Have you ever been out hiking when you saw or heard something explainable? Something that made the hair on your neck stand up?
As much as I love scary stories from others, as an avid hiker my favorite type has to be scary hiking stories.
So if you feel like getting creeped out by some strange and intense stories, read below to hear from campers and hikers who’ve had terrifying encounters!
Creepy and Scary Hiking Stories
Story By User – NZT-48Rules
I got woken up in the night by a park ranger yelling for us to get in our car.
A grizzly had eaten a woman in her tent one site over and they didn’t yet have the bear.
Story By User – RednBlackSalamander
One of my boots came untied, so I knelt down to retie it, and took a quick glance behind me as I was standing up.
There was a mountain lion creeping across the trail about 50 feet back.
Story By User – airwalkerdnbmusic
Walking through a very dense forest in the UK, it was late summer (August I think), its just getting dark and I am heading back to the camp after a long day of hiking.
I don’t have my torch with me but I do have my phone out and its screen is bright (back before we had the torch app on smartphones).
I spotted a couple of dudes standing over this hole in the ground, they had two spades and were busy pushing something heavy in there, not a body, something that was metallic as it clanged as it went in.
They stood by the hole, said a few words then began to shovel earth on top.
Story By User – Lavrentiiy
On one of my rare trips out into the wilderness, I was walking in the middle of nowhere on some kind of natural trail, possibly made by deer. I was looking for a place to rest and it was beginning to turn to dusk — light enough to keep going for a while, but the shadows were deepening and the edges of the trail were too dark to see properly.
As I walk, I hear a sheep baaing. At first it doesn’t strike me as unusual, because on the surface, hearing a sheep in the country doesn’t seem out of place.
Then I hear it again, directly from the shadows to my left, and two things hit me at once. One, this is deep wilderness and there is no farmland around me. Two, the baaing sounds too perfect.
It sounds like somebody doing a really good impression of a sheep, but as I hear it again I realize it’s the same pitch and length each time, like a recording. The more I hear it, the more unnerving it gets.
I keep walking, and seconds later I draw even with it. As I walk past I catch a glimpse of a figure crouched in the bushes just off the trail, and a flash of teeth as (I assume) whoever or whatever was there grinned at me. I did not stop anywhere near there that night.
Story By User – GeoLeprechaun
I was hiking down a trail in the dead of winter, along a stream. At one point the trail narrowed to about four feet wide, with a steep slope on one side and a sheer drop of ten feet to the creek on the other side. The trail was coated in a sheet of ice.
Being cautious, I got down on all fours to crawl across the patch of ice. Not good enough. I felt my body sliding slowly towards the edge. I felt suspended in midair before I fell. It reminded me of Wile E. Coyote from the Roadrunner cartoons, when he looks at the camera and holds up a sign saying “HELP!” before plunging to the bottom of the cliff.
On the way down, I managed to get my feet pointing down. I landed hard in the creek, making a huge splash. My legs acted as shock absorbers. I clawed my way up the bank, back to the trail, and limped the miles back to my car. I felt lucky to get out of that with just a pulled hamstring.
I’ll never forget that moment suspended in mid-air, where I thought “I’m about to get really, really hurt.”
Story By User – supersonic-hedgehog
Hiking in the mountains at night. A pair of eyes followed us for a mile or so but made absolutely no sound.
I have not gone night hiking since.
Story By User – blinkysmurf
I was hiking alone in the backcountry of the Canadian Rockies and it had been raining for days so the landscape was soaked, it was cold, and nobody else was around for many miles.
I fell into a creek and was soaked from head to toe. My hands were so numb from cold I couldn’t untie my boots to get my pants off to change them.
It was getting dark and I was so cold, and I was starting to get scared, but finally I got my boots untied and could change clothes. If I had failed, I surely would have died in the night from hypothermia.
Story By User – ewolf132
Around a year ago my buddy was having a birthday party for his daughter in a park near us. The whole family was there, good time. After a bit we decided to go off in the woods to hike to where a fort had been when we were kids. This was in a chunk of woods that was still pretty big but surrounded by highway and roads on all sides.
Anyway, we hike a bit in and my friend stops dead in his tracks. He just points forward.
“Do you see that? That lady floating?”
We all looked and saw. From our view it really did look like someone levitating off the ground. We got closer and realized what was really going on.
A lady had hung herself in the woods, and it didn’t seem long ago by the looks of it. After getting ourselves together we called the police. They came out and found the lady’s car, parked on the other side of the park, door still open. She had done it that day, maybe hours prior.
I’ve seen some messed up stuff, but that will always take the cake. Still to this day it gives me chills just thinking about it.
Story By User – 0hnojon0
Took my young children to a cave not far from the house. Popular spot, but we had the place to ourselves. You can walk through it in about 30 minutes without too much difficulty.
It has a tiny exit at the opposite end. It was pretty muddy, so we decided to turn around and head back to the entrance. Halfway back, there was a lit candle sitting about eight feet up one side.
It was definitely not there on the first trip. I went into full-on protective-dad-mode knowing there was likely someone hiding in the dark while we walked the rest of the way out.
Resources –
AskReddit Scariest Hiking Story
