8 Haunted National Park Trails You Can Hike (if You Dare)
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Loading... - Nolan Doyle
- 28 Oct 2022
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America’s national parks preserve some of the country’s most spectacular natural assets. And these protected areas also often have a rich past – but sometimes, that past is terribly tragic.
Morbid historical events in many of these parks have inspired spooky legends that endure today, from tales of murder to mysterious illnesses. Though these haunted trails are great for Halloween hiking, they’re also fascinating places to check out year-round, especially for hikers on the hunt for spooky specters (or who love nerve-rattling local legends.)
The Heritage Trail (or guided tours)
- Park: Mammoth Cave National Park
- State: Kentucky
- Distance: .8 miles
- Elevation gain: 40 feet
Anchored by the longest cave system on earth, Mammoth Cave National Park has a reputation for ethereal encounters — so many that several park rangers wrote a book about the park’s otherworldly occurrences: Scary Stories of Mammoth Cave.
The subterranean wonder first opened as a tourist attraction in 1816, and a couple of decades later, physician John Croghan purchased the cave and created an underground sanatorium (place to treat chronic disease) for patients with tuberculosis. Five patients died in residence in just five months, and the subterranean facility closed after half a year in operation.
At the same time, a cave guide named Stephen Bishop was charting miles of the sandstone labyrinth using only a lantern. First brought to Mammoth Cave in 1838 as an enslaved man, Bishop spent nearly two decades exploring the cave system. And he accomplished quite a lot. Today, more than 420 miles of Mammoth Cave have been charted, although an estimated 600 miles remain unexplored. Read More...
