53 Eerie Places These People Visited And Shared Their Experience

"In Northern BC there's a long stretch of highway with absolutely nothing but dense forest and it's nicknamed "highway of Tears" in reference to an incredible amount of mostly First Nations women who've gone missing or have been found dead/murdered on the stretch of road. After visiting family, my husband, kid (5), and I were headed south on that road and during this one long stretch with few cars around us a white cop car flashed its lights to get us to pull over. So we did and once pulled over he turned his brights on. As we waited for the cop my partner and I were trying to guess what this was about. We were driving an insured car at the speed limit, sober with a valid licence. So after a couple of minutes, we were getting slightly worried we had unknowingly done something. When the officer got close enough to actually see him... this dude was not a cop. His uniform looked like he had ordered off Wish and looked "off". If you had never seen a uniform or weren't from this country, I don't think you would know. We asked to see his badge and he got visibly nervous. So he went back to get the badge from the car and suddenly the brights switched off and the car roared past us. When we reported it, we learned we weren't the only ones stopped by a fake cop."

darkknight109 wrote:
"Buddy and I were on a road trip to Vegas and we stopped in this little small town in Nevada. Unbeknownst to us, it was right next to a military base that was apparently focused on some pretty high-level research. My buddy's car was not exactly in great shape and we broke down while stopped at a red light on a road adjacent to the base. I kid you not, within maybe three minutes there were five unmarked SUVs around us. The guys that got out were very friendly but very businesslike - they quickly got our car moving again, wished us well, and told us pleasantly but quite firmly not to stop on that road again."

mojavekoyote replied:
"What I'm reading is, for free car repair break down in front of a military base in Nevada."

"The neighborhood I stayed at in Belém, Brazil. I had just arrived at the airport, and took a taxi to my hotel where I was to stay for a couple nights before meeting my colleagues and continuing up the Amazon. After checking into the hotel and unpacking, I grabbed my camera bag and started walking around the neighborhood. Came across some kids skateboarding at a skate park as the sun was setting, and waved hello. Took out my camera and pointed to it, trying to gesture that I wanted to take some photos of the scene.

The kids begin to point and gesture, shouting excitedly, and I laugh and pantomime paparazzi with my camera. They shout louder and wave their hands around harder. I keep miming. After about 15 seconds of this, I figured I had bothered them and turn around to start walking up the street back toward my hotel.

The entire group of about 15 kids runs to catch up to me. As I’m trying to figure out what’s going on, the oldest looking one tells me in broken English and pantomime that I cannot have a camera here. I’m confused and try to ask why.

The boy mimes a grabbing gesture toward my camera and points a finger gun at me and says “bang”.

It suddenly dawns on me that I am in the middle of a Brazilian favela and these boys are trying to protect me from being robbed. I pantomime my thanks and give them each some reais, and they walk me back to my hotel, surrounding me like secret service agents protecting the president.

It was hilarious, terrifying, enlightening, and moving, all in one."

"Troyes, France. We were in the old medieval area, which was incredible, but it was eerie because there were literally no other people there, and bizarre because there were soundsystems pumping britney spears music into the streets.

I felt like shrek and donkey walking into Duloc."

Galaxy_Ranger_Bob wrote:
"Lewiston, Maine.

It's not the people, it's the town. There is just something about the place that stains your soul. Even driving through the place and not stopping makes you want to shower afterwards, but soap and water doesn't make you feel clean, because it isn't dirt, or pollution that is sticking to you, it's the Darkness that is Lewiston."

TheEngineer09 replied:
"Northern new England is a weird duality of gorgeous landscape and depressing towns. So much of that area only survives due to tourism, so you get these towns that have shriveled since the mills and factories that once sustained them closed down filled with residents that simultaneously hate tourists but know they need to be nice to them to survive. Most of those towns have a feeling to them that isn't great."

"I’m surprised no one has said Pulaski TN. I was visiting a friend who goes to college there and while I was hanging out with them and some of their friends they’d all tell me not to go out after night for any reason. They were all really hesitant to explain why after awhile tho they tell me it’s because the kkk still patrol the streets in that town. It turns out that’s where the kkk was founded and they still have a strong presence around town."

"A buddy and I were taking a road trip a few states over. We had left late one evening and found ourselves early the next morning low on gas and looking for a place to fill up. We saw a sign that indicated there was a gas station at the next exit, so we took it, and pulled into the eeriest little town in the Smoky Mountains. On the highway it had been reasonably clear weather, but once we got down into a valley there was dense fog everywhere. There were maybe five buildings in this whole town, and it looked totally abandoned - even the gas station announced from the highway sign was closed. We pulled into the parking lot anyway because we needed a break, and got out to take a look around and the eeriness just intensified: it was totally silent. Not just quiet, but I literally could not hear a single sound other than our footsteps. We stood around for maybe 30 seconds, then looked at each other and silently decided to get the hell out of there, we didn't even say anything once we were in the car.

Fortunately we found a 24 hour truck stop a few more miles down the road, and the lights and activity were sufficient to snap us out of the spell that place had put on us and we started talking about it. My buddy mentioned that he had seen a lone, scary-looking guy just walking slowly past us some distance away and barely visible through the fog, staring intently at us but not making a sound. I hadn't even noticed him, I guess I was looking in a different direction, but apparently he was giving off strong 'I will murder you and no one will ever find the bodies' vibes."

Honey_81 wrote:
"Centralia, PA is eerie as hell because you expect to find people walking around the town streets yet the town is completely abandoned due to the fire that's been burning under the town for 70-ish years(I haven't been to the area since 2006 btw)."

melaninmatters2020 asked:
"Can you explain how a fire burns under the town for so long?"

quanjon elaborated:
"It was a coal mining town, but there was an accident and part of the mines caught fire. Coal being coal will burn and smoulder, so the fire has been burning slowly for decades now. There are areas where you can see smoke rising from cracks in the ground, and there are signs everywhere warning people because the ground is unstable."

"During a training in Boulder I, a mixed race Dutch guy, visited a restaurant with my Latino coworker, a British instructor and one local guy. We went cruising through the Rocky Mountains and ended up in Nederland, named after the original settlers. It was a Friday night, the place was packed with families, music was playing, people were having a good time. We came through the door and everyone stopped talking and stared at us, I swear the music stopped as well. Our local friend was the last one to get in and he just yelled a jolly “howdy folks”. The music started playing again and people continued their talking. Felt like a scene from blazing saddles."

"I stopped in a small town in Utah and asked where I might buy beer. I might as well have asked where the local heroin shop was."

"Years ago I stopped in a little town called Brandywine in WV. Walked into a bar and right away everyone turned and glared at me. A couple of good ol boys asked me if I was looking for trouble and if I wasn't that I should move on. I left the bar and a sheriff car and two trucks followed me out of town. The dude in the sheriff car glared at me all the way out of town lol. I thought I was gonna get lynched."

goblingoddess1 wrote:
"Alamo, Nevada. During the time I lived there, every person in town was a Mormon. - not saying that all Mormons are bad, but this particular group was to the cult level. Church 3 times a week, a camp for girls to learn how to be good wives and submissive to their husbands."

Rains_Lee replied:
"Alamo used to be a stronghold of polygamist followers of FLDS “prophet” Warren Jeffs. He owned (or controlled through shell companies) one of the local motels, which hosted nuptials arranged by Jeffs between middle-aged men and barely pubescent girls. Jeffs has been imprisoned for the past ten years, serving a life sentence for child sexual assault, but he still runs the FLDS from his cell. I don’t know firsthand if it’s still active in Alamo. Friends of mine who live nearby in Panaca suspect it is."

Practical_Fee_1102 wrote:
"Some little town in Alabama. Stopped at a little gas station/convenience store Ina run down shack. Went in to buy something and there was a sign saying no black people allowed in the store and there was a window for them to pay/order things at."

AccidentallyBored replied:
"We either went to the same place or there’s more than one. I’m leaning towards the latter."

"Happy Valley, NY. It's an abandoned ghost town that now is a state park. Rumor has it the town was killed off in an outbreak of the Bubonic Plague but the details are sketchy at best. Every time you passed by the entrance to the state park where you could look down the former main street that existed in the 19th Century you'd always get a chill up your spine."

"Frenchburg, Kentucky.

When I was a kid, my father travelled around to different car shows on weekends selling various things like owner's manuals and decals for classic cars (he also had a classic car he entered into the shows).

He heard about a little town festival with a car show in Frenchburg, so off we went. The town was tiny, and the festival was maybe 12 people standing around in the middle of town with a few random decorations...not a classic car to be seen.

Everyone watched as we drove through, just staring. When we rolled the window down to ask if we were in the right place, no one said a word...they just stared at us like we were some kind of threat to their very existence.

So we left, but first, we stopped at a gas station on the edge of town. A girl working there told us she lives in another town and couldn't wait to find another job because it was the creepiest place she'd ever worked. She joked that Everyone there must be vampires because the town was always dark even in the middle of the day and they don't like outsiders. (We hadn't noticed before, but it was kind of dark there for a summer afternoon).

Maybe we just caught them on an off day, but it creeped us all out. Weird little town."

"Jaywick in East Anglia. It's the worst town in the UK several years running. There's just nothing there. All the houses are dilapidated and their gardens ruined, for a place so close to the seas it's so creepy you can't even hear the waves. It's not a scary place just really sh*tty and it just makes you uncomfortable! It's probably the only place in the UK you can buy a beach front property for under £100,000, but I don't even think that price would be worth it."

crimsonlaw wrote:
"My college roommate, who is one of my closest friends, grew up in a little spot of nothing. I think the town only still exists because it's the last stop off an interstate leading out of our state. Maybe 250 residents. This is in the deep south too.

When he got married, his wedding was held in his hometown. I was his best man so I spent the weekend there helping him get things ready. Never felt more unwanted in a place before. People knew my buddy and he was pretty popular, but me? They wanted nothing to do with me.

Even at the wedding and reception, only one person who I didn't know from before spoke to me. When I would try to talk to others, they would smile politely then walk away without otherwise responding. Even the dang preacher.

I was happy to be there for my buddy, but I was REALLY happy to leave town when that mess was over. It was like something out of a horror movie."

notreallylucy replied:
"I had a very similar experience in Abilene, Texas. I was there for a friend's wedding. I'm from the west coast and very obviously not local. I kept getting honked at even when I was literally doing nothing wrong. I got cut off a few times, too Eventually someone told me it was because of my out of state plates.

A cashier at Walmart told me she could tell I was from out of town by the way I talked. She asked where I was from and when I told her, she said, "Ew!" I was very glad to have that town in my rearview mirror."

"Montgomery Alabama. My family moved there because my dad got a job as a plant manager. We came from New York. And the locals DO NOT LIKE YANKEES. My brother and I were ostracized in school because of it. Nobody wanted to be our friends, the teachers were hard on us. When we went out our lack of southern accents were noticed. It was just a not very nice place. Never experienced a single moment of “Southern Hospitality “. Thankfully the plant manager job never panned out and we only were there 8 months."

"When I was about 14, my family took a road trip to Toronto from Chicago. We stopped in the north of Michigan to eat lunch at a Panera. We were the only people of color we saw the entire time, and kept getting looks. I had never wanted to leave so fast."

"I was on a road trip with some friends several years ago. We had a lot of ground to cover, so we often drove through the night taking shifts at the wheel. One night on our way from Utah to California, we drove through the Nevada desert. If you’ve driven through the desert in Nevada, you know there is not much of anything, especially at night. No street lamps, no passing cars, and very few populated towns or gas stations that work.

It had been a couple of hours since we passed a gas station, so we slowed down as we came to a town—I forget the name—on the highway. We very quickly realized that this town was abandoned: there were no lights, no cars, and all the buildings were boarded up. We needed gas, so this was concerning—but we had a 10gallons of emergency gas in a tank on the roof rack of the car. We stopped in this town to fill up. Immediately we got an eerie feeling. Being a ghost town, it was completely silent. But there was something in the air that felt unnerving. We got in the car to leave.

As we approached the border of the town and more desert, we saw an old El Camino with its lights on sitting on the shoulder of the road. As we approached, it peeled onto the highway ahead of us, as if it had been waiting for us. It kept in front of us for a half hour before we passed another car, which got onto the road behind us. This was strange and those of us who were awake were on high alert.

Eventually, the El Camino in front of us slowed to a stop and parked his car diagonally in the road, as if to stop us from passing him. We were in the middle of the desert. There was no reason to stop. The car behind us also stopped, sandwiching us between these two vehicles. When we saw the driver behind us get out and approach our car, we got the f*ck out of there. Hit the gas and drove past the car in front of us, getting off the pavement and onto the rocky desert sand to do so. Hauling ass away from the two cars behind us, we watched in the rearview mirror as we saw both cars exit the road onto what seemed to be some trail over a hill until we could no longer see their taillights. There was nothing there, and I have no idea what that path lead to if not deeper into the desert.

Felt like a scene out of breaking bad."