Haunted Roads in California

From remote residential drives harboring horrifying histories and chilling supernatural phenomena, to mountainous passes where it's said restless souls resulting from brutal car accidents still roam after dark. Are you ready for the most haunted roads in California?

Photos:

[MrJest]

I've driven over Pacheco Pass hundreds of times, starting in the early 80s when I was a delivery driver between San Jose and Fresno. It used to be tremendously dangerous, being a narrow winding two lane mountain road most of the way. It is one of two main commercial truck routes into the SF Bay Area from the central valley and highways 5 and 99, and consequently has heavy truck traffic going both directions... especially in the early morning hours, as truckers doing overnight hauls from SoCal try to get to their end points by 7:00 or 8:00 AM in the Bay Area. Sleepy drivers and big rigs on a narrow mountain road, often socked in with fog...

It's much better now, with only a couple miles of undivided narrow road left, but it's still a road to be taken with care. Sadly, I can say that in all the trips I've taken over the pass, I've never seen anything paranormal on that road. Just the ordinary, normal idiot drivers were scary enough.

[obijuankenobi]

I've explored a lot of Haunted roads in just say, many blunts were smoked.

[danielsdetailgarage]

I drive Pacheco pass everyday for work and I can agree on time warp and sudden depression, my cousin also claims to seen a ghost hitchhiker

[fedup]

I live in Fresno now, but used to live in Santa Cruz. I would drive back and forth pretty often to visit my parents here in Fresno. I usually went in the middle of the night to avoid traffic and it was super creepy on Pacheco Pass, never seen anything though. I would drive Mt. Madonna Rd near Gilroy and that was dark, woodsy, curvy and super creepy. My dad was a truck driver in the 80’s and lost his breaks on Pacheco Pass. Luckily, there was a more experienced driver near that coached him and walked him through how to downshift and used his truck to help. Creeps me out that my dad could have been one of those ghost stories. Oddly enough he did end up dying in a motorcycle crash a couple of years later on a dark country road near Exeter. He might be someone’s ghost story over there. Who knows.

[kokonakokoma]

I used to live in Valley of Enchantment/Crestline area of California. It was up in the mountains and the roads were mostly switch back curves and it was heavily wooded as it went thru the national forest. On our stretch of road it was straight for about 2 city blocks and there was a sharp turn at the end. Anyway, it was a full moon night and my brother and I were up late having a few beers on the porch. Outta nowhere a cherry red 57 Chevy came roaring out of the darkness speeding down the stretch. We heard the breaks squeal loudly as it came to the turn and the sound of a horrible crash followed... it woke up our neighbors and we ran down to were we could see the turn. We expected the worst as we peered down to the power pole right before the turn and saw nothing but a low hanging fog... We were shocked to say the least. Our neighbors went back to bed but my bro and I were spooked. Next morning we told our dad about what happened and before we could tell him what the car looked like he described it. We are more shocked than ever and he says" Yeah it comes thru here once a year" thoughtfully sipping his coffee.."but u never see it after it crashes". My dad had lived there for years. It no longer fazed him.

[kaiju-odanny]

Nice job there, Speakeasy! Especially loving of learning so much haunted places.

[Scarlet]

Came up in my feed. Clicked so fast, to see if the fwy I had an experience on would be listed. 1996 rainy evening I was driving with my mom to try on my altered wedding dress. There was an apparition of a woman in a white dress walking along a hillside about 15 ft from the on ramp. She was not from this century. I asked my mom if she saw what I saw. She said yes. I turned back around and she was gone. It was pouring rain but she wasn’t wet while walking. 78 east bound fwy San Marcos.

[kirstenvogel]

Pacheco Pass was called Blood Alley back in the '60s and '70s. There were so many accidents it was horrible. We used to camp all over California and that's a route that you have to take to go south or east from a third of the State. We'd expect to come upon something it was so 'normal'. Big rigs, bikers, boaters, campers, family cars.
It's not like that anymore; still, I once drove alone to visit my cousin in Fresno and going through there it was an unusual floaty wavey fog and I realized I was the only car on the road for quite awhile which is not normal. 10a.m. on a weekday.

[wendyR]

Vasco Rd. In Livermore, CA is known for being hunted, so many accident had occurred, many people had died there.

[ignacior.]

TURNBULL CANYON in Whittier !!! It's a spiritual hotbed. The original Indians that inhabited the San Gabriel valley referred to the canyon as a place of darkness.

[DubH]

I got the notification and then YouTube threw a fit. I'm here now though!! Lol

Great job as usual!! Proctor Valley road sounds like road trip material!! I'm surprised I've actually heard of it since I have no idea where I heard about it. Lol

[sass]

I’ve driven Pacheco several hundred times and have never witnessed anything paranormal. I drove the grapevine this past weekend and felt an uneasy feeling there. I got weird vibes when driving by Pyramid lake. There’s a lot of places to go off roading in the area. I wanted to stop off and check it out but my gut was telling me to keep driving so I did.

[shadowx]

Hwy 12 traveling from Fairfield backroad to Lodi that you can cut through 5. It’s a two way lane and many peoples lost their lives bypassing vehicle with using broken lane to pass. I live in Fairfield and been using that HWY 12 all the time to go to San Diego. It is especially scary late or early morning when it gets foggy. Never saw a ghost but heard many stories about vehicle passing through the broken lane. A few years ago, a family that were trying to cut a semi-truck but the Corolla couldn’t pass through and the oncoming semi-truck ran right through them killing the family. If your car is too slow to pass on a one lane highway, don’t do it.

[michaelbatts]

Excellent presentation, Speakeasy Family!

[horatiohornbie]

I drove over the Pacheco pass when it was so foggy you literally couldn't see 2 feet in front of your face... it was like smoke. I'd heard of fog like that before and never believed it till I saw it. Every car just had to stop it was so bad.

[mexighosthunter]

hey guys just wana share a scary road experience...just a few days ago we went to pachanga casino here in california..so as we left the casino we headed out to valley view casino..we left around 2am and headed out thru these real rough mountain roads ...about 15 mins in we witnessed a indian type ghostly figure on the road ..it was soo unreal and we couldnt believe our eyes i hope to one day go back again and catch the indian ghost on camera😱👻

[glendabartonbarton]

You don't have anything in Northern California
Lovall Valley Road in Sonoma goes to Lovall Valley where there was a huge massacre of Native Americans ordered by President Lincoln. Sonoma is THE most haunted town in California . . . Chinese tunnels, the old Embarcadero, the Whipping Tree, the white cross on the hill where the ghost of the white schoolteacher killed in the massacre haunting there, the Rattlesnake and Bear ritual sacrifice that took place thousands of years the field of which contains the bodies of chiefs and shamans, hundreds of bodies buried under the street next to the Mission Sonoma. My son saw a Native woman ♀️ n the courtyard of the Mission. My camera got many paranormal photos at the Whipping Tree. Sonoma County Developmental Center contains the ghosts of survivors of the Philadelphia Experiment held on the Eldridge. The SCDC is in Eldridge California near Sonoma. A 10-year-old white boy tried to explore a Chinese tunnel and got lost. The townspeople mapped the tunnel at 17 miles long but never found him, although his ghost still resides there. Other strange people haunting: Chief Solano, the Dinner children, the Mexican outlaw Joaquin Murrieta. A friend of mine does ghost tours in Sonoma. Her name is Carla Heine. She grew up in a haunted Adobe which was is now a historical monument where Lincoln quartered his troops. There were several murders there. I realize it's mostly a town but the roads are haunted too and lots of UFO activity. I always feel a multi-dimensional vibe there and if you talk to the homeless they have seen very strange sights.

[TarotTea]

Heard many many stories of Dogwood road. I use to drive it everyday to get to work from Calexico to Brawley late at night. I’ve never experienced anything but it is very much local lore.

[andrewscolari]

I've read of the Char-Man. He was once a teenage boy who lived with his father in a nearby cabin. In 1948 a wildfire struck the area and began to to approach to cabin. Supposedly the boy went mad and flayed his father alive and ran into the burning woods where he was either disfigured but survived or died and is now a burnt and deformed ghost.

[jpinon]

I traveled dogwood road in el centro California, i even walked it after getting in an argument with my ex at 12am (midnight) and i saw nothing, i always go to mexicali and lived in the area for a while.