This Overnight Ghost Hunt In North Carolina Is The Creepiest Thing You’ll Ever Do

Ready for a wild night of adventure? There's nothing like shacking up with the spirits of the past and perhaps testing your ability to handle the weird and mysterious. If you're searching for those lingering between here and the afterlife, you might need more than one destination to do this. Luckily, the days are shorter and darkness longer, perfect for exploring more than a few places of our state's paranormal past.

Ready to hit the road? This trip lasts two days and two nights. There's some camping and hiking involved to get to some of the spookiest spots in North Carolina. Yet, is there really anywhere else to be come Halloween than the bewitching and mysterious Blue Ridge Mountains?

Starting at nowhere...

Mysterious legends permeate these woods, flowing down to a dark lake where an underwater ghost town waits for redemption. It's a place of muted spirituality and longing for prosperity. The Norton Creek Trail the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was a former roadway for 'Decoration Days,' a celebration of life after death in which members of small mountain communities walked several miles to decorate and visit the headstones of loved ones. Today, it's said over 200 cemeteries exist among Norton Creek Trail. If you think taking a long hike with whispering woods is frightening, try adding in the mix of a story about a witch named Spearfinger. She was said to use her long nail to pierce through the stomach of her victims and dine on their liver. A strange delicacy, but a story that persisted through the rumors that surrounded a missing child and later her father when he went searching for her. Take the day to hike along the Norton Creek Trail and

read our guide here.

Nearby Norton Creek Trail you'll find the Road to Nowhere in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Traversing several miles, the road is a metaphorical dead end for the residents of the small communities that were displaced following the creation of Fontana Lake and Dam. Entire towns were washed away, like Judson, and the Road to Nowhere was built to provide families access to headstones, landmarks etc. yet was never completed. Today, this eerie dead end pairs with the mysterious occurrences of Fontana Lake. Go late in the afternoon toward sundown, photographers report their equipment going haywire at the lake and even an overall uneasy feeling. Even if you see no ghosts, the Road to Nowhere provides stunning views of Fontana Lake. Read our guide here

Grab a beer with a ghost...

After a long day of hiking, ghost hunting, and sightseeing, you certainly deserve a libation or three. Head into Asheville to visit a number of breweries or bars, but make sure to take a (safe) late night stroll down Chicken Alley. Rumored to be haunted by the ghost of Dr. Jamie Smith, his tapping cane can still be heard and it pairs with reports of a figure in a top hat and long trench coat...his quintessential attire. Before Chicken Alley was primarily residential, it was a place of drinking and debauchery. Poor Dr. Smith found himself caught in the middle of a bar fight, perishing in the alley. Seems he hasn't really left.

...Then spend the night with one.

You might be hard-pressed to book the Pink Lady's beloved room 545 on such short notice near Halloween, but either way this gorgeous and historic hotel is home to one of North Carolina's most famous and refined ghosts. The Pink Lady, either a scorned lover or debutante, fell to her death from a fifth floor balcony in the hotel. She appears as a pink mist or a full-fledged apparition, taking kindly to children and even playing with them. For wandering a hotel for eternity, it's safe to say the Grove Park is a pretty great place to be.

Hang out with some of North Carolina's most elegant ghosts.

George and Edith Vanderbilt have seemed to never want to leave their mini-castle in the mountains and can you really blame them? George is said to still frequent his favorite room, the library, while Edith is still hanging on to those fabulous pool parties she once threw. Guards have reported splashing, yells, and the sound of a must-attend event echoing from the indoor pool, yet of course when they enter no one is there. While Biltmore has never billed itself as 'haunted' seeing is believing, right?

Grab some coffee and take a trip to one of North Carolina's most famous ghost towns.

At this point, it's safe to say even if you've yet to see a ghost or two this is still a pretty fabulous trip. Hiking through Great Smoky Mountains National Park, grabbing a brew or two in Asheville, booking a room at the Grove Park and starting your day with a tour of Biltmore Estate - I'd go, ghosts or no ghosts. But, we're here for the scary and weird and that's what we're going to find. Feeling discouraged? You don't need to see a ghost to be thoroughly freaked out by Henry River Mill Village.

This famous ghost town made its debut on the silver screen as District 12 in the Hunger Games. Once a thriving mill town, after the mill shut down in 1973, it was completely abandoned by 1987. It wasn't really until Henry River hit the silver screen that people came forward with their ghost stories. Many of the ghost stories were eerily similar: they included having something thrown at them at the entrance and hearing voices from the river. Even a daytime stroll is eerie and haunted.

Catch a sunset and the Brown Mountain Lights.

It's been a long day of exquisite beauty paralleled with dark remnants of the past and plenty o' ghosts in the mix. For the Brown Mountain Lights, though, there are no spirits per se - and honestly, no one even knows what they are. Glowing orbs of light float atop the mountains and come to life within the darkness. It can be a spooky sight for the first timer but experienced Brown Mountain Light seekers, including a former park ranger, suggest traveling to Wiseman's View to really see them through the late night.

Spend the night in the Gorge.

Within Linville Gorge, the road to Wiseman's View is dotted with primitive camping spots perfect for pitching a tent. Spend the night out here and wander down to Wiseman's View. Despite what some say, the lights are very much visible from here just as much as Brown Mountain Overlook. Cuddle up and get ready to wait, viewing the lights takes some patience but you can share plenty of ghost stories while you wait.

You survived the long and dark night; now take an eerie sunrise walk on the Mile High Bridge.

It's been a wild three days of ghosts and what a better way to wrap that up than perhaps encountering the phantom hitchhiker on Grandfather Mountain?

What a fun few days of ghost hunting! Would you do this?

For more eerie sights in North Carolina, many people have no idea these 8 spots are haunted.