Andrea Lankford recounts "spine tingling tales and trails from North America's national parks." Even if some stories don't scare you on their first reading from the comfort of home, this is an actual hiking guidebook with spooky stories, trail descriptions, and directions to the trailhead.
You'll likely feel some hairs stand up once you're on that trail, in the dark, recalling the mysterious skeleton found in that exact spot. Let's just say, based on the creep factor alone, I won't be hiking to Charles Manson's Barker Ranch in Death Valley anytime soon.
Maybe it's the local flavor (there were nearly no New England stories in the book above), but Haunted Hikes of New Hampshire by Marianne O'Connor spooked me a bit more. In particular, the stories of the huts on Mount Washington were a little freaky, probably because I've frequented those very areas many times.
I won't spoil the tales here (far better to tell them while in the mountains), but I don't suggest making a night of it alone in the Lake of the Clouds hut.
Know a good local ghost story or trail guide for haunted backcountry spots? Share it below.
