Thirteen haunted hikes for Halloween

This Halloween, day hike a haunted trail…if you dare. Allegedly haunted trails – sporting ghosts, monsters and extraterrestrial visitors – abound throughout the United States.

Among the trails you might day (er, night) hike are:
California
• See lake haunted by drowned boy in Yosemite National Park: see trail
Colorado
• Watch for UFOs atop North America’s highest sand dunes: see trail
Indiana
• Frolic with murdered woman’s spirit on haunted sand dunes: see trail
Iowa
• Search for ghosts of orphans on Charley Western Trail in Iowa: see trail
Michigan
• Share Upper Peninsula lighthouse with dead keeper’s ghost: see trail
Minnesota
• Keep eye out for human-eating demon on Lost River State Forest trail: see trail
• Look for Bigfoot while day hiking Minnesota state forest trail: see trail
• Watch for sea monster on Minnesota-Wisconsin border lake see trail
Wisconsin
• Avoid hell hounds and girl’s spirit in Midwest’s most haunted swampland: see trail
• Head to ancient crater that attracts aliens in western Wisconsin see trail
• Strange orbs haunt Devils Punch Bowl: see trail
• Try spotting Wisconsin’s most famous ghost on Military Ridge State Trail: see trail
• Walk atop alleged secret UFO base in Wisconsin recreational park: see trail

Happy Halloween!

Find out about trail guidebooks available in the Hittin’ the Trail series.

Strange orbs haunt Devil’s Punchbowl

Run! This gorge is haunted!

Topo map, Devil's Punch Bowl Trail.

Short day hike heads into
geological wonderland
in west-central Wisconsin

Intrepid souls can explore an allegedly haunted glen in west-central Wisconsin.

A 0.25-mile round trip trail at the Devil's Punch Bowl Scientific Study Area takes day hikers to a waterfall and a gorge carved out of sandstone. Be sure to also keep an eye out for strange balls of light that many claim maneuver about the surrounding woods.

To reach the trail, from Menomonie head west on Wis. Hwy. 29. Turn left/south onto County Road P then left/southeast onto 410th Street. Look for the parking lot on the left/east side of the road between 490th and 450th Avenue.

The hike begins with a descent from the parking lot down a stairs to the waterfall’s lip, which is made of hard sandstone. By midsummer, the stream is a mere trickle; waterflow is fairly good during the spring snowmelt, though. The water drops into the punch bowl, a gorge through which the intermittent stream makes it way to the Red Cedar River.

Into the gorge
Next, return to the parking lot and follow the trail heading southeast. This cuts along the edge of a meadow then enters a woodlands. Once there, a wooden stairs winds to the bottom of the gorge, which is about 60 feet deep.

The gorge is strikingly beautiful, a fern-covered glen with a light sheen of moss growing over the rock walls, as water from the falls fans out across small rocks in the streambed.

The gorge walls are compressed layers of sediment – aka sandstone – which settled at the bottom of warm tropical sea that covered this region around 500 million years ago.

Flooding from glacial meltwater carved out the soft sandstone around 10,000 years ago. Springs now drip water out of the recessed portions of the walls, which in winter results in otherworldly ice formations.

Orbs and gnomes
Beyond the intriguing geology may be something even more fantastic – strange orbs of light that some have reported at the site. These orbs apparently are able to change their size, shape and color, as they shift between trees. Other visitors at night have claimed to hear disembodied voices and strange noises.

Among the rarer stories is that of meeting small, gnome-like people. The pointy-eared creatures (replete with pointed hat) are about three- to four-feet tall.

The creek can be followed east to the river where it first intersects with the Red Cedar Trail. By late June, though, the creek's shores beyond the glen usually are overgrown and generally impassable – unless you're an orb of light, of course.

Learn more about nearby day hiking trails in my Day Hiking Trails of the Chippewa Valley guidebook.

Ten haunted Midwestern hikes to take this Halloween

This Halloween, day hike a haunted trail…if you dare. Allegedly haunted trails – sporting ghosts, monsters and extraterrestrial visitors – abound throughout the Midwest.

Among the trails you might day (er, night) hike are:
g Try spotting Wisconsin’s most famous ghost on Military Ridge State Trail: see trail
g Look for Bigfoot while day hiking Minnesota state forest trail: see trail
g Search for ghosts of orphans on Charley Western Trail in Iowa: see trail
g Walk atop alleged secret UFO base in Wisconsin recreational park: see trail
g Look for sea monster on Minnesota-Wisconsin border lake see trail
g Avoid hell hounds and girl’s spirit in Midwest’s most haunted swampland: see trail
g Share Upper Peninsula lighthouse with dead keeper’s ghost: see trail
g Frolic with murdered woman’s spirit on haunted sand dunes: see trail
g Keep eye out for human-eating demon on Lost River State Forest trail: see trail
g Head to ancient crater that attracts aliens in western Wisconsin see trail

Happy Halloween!

Find out about trail guidebooks available in the Hittin’ the Trail series.

Guidebook author offering presentation on haunted hikes

Ghosts, monsters and flying saucers have been reported on a number of
hiking trails in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Photo courtesy of Photoree.

Where are you most likely to see ghosts, Bigfoot, UFOs and even sea monsters in Wisconsin and Minnesota? I’ll offer up some of those haunted trails during a presentation on Thursday, Oct. 23, at Chapter2Books in Hudson, Wis.

Trail recommendations will be drawn from my recent books, “Hittin’ the Trail: Day Hiking the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway” and “Headin’ to the Cabin: Day Hiking Trails of Northwest Wisconsin” and his blog “Hikes with Tykes.”

Based on actual reports, the trails include such spooky phenomena as:
g Hell hounds and a girl’s spirit in a Dunn County, Wis., swamp
g A human-eating demon in a northern Minnesota forest
g UFOs that visit an ancient meteor crater in Pierce County, Wis.
g Bigfoot sightings spanning a quarter century in a woodlands stretching across Minnesota and Wisconsin
g Sea monsters that lurk in Lake Pepin
g A trail atop an alleged secret UFO base in southern Wisconsin

The presentation, “Haunted Hikes,” runs 7-8 p.m. Chapter2Books is located at 226 Locust St. in downtown Hudson.

Learn about trail guidebooks available in the Hittin’ the Trail series.