Haunted Hikes

With history like Washington's, it's really not that hard to find trails that give you a creepy feeling. Almost any forest hike on a dark and rainy fall day in Washington can give you the shivers, and not just from the cold. The drippy moss, shadowy understory and old man's beard lichen can give anyone the creeps if they are in the right mood.

What else makes a hike eerie? In a decidedly unscientific poll of hikers, people mentioned thick, dark forests, lonely lakes, abandoned roads and campgrounds, ghost towns, caves, and history or tall tales about the trail.

But one person's scary hike can also be another's happy place. Take Lake Janus. Guidebook author Craig Romano describes the hike as a "warm, inviting lake" within "deep, soothing wilderness." Hiker Kim Brown, on the other hand, notes that the name means "two-faced" and was spooked by the loneliness of the lake during a solo visit on a rainy day.

Washington is rife with deep forests — the Olympics and Gifford Pinchot area in particular. So without further ado, here are a few of our favorite haunted hikes.

Lime Kiln Trail

Location: Mountain Loop Highway
Length: 7 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 625 feet
Haunted Qualities: Old relics, a mossy stone structure, and your imagination

Check out the limestone relics on the Lime Kiln Trail. Photo by vacillating_poles.

Read Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Ethan Brand" before embarking on this hike to an old lime kiln and townsite. It's the haunting tale of a lime burner and is sure to set your imagination alight as you walk to the relics in this forest. Be sure also to read the historical information at the trailhead before you set off. 

The forest follows an old roadbed, used by the kiln workers, and saw blades litter the trail as you near the kiln. It's still standing, but dripping with moss. Explore the rusty relics near the kiln, and imagine the ghosts of who used to work here. 

> Plan your visit to the Lime Kiln Trail using WTA's Hiking Guide

Iron Goat Trail

Location: Stevens Pass — East
Length: 6.0 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 700 feet
Haunted Qualities: site of avalanche and 1910 railroad disaster, spooky tunnels

The Iron Goat Trail disappears into dark forest before reaching the old railbed. Photo by HikingPrincess12.

The Iron Goat Trail marks the site of one of the worst railroad disasters in US history. In 1910, two trains — stuck in a monstrous snowstorm as they tried to cross the Cascade Crest — were hit by an enormous avalanche. It swept them off the track at the Wellington depot and into Tye Creek. Nearly 100 lives were lost.

The old railroad grade and its tunnels were abandoned in 1929 in favor of the current Cascade tunnel, and what was left has been crafted into the Iron Goat Trail. When you're walking the trail, imagine being perched up there in a rickety old train, watching the snow accumulate outside.  

> Plan your visit to the Iron Goat Trail using WTA's Hiking Guide 

If you want more information on the 1910 disaster, read The White Cascade, an excellent retelling of the event. 

Hoh River Trail

Location: Olympic National Park
Length: 1 to 37 miles roundtrip, depending on your destination
Elevation Gain: up tp 3700 feet
Haunted Qualities: Trees dripping with lichen, and shadowy figures...could it be Sasquatch?

The moss on the Hoh is so thick it sculpts itself into creepy silhouettes -- like banshees! Photo by Bill.

The Hoh rank high on our list of haunted hikes. Those trees are just so huge, their branches becoming clawlike in the right light. And it rains. A lot.

You can just imagine mythical creatures (fairies perhaps?) cavorting in the rainforest while you're not looking. Whether you go one mile or many more, this trail harbors some serious mysteries.

> Plan your visit to the Hoh River Trail using WTA's Hiking Guide

Mine Shaft Trail

Location: Cougar Mountain area
Length: 0.6 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: minimal
Haunted Qualities: Large, deep, dark mine shaft

Old Mine Shaft Trail allows you to gaze into the depths of a deep, dark, old mine shaft. Photo by Bajajunkie.

Discover a piece of mining history on the Mine Shaft Trail. The braver hiker can even peer down the deep mine shaft which has been left open and covered in a safety grate. This deep, dark hole is an eerie relic of the mining activities which took place on Cougar Mountain in the late 1800s.

> Plan your visit to the Mine Shaft Trail using WTA's Hiking Guide

South Coldwater Trail

Location: Mount St. Helens
Length: 10 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 1400 feet
Haunted Qualities: Twisted metal, rusty relics from the volcanic eruption

One of several pieces of logging equipment blown off the mountain during Mount St. Helen's eruption in 1980. This rusting hulk rests along the South Coldwater trail. Photo by JoeHendricks.

You can really pick any hike at Mount St. Helens and view it through a haunted prism. With the volcano's history of eruptions and continued rumblings, there is certainly something otherworldly taking place underneath you.

But the South Coldwater Lake trail evokes eruption day best. On that day in 1980, several logging operations were in progress, and about a mile into this hike, you can still see a bulldozer and yarding tower lying twisted beside the trail, the cab stuffed full of boulders blown inside it from the blast; metal warped by the intense temperature. It's a tangible reminder of the human and economic toll exacted by Mount St. Helens and a warning that it all is likely to happen again someday.

> Plan your visit to South Coldwater Lake using WTA's Hiking Guide

Silver Star Mountain

Location: Columbia Gorge area
Length: 4 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 1000 feet
Haunted Qualities: Sasquatch sightings

The road to access the scenic views from Silver Star Mountain is notoriously rough. Photo by willtravel4beer.

Due to the many purported sightings of Sasquatch near Mount St. Helens and the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, if it exists at all, our famous resident ape likely lives in Washington's South Cascades. In November 2005, a hiker photographed what he believed to be a Sasquatch on Silver Star Mountain. It could be just a hiker, but maybe not. 

If the Sasquatch mythology intrigues you, be sure to grab a copy of Robert Michael Pyle's Where Bigfoot Walks. It's an exploration of the mythos surrounding Bigfoot, why it's important to preserve landscapes and a field report from an under-visited part of the state. 

> Plan your visit to Silver Star Mountain using WTA's Hiking Guide

Ginkgo Petrified Forest

Location: Central Washington
Length: 3 miles, roundtrip
Elevation Gain: 200 feet
Haunted Qualities: Howling wind and petrified, caged trees

This trail is dotted with petrified wood samples caged underground. Photo by Ellebee.

Millions of years ago a lush, diverse forest of ginkgo, walnut, oak, maple and chestnut prospered on what is now the Columbia Plateau. Then came massive volcanic eruptions and a flow of lava that entombed the forest and began the process of petrification, turning the trees into rock that was eventually exposed by massive Ice Age floods.

Today, remnants of this fossil forest can be seen by hikers along a three-mile interpretive trail. It's unusual to imagine a flourishing forest in this desert landscape. And equally weird to see the fossils locked up.

> Plan your visit to the Ginkgo Petrified Forest using WTA's Hiking Guide

Resources

Learn more about Washington's history and haunted hikes with these great resources:

• Hiking Washington's History. University of Washington Press. Judy Bentley. 2010
• Haunted Hikes: Spine Tingling Tales and Trails from North America's National Parks. Santa Monica Press. Andrea Lankford. 2006.