Hawaii
Waipio Valley
Big Island
Ahhh, Hawaii. Home to fiery luaus where island dancers welcome you with pounding drums, native chants, and blazing torches. All of which are awesome when those dancers are actually alive. Not so awesome when they’re ghosts of ancient warriors marching through the islands armed to the teeth. But those are the night marchers, legendary spirits who roam the islands at in an eternal march to battle. Most longtime locals have stories about encountering them, mostly in specific spots spread throughout the islands. The creepiest is the Waipio Valley on the northern shore of Hawaii. Though the park has some of the most scenic lookouts in the state, the pounding beats and chants of the night marchers echo especially loudly through the valley when the night marchers decide to join you for a hike. — MM
Idaho
Scarywood
Athol
The Silverwood amusement park north of Coeur d’Alene turns into the largest haunted attraction in Idaho every weekend night in October. It’s home to five haunted houses with live actors and movie-quality visual effects, this year including a 3-D attraction set in an old asylum. Like a smaller Universal Studios, it also has seven “scare zones,” where sections of the park are themed with creepy phobias like Clown Town, the Dollhouse, and Scarecrow Corner. Your admission ($26 to $40) includes all of Silverwood’s rides, including Tremors, one of the top-rated wooden roller coasters in America. — MM
Illinois
Raven’s Grin Inn
Mount Carroll
Have you ever wanted to wander through the mind of a madman? The owner of this haunted nook, the name of Jim Warfield, is mad in all the right ways. He’s turned his house — he does actually live there — into a maze of his spooky art, prop gags, and a not-so-safe-but-exhilarating three-story slide into the haunted wine cellar. You’ll laugh as much as you scream as he guides you through his ever-changing life’s work. Fall is the busiest time of year, naturally, but Raven’s Grin is open year-round for when the spirited mood strikes in April. There’s not much else to do in tiny Mount Carroll, so plan a pit stop at the corner bar before you venture inside. Tours are $15 and no reservations are necessary, though there may be a wait during the busy season. — Lacey Muszynski
Indiana
Historic Hannah House
Indianapolis
This 24-room mansion hosts a range of ho-hum events: Easter egg hunts, Civil War reenactments, weddings, corporate gatherings. It’s also reputed to be haunted as a mutha. We’re talking disembodied footsteps; cold spots; weird noises; strange smells ranging from roses to rotting flesh; shadowy shapes darting about; and a man in a black suit suspected to be the structure’s builder and namesake, Alexander Hannah. Oh, and the unquiet spirits of a group of runaway slaves who reportedly died there in a basement fire. Regular tours are available, and there’s even a Hannah House Paranormal Day Celebration, which for some reason takes place in August instead of October. But that’s OK. Because if the stories are even a wee bit true, every day is Paranormal Day at Hannah House. — Sam Stall
Iowa
Villisca Axe Murder House
Villisca
For a true one-of-a-kind overnight stay, book a night at the Villisca Axe Murder House, the aptly named home where eight people were ax-murdered. The story goes that a family of six plus two friends were asleep when an unknown person entered the house and killed them one by one. While the case is still unsolved and the motive remains a mystery, the main suspect was a traveling minister who had taught at a nearby church that night and had left town early the next morning. Tours and nightly stays are offered for adrenaline junkie patrons interested in spending the night in a room that 100 years ago was the scene of a bloody massacre. You’ll probably get the best sleep of your life, right? — AS
Kansas
Stull Cemetery
Stull
Locals know this tiny cemetery in an unincorporated township in eastern Kansas as a portal to Hell that the devil vacations through twice a year. As outlandish as that sounds, the ruins of a nearby church and the bizarre architecture will have you half-believing the rumors. No Satan sightings have been confirmed, and anyone caught trespassing in the private cemetery can face a $1,000 fine. But that only heightens the dare for jumpy teens and courageous stoners to make the trip. Twice, in my case. — BW
Kentucky
Sauerkraut Cave
Louisville
While it got its name because it once served as a fermenting cavern for sauerkraut, Sauerkraut Cave earned its legend because it was located beneath the Lakeland Asylum for the Insane, an institution marred by accusations of overcrowding and mistreatment of patients. The cave beneath the now-razed asylum is believed to have been an occasional escape route for inmates, but there are also rumors of bodies being buried there and the cave being used as a discarding place for infants born in the asylum. Strange visions and ghostly voices have been reported by many who have explored it; find it behind the archery range in E.P. “Tom” Sawyer Park. Guided tours are offered, but you can use your own judgment. — Kevin Gibson
Louisiana
St. Roch Chapel, Yellow Fever Shrine
New Orleans
There’s arguably nothing scarier than a silent killing machine: a deadly disease. In the 19th century, a yellow fever epidemic swept New Orleans, and Reverend Peter Thevis, the pastor of the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, prayed to St. Roch (who is most identified with good health and healing) that if the members of his parish were shielded from the disease, he would build a shrine in St. Roch’s name. While 40,000 New Orleanians died in the epidemic, no one in Father Thevis’ community perished. To thank him, the chapel in St. Roch’s name was built, as well as the shrine, which is dotted with offerings left by pilgrims who still visit to pray for healing, making it a true-life haunted house. Among the artifacts: children’s polio braces, crutches, rows of prosthetic legs, plaster feet, false teeth, and fake eyeballs. — AS
Maine
Mount Hope Cemetery
Bangor
You know who grew up in Maine? Stephen King. Aka the dude who wrote Pet Sematary, which makes it no surprise the 1989 film adaptation was filmed here. For extra scares, watch the movie before strolling through this creepy this 181-year-old garden cemetery at night, and see if you can find the spot where Gage was buried. On the way, you’ll see some of the first Civil War monuments ever constructed, and grave markers that date back to 1836. If you’re not sufficiently skeeved, Bangor is also home to King’s house, fronted by wrought iron gates decorated with bats. Both are part of several Stephen King tours, that’ll take you through sites of Bangor that inspired his novels. — MM
Maryland
Coffin Rock
Near Burkittsville
The Blair Witch Project, one of the creepiest films in low-budget Hollywood history, still pulls tourists to Burkittsville, Maryland. To find where most of the film was shot, though, you need to head into Black Hills Forest about 20 minutes west of town to find Coffin Rock. It’s a large flat rock near a creek in the middle of the woods. And in history, it’s where a Maryland search party went missing in 1886 in an attempt to find missing 8-year-old Robin Weaver. The kid eventually returned to town; the search party did not. A second search party found disemboweled bodies, bound at the hands and feet, on Coffin Rock. Those bodies later vanished when the search party returned with backup help. Local legend attributes all of this to the so-called Blair Witch. You can, of course, retrace those steps in history … just bring a flashlight and a good pair of running shoes. — Tim Ebner