Haunted Hikes - by Andrea Lankford (Paperback)

About the Book

Combining the popularity of ghost stories with the traditional aspects of a park trail guide, these creepy hikes lead courageous climbers and armchair adventurers through some of the scariest, most mysterious places in North America.

Book Synopsis

Ghosts! Curses! Hoaxes! Unsolved mysteries! Paranormal events! Take a walk on the creepy side of North America's National Parks! Andrea Lankford, a 12-year veteran ranger with the National Park Service, has written a thoroughly investigated yet often tongue-in-cheek guidebook that takes the reader to the scariest, most mysterious places inside North America's National Parks.

Lankford shares such eerie tales as John Brown's haunting of Harper's Ferry, the disembodied legs that have been seen running around inside the Mammoth Cave Visitor Center, and the "wailing woman" who roams the trail behind the Grand Canyon Lodge. Lankford also uncovers paranormal activities park visitors have experienced, such as the chupacabra that roams the swamps inside Big Thicket National Preserve and the teenage bigfoot who rolled a park service campground with toilet paper.

She also reports on long-forgotten unsolved murders, such as the savage stabbing of a young woman on Yosemite's trail to Mirror Lake, and the execution style shooting of two General Motors executives at Crater Lake. The witnesses to the supernatural occurrences are highly credible people-rangers, park historians, river guides, and the like-and each tale has factual relevance to the cultural or natural history of the park.

Haunted Hikes provides readers with all the information they need: for each hike: a "fright factor rating" is listed along with trailhead access information, detailed trail maps, and hike difficulty levels. Most of the haunted sites included in the book can be reached by the average hiker, some are wheelchair accessible, and others are for intrepid backpackers willing to make multi-day treks into wilderness areas. Intriguing photographs of many sites are included.

Haunted Hikes is sure to satisfy readers looking for those spine-tingling moments when you begin to wonder if maybe, just maybe, we are not alone.

Review Quotes

"Haunted Hikes takes those who like their ghosts inhabiting the scenic out-of-doors beyond the creaky attics of the usual hauntings. Lankford, a former park ranger, offers more than 50 hikes of varying difficulty set in national parks. Each entry contains an eerie story, a map of the hiking route, advice on the difficulty of the hike, its "fright factor," and other useful information. While most of the hauntings are of the missing/murdered persons kind, there are plenty of others to lend variety. Strange natural phenomena, including a burping lake, trees that bleed, and brain-eating amoebas, vie with Bigfoot for their own featured hikes in this guide for the morbidly curious."

-Library Journal

"Are you sure you were alone in that lonely canyon or secluded mountaintop last time you went hiking? Haunted Hikes: Spine-Tingling Tales and Trails from North America's National Parks, by Andrea Lankford chronicles the hermits, fugitives and other lost souls whose stories echo throughout America's national parks. Lankford has collected both the lore and the practical information you'll need to visit some of these spooky sites. Stories include the arrest of the notorious murderer Charles Manson in California's Death Valley; the legend of the Jersey Devil, a flying creature said to haunt the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve; and the ghosts of the Grand Canyon, from victims from a 1956 midair collision of two commercial jets, to the mournful wail of a weeping spirit - La Llorona - seen along the canyon's Transept Trail. Or is that noise nothing more than the wind?"

-Associated Press

"Any guidebook can give you trail miles and directions, but only Haunted Hikes captures all the strange doings in your favorite back country places with tales that will have you sleeping (if you can sleep at all) with one eye open. Long-lost hermits, ghostly apparitions, a voice half-heard . . . and you thought you were alone in that lonely canyon or on top of that wind-swept mountaintop. Andrea Lankford raises the hair on your neck in this book of spooky spots and ghostly grottoes."

-Jeff Rennicke, contributing editor, National Geographic Traveler

"Have you ever gone to a National Park and wondered if there was more than a bear waiting behind that tree up ahead on the trail? Or if there was something else up in the sky besides that gorgeous sunset? With Haunted Hikes, Andrea Lankford has put together a rich collection of stories, lore, hikes, and more that will add a whole new dimension to your next National Park visit. This book is the perfect spooky companion to your next campfire!"

-Chris Mengel, National Park Ranger

About the Author

Andrea Lankford, a former National Park Service ranger, has performed firefighting, law enforcement, and life-saving wilderness medicine in Cape Hatteras, Zion, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon. As a ranger, she won several awards for her work as a criminal investigator, and she implemented the "Heat Kills. Hike Smart" public education program that generated media attention and is credited with preventing heat-related deaths at the Grand Canyon-a program that continues to save lives today. Her masochistic adventures include thru-hiking the entire Appalachian Trail, kayaking from Miami to Key West, cycling from Fairbanks to the Arctic Ocean, and being the first to mountain bike the 800-mile Arizona Trail. Haunted Hikes is her third book. Andrea currently lives in Southern California with her skeptic husband, a Special Agent for the United States Secret Service.