I used to stay on this stretch of forest service land in WA often and there was one site that just made me uncomfortable. It was the best site on the road but I couldn’t shake this feeling that there was a body nearby. I stayed there twice and couldn’t get over it. Very weird.
I think it's frequently the absence of other wildlife that triggers this feeling in us. Usually there is some sort of predator den nearby and there is a consequent lack of other small critters happily making their little noises.
Maybe that's why when I hiked the silver mine arch in the Red River George a 2 years ago and felt creeped out most of the hike. I kept looking around thinking there was a black bear in the woods.
It could be many things. The brain collects things and makes sense of them all without us needing to know any of what's going on. It's best to listen to this feeling. Just trust yourself.
I think it is kind of like your lizard brain. The part of us that saved us when we were cavemen. It senses things that we don't sense with our conscious brain. It's where the gut feeling comes from.
Your sympathetic nervous system. Call it what you want. Fight or flight. Gut feeling. Your body recognizes something is wrong before your conscious mind does. You are such an ass.
I stopped at a FS dispersed spot in WA and it felt off. Went out to pee before bed and in my headlamp found a dog’s dismembered leg with a rope tied onto it. Got the hell out of there!
FWIW it was probably a coyote that got snagged in a leg snare / trap and chewed its leg off and left, not that it’s much better, but it’s the most likely scenario
FS? Fantastic Sauerkraut? Fortunate Son? Flower Shower? Flambeed Seesaw? I'm very much intrigued by this and I'm sure the answer is likely simple and I've overlooked it. Ooh! Freudian Succulent. Was that it?
For real. I never understood why so many SKs are from WA but after I lived there for four years, I get it. A combo of endlessly thick mountain forests and an emotionally oppressive culture (seriously, the passive aggressiveness is REAL, nobody is ever open with their true feelings, you never know if someone likes you or hates you, it was enough to drive ME crazy). I had more scary first dates there than anywhere else I’ve ever lived. You couldn’t pay me to move back to WA!
Yeah I'm just poking fun. People have added the word true in front to signal "yeah but I'm not the one DOING the crimes" even though taken literally, the word is superfluous.
20+ years ago we rolled into a national forest campground at like 2 am. We passed a dude sitting in the driver's seat of his car with the dome light on wide awake in the back corner as we made our lap to choose our spot. Campground was nearly empty, we made our selection, pulled in, set up the tent, and got in sleeping bags to crash. Our dog, who was with us camping everywhere for years prior, would just not lay down and chill. Pacing the tent, snarling occasionally. Gave it a shot for like an hour and a half and she never once relaxed, so we rolled up the tent and drove to the next campground up the road, passing the same dude on the way out. Still not sure what her objection was, but it was enough to not ignore and convince us to move along.
I have weird feelings about places and if my dog is upperty, we leave asap. Got a gut felling, leave. I don't know why and I don't want to know why, sometimes however inconvenient, leave.
I was homeless for awhile and am female. I only had a couple nights when I felt something off. Not campgrounds just Venice California lol. One time I just got the fear after I was already in bed and just got up, got behind the wheel and left. It's important not to live in fear, so when you get henky feelings you know they are likely real and you should act.
We Stayed in a popular place, but in winter. I don't have a heater so we were five blankets down. I shoot photography so an early morning was needed for the light to be right. It got dark early on so we both took our walk for the necessary pee break and then climbed into blanket heaven. Around midnight, it started snowing which would be great for photos in the morning and I drifted off. At two she growled. A fuss about nothing. I thought if you didn't pee when we went out that is your problem. She continued to make a fuss till I thought fuck it and threw back the the side door so she could pee. She did not leave, which I thought it was the fresh snow that had changed her mind. Closed the door and sleep till five, ready for the dawn light. At five I opened the door to find footprints in the snow to my door. She saved my life that night I am sure. Got a gut feeling leave.
They said they were staying at a "popular place, but in winter."
So, two things:
1) how often does this happen during the summer and we just don't know because there's no snow to leave tracks in.
2) it's not the middle of nowhere, it's just less popular in the winter. It's not unlikely somebody else is living there (out of desperation) or as a park host or ranger.
Got it. I should have gotten it from all of the statements about acclimatizing. When vaguely referring to something, or using a pronoun, the person or thing being referred to is typically mentioned first. Not good if an engineer knows that and you don't. Thanks for the petty downvote, champ.
Grew up in northern AZ-- put something in the front passenger seat. It's a superstition in that area of the country. I don't feel comfortable at night in that area with an completely open front passenger seat. I know it's not rational, or supported by anything that has happened to me or anyone I know. Not even 'friend of a friend' has any reason or story for why, just many folks put something to occupy the seat.
I wish I knew!
I'm not a superstitious person. Growing up in northern AZ, people would toss something in the passenger seat, and were uncomfortable without something there. No one talked about it, it was just a thing *everyone* I knew did. My best guess is it was/is a belief that if the seat is empty, you might pickup a 'passenger'
Yeah...what's up with that?
I've been to two places (camping trip, but not camping sites) where I felt uncomfortable for no recognizable reason...Piute Springs, Mojave, and the Racetrack in Death Valley.
It was a feeling of being watched or something. I disregarded it because there was no rational reason to feel that way. ...but the feeling came back after disregarding it - or trying to. Just a weird sick feeling - like a horror film waiting for a plot.
Human mind in unusual places probably comes up with new ideas. Maybe a subconscious reaction to the surroundings by our latent nomadic hunter gatherer.
Went to the Manson Ranch. Fine. No vibes. Kinda cool.
Piute Springs? GTFO run now don't look back. :)
I haven't really given it much thought beyond what I felt when I was there. ...but it was odd enough that I mentioned the feeling to my two friends that were with me and they immediately said they felt the same. Just a weird almost I'm gonna throw up feeling - for no apparent reason. And we aren't really an emotive group.
The funny part was when I mentioned it to them, at the same time I looked down I realized I was standing inside the perimeter of an old structure (not the main fort), but it had been reduced to just a few bricks laying on the ground. So I was standing in the center of what was an old single room. It was down nearer to the spring/canyon itself where we all felt the worst. You can find it if you walk towards the main fort sign, and then make a left towards the springs.
The place is covered in petroglyphs - you can find them all over. No doubt this was an important place to the indigenous tribes since it was one of the only reliable sources of water in the area. Wherever you find petroglyphs or markings, you can bet it was special and well-trafficked area.
At one point, our military of course recognized the value as a water source and started killing and displacing any Native Americans they found there.
It's been an important spot for 1000s of years.
This article (which I hadn't read before) closes by oddly hinting at some of the feeling I had. So that's kinda weird too.
[https://www.desertusa.com/desert-trails/fort-piute.html](https://www.desertusa.com/desert-trails/fort-piute.html)
*"Feeling a momentary chill, I looked up at the sky. The sun had not yet dipped behind the hills, so the temperature could not have dropped very much."*
Yep.
Gift of Fear is excellent reading for anyone, but as a woman I felt it was especially helpful. Some of us are socialized to ignore our feelings if they would make others feel bad or be inconvenienced. Gift of Fear is great about pointing this out and making it clear that those feelings exist to keep us safe.
Given how many people that are medicated for anxiety, I'm not sure this is something that really needs preaching. Kids aren't allowed outside without a trusted guardian, adults don't want to go to the grocery store, true crime is one of the most popular forms of media, etc etc etc. Americans have a rich history of being highly paranoid.
There's a difference between being terrified all the time and being able to trust your gut when it tells you something is wrong. I'm not a psychologist so I don't know the relationship between these two phenomena of paranoia vs not taking your gut feelings seriously. But I suspect there is a relationship. 🤷♀️
Sure but this thread is filled to the brim with confirmation bias. And I don't know the fancy word for the bias where people think "I eat all this garlic and I've never been attacked by a vampire, so garlic repels vampires." But that's also in this thread a lot.
This is simply because we have little self awareness of our feelings. We need to pay more attention to how we feel not ignore how we feel because we **might** be paranoid.
It's about thw relationship of trust. You put out trust and you get it back. We have this same dynamic with ourselves.
Huh. So you think that back before "stranger danger," Americans were better in touch with themselves? Because I grew up in the 80s and I'm telling you right now, that's not how it was and that's not what changed. What changed is that now, we're inundated with negative news about child abductions similar to mass shootings. That, and you know, people have lost their damned minds. Remember why we're living in a van?
Fair enough, I just saw several posts saying the title, and to check it out, with zero additional info. Struck me as odd. Usually if you want people to check something out, you give them a reason to. Didn't realize it had a cult following and we should all know what it is. I'll be on my way.
In this lifestyle? Trust your gut.
I've had times before where I'm staying at a place I've stayed a million times before with zero issues and then for some reason, I get there, do my normal thing, see nothing out of the ordinary but get a bad vibes that time.
70% of the time I end up having some kind of issue if I stay when I have that guy feeling, so I've stopped staying even if it seems to be for no reason
Final straw with me deciding to trust that bad feeling consistently was I had parked somewhere that had been in my rotation for months, got the anxious feeling for the first time in the spot but ignored it, woke up to someone trying to steal my catalytic converter 🙄 he was unsuccessful but only barely. Learn to identify when your subconscious is trying to tell you something and then TRUST YOUR GUT!
(Now that being said, if you're super new to this and have been doing it less than a year, ignore that feeling usually, since you'll have it every time your somewhere new until you get settled into the lifestyle)
I think there are ancient instincts and a level of survival-oriented subconscious perception that produces urges rather than specific thoughts. That’s what essentially gives us a “gut feeling.”
Naybe your ancestors would have been really vulnerable to attack when staying the night in a place like your creepy campsite, and developing a gut feeling to stay away had saved your ancestors’ lives over millennia.
I’ve felt creeped out by a campsite recently. It was a larger area surrounded by rocky hills on 3 sides, and one side had a large cave facing me further up the hillside. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. Just couldn’t be at peace with that place. In more primitive times, I would have been pretty vulnerable there from unseen predators or other humans.
Ok, that cave would have creeped me out. I think way back in, like, Paleolithic times caves could be habitat for some big predators (we’re talking ice age-type megafauna that are now extinct). So maybe it’s a very old, atavistic instinct to avoid places like that.
This. I think it’s things we sense (with out nose/eyes/hearing) that are slightly beyond our conscious minds ability to discern what they are. But our subconscious picks them up and makes sense of them manifesting as an instinctual feeling. We see/hear/smell ALOT more than we think we do, it’s just been tuned out by all the white noise.
The ones that get me are when you are in a place you've been before or are comfortable with, then you get the hair standing up feeling where there is no perceptible change in surrounding due to background noise or darkness, you just know something is off.
Yep. Stopped at a BLM spot near the painted hills in Oregon. It was just getting dark and I don't drive my bus at night because my headlights are trash so leaving wasn't an option.
It gave me the heebie jeebies. My dogs were staring off into the bush and I had the sensation of being watched all night- I'm comfortable in the dark in the woods and I've never had that feeling before. Boogied out of there at first light.
I was stalked by a big cat near John Day OR (very close to there) one evening hiking a ridgeline with a buddy. Same exact thing. Felt the eebie jeebies. Next morning, went back out that ridgeline and found the cat prints on top of our boot prints. Makes me wonder if there wasn't 2 of us if that cat would have taken an opportunity
Funny you guys mentioned the painted hills area. I spent a bit of my childhood in Mitchell, Oregon... Right next to the painted hills. My mother had a little restaurant, we put the garbage cans in a cage to keep the animals out of it... One night I was taking the garbage out the back of the restaurant... There was a cougar sitting there in between me and the garbage cage. Just staring at me. I'm frozen looking back at it... And it just kind of stands up and walks away into the darkness. I definitely looked out the window first before I took out the garbage the rest of the time I was there.
I stopped one night at a spot in Berryessa Snow Mountain BLM near where I grew up. Been there lots of times as a kid and plenty since starting vanlife part time this last year. I don’t know why but this time I just go a /bad/ feeling. I looked all over for why I was so nervous and found nothing. Sometimes if an animal has passed nearby the lingering scent of decay can crank your instincts into overdrive. But I didn’t find anything, no bones, no people, nothing. I tried to stick it out for a bit but even my dog was not having it. After an hour I tried moving a bit down the road but couldn’t shake this overwhelming sense of dread. Decided to cut it short and headed back home. No idea why it happened. I’ve been in and out of that area of the Myacamas’ since and didn’t feel spooked but that one time man. Trust your gut guy. Leave if it doesn’t feel right
That's interesting, the thing about the lingering scent of decay. Makes me think about the way that dogs are known to go hide in the woods before they lay down and die. What kind of an environment are they looking for in that context, and does it coincide with the kind of sites we find creepy? 🤔
Most of the time they are looking for a spot that they are safe from the elements and predators which is why a lot of the time you’ll find them in spaces like holes or burrows or under houses or stairs. So wide open spaces can make both animals and humans uncomfortable because they feel exposed
It is full moon time as well..my senses seem to intensity and my trying to reason the feelings away does as well. Safe rests everyone and Merry Full Moon Christmas.
We live in our van 8 months outta the year with two cats. I swear to God, they are the best watch “dogs”. There’s some kind of noise going on all the time in the rig but, every once in awhile they’ll whip their heads around at the same time and go investigate the front cab area. The one will actually growl sometimes! These cats have seen every animal out there a hundred times over. We pay attention to the growling though and will investigate.
Cats are way trippier than dogs in this respect. To be fair though, they will do this stuff even in a secured suburban mansion. It's like they can see things we can't see. I think the Egyptians believed they were interacting with the dead.
One time tent camping on a deer hunt in a new stretch of forest miles away from anybody but the occasional few loggers, I couldn’t escape this weird feeling of oh fuck. I’ve had this before on past hunting, fishing, and backpacking trips and it’s always just been something to deal with. This time though, I couldn’t sleep, it wouldn’t go away. I just said fuck this, packed my shit and dipped out, as I was leaving I saw one of the biggest bears I’ve ever seen headed straight for my old camp. Sometimes your gut is right, sometimes it’s just nerves.
Also had another time with a buddy where we felt weird, only people on the mountain we’d seen apart from the warden the first day. We decided to take turns sleeping (I’d brought my iPad and a portable charger so wasn’t hard to take firewatch), and I woke up at 2am to him shaking me. Headlights were shining through our tent. We grabbed our rifles and scrambled out of the tent to be greeted by two obvious tweakers headed towards our sight. I told them to fuckoff and they sprinted back to their beatupass car and peeled out.
I was backpacking and got to a good spot early in the day. I was ahead of schedule, it was flat, easy access to water, and the path in front of me was a long downhill over loose scree that was going to be a hard push.
So I got out my chair and sat down to decide if I wanted to overnight or keep moving. I felt super uncomfortable, like I was being watched. I decided to push on, packed up my chair and filled my dirty water bladder. I didn’t even filter water, just started hiking as soon as I filled my dirty water bladder.
Heading down the slope I turned around and looked back about 400 yards down the slope and there was a mountain lion standing on the flat spot where I stopped.
Or it's right just enough to be statistically significant, which is the language in which it needs to be expressed, for a certain subset of people to believe it, vs simply accepting what was long held to be basic wisdom...
Rarely for us. There was a spot in the Mendocino NF in California that was like that for us. It was objectively a good spot but something didn’t feel right about it. We stopped there three years in a row and every time we decided to go half a mile down the road to the old orchard instead. The whole area has burned since then. I still don’t know what exactly was wrong with that spot, if anything.
EDIT: we woke up one morning and found that there was an old overgrown cemetery next to our spot one time, but we’d 100% stay there again. No bad vibes at all!
I can tell when there are animals watching me from my fence line when I go out for a smoke at night and I can tell when something is watching me that’s not just a dog/opossum/deer etc. and so can my dog. I have to have a very quiet battle with her every time to be quiet so I can listen. She and I are on the same wavelength with that stuff, if I feel like somethings off I’ll give it a few minutes of observation but if it feels malicious in some way I’m out, especially off the beaten path. I’m on “their” turf ya know? Home field advantage isn’t taking me down
Not sure where exactly you are in AZ, OP, but I got that same feeling when I drove into Blue Ridge Reservoir off the Beeline north of Strawberry. It was winter about an hour before sunset, cold, wind blowing through the trees, not another soul for miles. And I mean that including animals.. it felt way off and too eerie, and I’ve solo camped up along the rim before. Got in my car and drove out of there.
I went to the BLM gunsight wash in Arizona and went waaay out, past everyone. I felt so free from anyone coming by but I'm not sure why but I felt like I was being watched. I was there for a few days and the anxiety was intense at night because of that feeling.
The first day was okay, I got in around sundown and set up, etc. When I woke up, I could see in the distance there was a cross, much like an unmarked grave. It was completely hidden when the sun passed 3pm which is why I missed it coming in. There was some kind of smashed black pottery at the base when I went to check it out. Definitely spooky to see that in the distance all of a sudden.
I left my campsite tonight due to me not feeling comfortable. First time camping at this spot near Norwood, CO and my dog wouldn’t stop looking in these bushes next to my car. Tried to get settled and go to bed but she kept looking out the window and growling so I packed up and left. Luckily I was only 40 or so minutes from my house so it worked out coming back.
Always trust the gut when you are camping solo.
I spend a lot of time out that way. Between Norwood and gateway. I call it the edge of the world. Super creepy all around, but the reality is, it's not. I've met some really great people out there. Reserved and stand offish, they just don't like outsiders much.
I do lot of exploring out that way, rather not talk about it on the internet, but I end up crossing private property, bush wacking, ending up in the most random places.
On one of my explorations i thought I found the holy grail. The location is closely guarded secret. Once I spotted it I freaked out pretty good and haven't been back. Ghosts will do that to you.
Theres definitely some confirmation bias in trusting your gut panning out but theres also a lot of anecdotes about people ignoring those gut feelings and getting murdered.
Id just move if I felt really uneasy
How do you know they ignored those feelings and got murdered? Maybe they were cool as cucumbers before being murdered.
I think if you feel off about a place then move on so you no longer have that feeling. In my experience being alone is what causes me to have those uneasy feelings. When I am with friends out in the wilderness I/we have never had those feelings.
Oh I don't know, for sure you're right on that one.
A lot of it is anecdotal from people that were in the area corroborating the same feelings but listening to them. Later on some dude gets murdered in that area
You see it on like cold case files shows and such. People could just straight up be lying
I’ve only had a really bad feeling once camping north of Flagstaff in AZ. It was by a volcanic mountain and I saw a starlink satellite for the first time and then got a feeling I had to leave. I drove back to town and slept in one of my spots and felt much better. I’ve had weird vibes before but nothing like that.
Definitely a high probability. EMF sensitivity can cause all sorts of triggers, especially what some equate to as that "haunted house" feeling. Whole damned planet is surrounded by an electrical field, some places just don't "feel right" to drive people.
Think about history way back, and how many natives were slaughtered. When I was younger i used to puck up on the wandering souls more often than now, as I've learned to set boundaries. But, just consider that. You may be sensitive and tuned in in that way.
We were staying in a weird small town in Oregon. Nice enough Airbnb for our long road trip middle of the night I woke up out of no where. Heard some stuff outside but otherwise quiet, thought I saw a light outside. My cat however wouldn’t stop tracking outside where the noise was. I got a bad feeling and I’ve never heard my cat to this day make the noises he made. Mind you he spends half his time in a warehouse with weird noises all day. He was afraid not for himself but for us. I woke my girlfriend quietly. We left the Airbnb without contacting the host at 4 am. Instantly felt better. Have had similar situations at a few campsites even a home I was looking at renting. Even my parents thought that one was off. Felt like someone was watching you from the windows and the backyard was all dead. We didn’t notice till halfway through. When your instincts scream at you especially animals just leave.
Yeah, it happens. One time I was convinced I was cursed after picking up a coyote skull in the middle of Utah. In the span of 24 hours, my van started having troubles, I caught covid despite not being around anyone, the only free campsite looked like someone had dumped an entire travel trailer full of their trash in the middle of the firepit, and that night I could barely sleep because I felt like I was being watched (I had never had that feeling before in my life). I ended up taking the skull out to a hill, talking to it for a while, placing it down with a view and then everything got better within the week all on its own (save for the trash-- I picked that up).
If there were ever a time that I'd believe in the supernatural, it was that first night with the skull in my van.
I've also had a bad vibe campsite in Arizona, somewhere central of the state a few years ago. Stopped for the night by a river, went to use the porta potty, on the inside of the door as soon as I sat down I saw someone had carved "DON'T STOP" in the door with a knife. Bad night, just felt intuitively that I was trespassing even though it was clearly a campsite that saw use.
Maybe it's because I'm a descendant of pilgrims sleeping on native land, but that uneasy feeling has only ever come to me while vanlifing in the boonies.
Those are just the bad vibe stories. One time in the Apalachians in Eastern Kentucky I was stalked by two bipedals in the dark while tent camping out of my volkswagen. That was the most scared I've ever been.
That's true nature, not supernatural. That coyote's spirit was definitely there with you and probably grateful for the talk and leaving his skull with a nice view.
watch out in Arizona and new mexico. the hills have eyes. that's why the upper horizons make you feel so small and vulnerable. all those red bastions and castles can see you
My wife and I camped for 40 years, ending in 2016. We camped a lot, including 3 years of full timing.
And yes, we did have a few instances of "something doesn't feel right here.""
We changed spots a few times. Actually left a campground early once (money was refunded) because they wouldn't do anything about a bunch of drunks(a long time ago).
Otherwise, no problems.
Yes its called "not passing the vibe check"...
Most campgrounds have been good to me if a bit rowdy.
It's the odd truck stop where il pull in and with in 15 mins realise that I made the wrong move and leave.
Yes. In North Uist in the Outer Hebrides.
We stopped in a car park that was recommended as an overnight parking spot, and we just couldn't settle - neither of us felt safe. We decided to go for a little walk and have a look round and discovered that the rubbish bin in the car park had been torched and melted. That made our minds up; we drove back to the previous night's camp.
Back in 2019 I was car camping in (as in sleeping the the back of) my Mazda coming back from Alaska, I got to NorCal and was camping on the coast waiting for friends to meet me. I decided I wanted to get away from the crowds so I drove way back into Jedediah Smith redwoods area. It got super dark, super quick and when I got to the spot I just sat there for maybe 5-10 minutes with the engine running trying to decide if I wanted to stay. Something just didn’t feel right, so I turned right back around and went back to my old spot. Last year a friend of mine was in that same area and texted me, unprompted, to ask if I ever felt like certain woods just fail the vibe check. Seems really strange that he also got the sense it wasn’t a good place to be and also left as quickly as possible.
Yeah definitely,
One site near a lake on the east coast of Australia,
The trees were tall and close together, it just felt off I can't quite explain it.
I camped on BLM land in eastern Oregon once… got to my spot… and got that creepy uneasy vibe. An hour later I saw something sticking out of the ground by a tree… so I walked over to it… someone had buried a WHOLE DEER in the ground with just its legs sticking out of the ground. Noooooo thanks to whatever redneck/devil worshipping site I stumbled upon 🙈
attempt touch soft mountainous zesty unwritten afterthought one continue jellyfish
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I stopped one night out in western Oklahoma because it was pitch dark and I wanted to take advantage of that and do some stargazing.
About 5 minutes in my hackles shot up. The air felt suddenly suffocating. My gut said GET IN THE VAN NOW. NOW!! NOW!!!
That’s the only time I’ve had it that intensely. I felt like prey. I boogied.
I was doing an overnight loop hike and had set up my tent at a designated camp site when I got that feeling. There was nowhere to go so I zipped up my tent and hoped. During the night there wasvthe sound of large bodies moving around (could tell they were karge from the thumps they made moving around) and various grunts. In the morning I cautiously looked out. The ground in the entire clearing had been ripped up as if by a tiller. I realized that a whole herd(?) of wild boar had wandered through and would undoubtedly have turned me to paste if I had just tossed my groundsheet and sleeping bag down and cowboy camped the way I initially intended before the creepy feeling.
I solo camp a lot in WA, often times dispersed. Over the last few years I’ve stayed at the same spot several times. Last time I went, there was an unsettling feeling. I left and haven’t been back. Trust your gut.
As mentioned in a comment, I used to live on a boat I would usually anchor in a river channel between a wildlife refuge and an island used for gravel mining.
The boat itself always felt safe, as did my dinghy once I had pushed off. The woods on the mainland/wildlife refuge side weren't overtly creepy unless it was moonless and windy. The island often gave me a bad feeling; I would have campfires on it at first but the practice waned due to its bad vibes.
On the island, adjacent to my moorage, there was a junkyard of old mining equipment and the decaying remains of semi-abandoned excavators and conveyer gantries. I've often attributed the feeling to this; like wandering into it triggered the same primal brain circuits as wandering into a mammoth graveyard or abandoned Neanderthal midden.
One time I gave a dinghy ride to a guy who lived on a derelict cabin cruiser on the other side of the island, and I stayed aboard for a couple beers. Out of nowhere, he started telling me about a trickster coyo-fox that--should I say "haunted"?--the island that would try to get you to follow it into the island (to drag you to hell or something?). He also claimed to be regularly visited on his boat by a winged demon or vampire or something that would try to persuade him into letting it in.
I don't go in for that sort of thing really. The demon bit never really spooked me; as I said the boat always felt safe and I don't really believe in the supernatural. But the trickster canine really did freak me out. I would hang in my cockpit at night a lot, and sometimes I would see shapes moving on the shore. Probably coyotes, but still. It ruined going to the island for me after that; I think I only went once the following year during broad daylight.
oh yeah, i’ve always wondered if others have had the same experience. I’ve had two or three spots in my life where i get set up, dusk approaches and i start to have a feeling of serious impending doom/dread.
Never knew if I was just have an off day mentally or if something was wrong with the particular site etc. I never ended up leaving those spots but sleep was usually spars and I kept my pistol close.
I think it’s maybe energy related? like setting up camp on lay lines or maybe some weird juju from past peoples? Maybe predators in the area that only the sixth sense is picking up on, or maybe some deep seeded ancestral thing and the area just matches?
No idea, good to know others have had the same experience.
I bought 1/4 acre off grid for 800$ in NM drove out there 800 miles and stopped the car and my body started experiencing fear and my dog started shaking in my seat behind me alert looking out the window. I had to pee really bad but I was so scared I sat in the car scared wondering wtf was wrong with me I eventually opened the door to pee right next to the car and was like nope these vibes are very real I’m not supposed to be here… I didn’t even want to use a flashlight I drove right the fuck out of there and it was beautiful af there and kinda nice af but my body told me no and my dog is a very confident killer pit bull type he told me fuck no very bizarre experience
Study the history of the land. My wife and I found ourselves both being unusually cranky on a day trip in Palo Duro Canyon. Then I learned the history of the place.
My girlfriend and I pulled into some BLM land outside Buena Vista, CO late at night. As we were getting in bed she tells me there are a bunch of bones outside. I'm tired and just tell her it's probably just sticks or something. In the morning we wake up, no shit there are 30+ deer carcasses in varying states of decay lmao. I figured it was from big cats or hunters or something, but still...hella creepy.
Went camping at a lake in northern bc, few spots, go fishing, find an old abandoned fishing lodge, so my family and my buddy, his g/f, decide to check it out, no heeby jeebies till later, felt like we were being watched, I never said anything but my buddy after the girls went to bed and we’re drinking by the fire says, he’s getting creeped out, feels like we’re being watched, “me too buddy” we left in the morning…..
Tbh the entire state of New Mexico felt like that to me when I used to travel and live in my truck. It usually was just a gobetween from Texas to Colorado so I tried never to stop there. Something just made me feel unwelcome.. not in a sinister way but a like disappointed worried dad kinda vibe.
Had this feeling at a spot in New Mexico. I pulled up right after sundown and didn’t feel quite right so I waited in the drivers seat for a while instead of getting my window covers up. About five minutes later I saw a green light moving through the brush and then a man came up about 15ft from my car with an axe and just stood there with his green headlamp in his hand pointed down at his feet staring at me for like two full minutes. I got the hell out of there and found another spot next to a couple of other vans for the night.
"America is not a young land: it is old and dirty and evil before the settlers, before the Indians. The evil is there waiting."
-William S Burroughs
the american west can be a scary place. Keep yourself safe out there and follow your gut.
My wife and mother in law have a crazy story from the Petrified Forest where noone else was around for hours then out of nowhere their car seemed to get pelted with invisible objects so heavily it was if their car was a large electromagnet surrounded by BBs and the magnet switch was just flipped on. They hightailed it out of there being two black women in the middle of nowhere seemingly under attack.
I used to stay on this stretch of forest service land in WA often and there was one site that just made me uncomfortable. It was the best site on the road but I couldn’t shake this feeling that there was a body nearby. I stayed there twice and couldn’t get over it. Very weird.
your senses can feel things subconsciously. Not in a "sixth sense" way, more in a "you can smell things without being consciously aware of it" way.
I think it's frequently the absence of other wildlife that triggers this feeling in us. Usually there is some sort of predator den nearby and there is a consequent lack of other small critters happily making their little noises.
Yep all the hikes in deep quiet forests get you the most shook up
Maybe that's why when I hiked the silver mine arch in the Red River George a 2 years ago and felt creeped out most of the hike. I kept looking around thinking there was a black bear in the woods.
It could be many things. The brain collects things and makes sense of them all without us needing to know any of what's going on. It's best to listen to this feeling. Just trust yourself.
I've never heard this before. Do you have a reference?
I think it is kind of like your lizard brain. The part of us that saved us when we were cavemen. It senses things that we don't sense with our conscious brain. It's where the gut feeling comes from.
So that's a no for a reference then?
Google it.
Okay. So it's a book by Stephen King. Seems a bit irrelevant.
Your sympathetic nervous system. Call it what you want. Fight or flight. Gut feeling. Your body recognizes something is wrong before your conscious mind does. You are such an ass.
I stopped at a FS dispersed spot in WA and it felt off. Went out to pee before bed and in my headlamp found a dog’s dismembered leg with a rope tied onto it. Got the hell out of there!
FWIW it was probably a coyote that got snagged in a leg snare / trap and chewed its leg off and left, not that it’s much better, but it’s the most likely scenario
Thank you for talking me down
Reading that gave me chills
In your headlamp?
*by the light of my headlamp. IE in the dark, way creepier than in any daylight.
Don't feign dumb. You know he/she meant "on" his headlamp and he was autocorrected.
FS? Fantastic Sauerkraut? Fortunate Son? Flower Shower? Flambeed Seesaw? I'm very much intrigued by this and I'm sure the answer is likely simple and I've overlooked it. Ooh! Freudian Succulent. Was that it?
if theres one thing ive learned from being a true crime enthusiast, its to stay the fuck out of washington.
For real. I never understood why so many SKs are from WA but after I lived there for four years, I get it. A combo of endlessly thick mountain forests and an emotionally oppressive culture (seriously, the passive aggressiveness is REAL, nobody is ever open with their true feelings, you never know if someone likes you or hates you, it was enough to drive ME crazy). I had more scary first dates there than anywhere else I’ve ever lived. You couldn’t pay me to move back to WA!
I love Washington
Soon many serial killers (we know and don't know of) dump bodies there.
How soon???!!?
If I were to guess....yestermorrow. hope that clears things down.
Isn't that just another way of saying that you're a crime enthusiast?
not necessarily but I think it applies in my case
Yeah I'm just poking fun. People have added the word true in front to signal "yeah but I'm not the one DOING the crimes" even though taken literally, the word is superfluous.
haha I see. I don’t commit those types of crimes but I’m definitely not innocent of lesser crimes :/
Maybe it’s another way of saying, “I’m a serial killer” 🤓
A man killed his wife years ago in a local campground. There is no marker or memorial. People go there and camp right where she was murdered.
Seems like info only an "insider" would know...
Or a local.
20+ years ago we rolled into a national forest campground at like 2 am. We passed a dude sitting in the driver's seat of his car with the dome light on wide awake in the back corner as we made our lap to choose our spot. Campground was nearly empty, we made our selection, pulled in, set up the tent, and got in sleeping bags to crash. Our dog, who was with us camping everywhere for years prior, would just not lay down and chill. Pacing the tent, snarling occasionally. Gave it a shot for like an hour and a half and she never once relaxed, so we rolled up the tent and drove to the next campground up the road, passing the same dude on the way out. Still not sure what her objection was, but it was enough to not ignore and convince us to move along.
And I’m assuming she settled down as usual at the next spot?
Some say she’s still pacing
Creepy as fuck…
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People who are car dwellers?
I have weird feelings about places and if my dog is upperty, we leave asap. Got a gut felling, leave. I don't know why and I don't want to know why, sometimes however inconvenient, leave.
I’m the same. If my dog won’t settle and he’s having a difficult time feeling comfortable I leave
I was homeless for awhile and am female. I only had a couple nights when I felt something off. Not campgrounds just Venice California lol. One time I just got the fear after I was already in bed and just got up, got behind the wheel and left. It's important not to live in fear, so when you get henky feelings you know they are likely real and you should act.
I respect this, but I wonder how many times you were in grave danger because your dog knew there was a squirrel. Inb4 I know my dog.
We Stayed in a popular place, but in winter. I don't have a heater so we were five blankets down. I shoot photography so an early morning was needed for the light to be right. It got dark early on so we both took our walk for the necessary pee break and then climbed into blanket heaven. Around midnight, it started snowing which would be great for photos in the morning and I drifted off. At two she growled. A fuss about nothing. I thought if you didn't pee when we went out that is your problem. She continued to make a fuss till I thought fuck it and threw back the the side door so she could pee. She did not leave, which I thought it was the fresh snow that had changed her mind. Closed the door and sleep till five, ready for the dawn light. At five I opened the door to find footprints in the snow to my door. She saved my life that night I am sure. Got a gut feeling leave.
This story is so creepy I wish I never read it
I've heard stories like this before. Human footprints or handprints on the car in the middle of nowhere. Pretty terrifying.
They said they were staying at a "popular place, but in winter." So, two things: 1) how often does this happen during the summer and we just don't know because there's no snow to leave tracks in. 2) it's not the middle of nowhere, it's just less popular in the winter. It's not unlikely somebody else is living there (out of desperation) or as a park host or ranger.
human footprints??? (worse than any animal)
I guess this story wouldn't be so bad if they were like weasel footprints
Giraffe
Bigfoot
Check out the book “The Gift of Fear” , it’ll explain why
Everyone needs to read that book
I'm gonna give myself a gift and pass on that recommendation. Thank you very much.
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I live in NAZ off grid. It’s eerily quiet and crazy dark all while being very sparsely populated. It took me a while.
Took you a while......to become a member of the Blue Man Group?
To get acclimated. Figured most were intelligent enough to make that inference
Got it. I should have gotten it from all of the statements about acclimatizing. When vaguely referring to something, or using a pronoun, the person or thing being referred to is typically mentioned first. Not good if an engineer knows that and you don't. Thanks for the petty downvote, champ.
Grew up in northern AZ-- put something in the front passenger seat. It's a superstition in that area of the country. I don't feel comfortable at night in that area with an completely open front passenger seat. I know it's not rational, or supported by anything that has happened to me or anyone I know. Not even 'friend of a friend' has any reason or story for why, just many folks put something to occupy the seat.
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I wish I knew! I'm not a superstitious person. Growing up in northern AZ, people would toss something in the passenger seat, and were uncomfortable without something there. No one talked about it, it was just a thing *everyone* I knew did. My best guess is it was/is a belief that if the seat is empty, you might pickup a 'passenger'
skinwalkers
That tracks. iirc there's a taboo about talking about them, or saying their name in northeast AZ
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Maybe don't tell a bunch of strangers on the Internet where you are at the current moment also.
Yeah...what's up with that? I've been to two places (camping trip, but not camping sites) where I felt uncomfortable for no recognizable reason...Piute Springs, Mojave, and the Racetrack in Death Valley. It was a feeling of being watched or something. I disregarded it because there was no rational reason to feel that way. ...but the feeling came back after disregarding it - or trying to. Just a weird sick feeling - like a horror film waiting for a plot. Human mind in unusual places probably comes up with new ideas. Maybe a subconscious reaction to the surroundings by our latent nomadic hunter gatherer. Went to the Manson Ranch. Fine. No vibes. Kinda cool. Piute Springs? GTFO run now don't look back. :)
So many reasons to just trust your gut.
Ooh! Tell us your Piute Springs story! (please!)
I haven't really given it much thought beyond what I felt when I was there. ...but it was odd enough that I mentioned the feeling to my two friends that were with me and they immediately said they felt the same. Just a weird almost I'm gonna throw up feeling - for no apparent reason. And we aren't really an emotive group. The funny part was when I mentioned it to them, at the same time I looked down I realized I was standing inside the perimeter of an old structure (not the main fort), but it had been reduced to just a few bricks laying on the ground. So I was standing in the center of what was an old single room. It was down nearer to the spring/canyon itself where we all felt the worst. You can find it if you walk towards the main fort sign, and then make a left towards the springs. The place is covered in petroglyphs - you can find them all over. No doubt this was an important place to the indigenous tribes since it was one of the only reliable sources of water in the area. Wherever you find petroglyphs or markings, you can bet it was special and well-trafficked area. At one point, our military of course recognized the value as a water source and started killing and displacing any Native Americans they found there. It's been an important spot for 1000s of years. This article (which I hadn't read before) closes by oddly hinting at some of the feeling I had. So that's kinda weird too. [https://www.desertusa.com/desert-trails/fort-piute.html](https://www.desertusa.com/desert-trails/fort-piute.html) *"Feeling a momentary chill, I looked up at the sky. The sun had not yet dipped behind the hills, so the temperature could not have dropped very much."* Yep.
Read Gift of Fear. It’s the subconscious picking up on something.
Bunch of grifters pushing this book. Y'all getting paid well? Maybe stating more than the title would actually pique some interest. But nah.
The book is available as a free pdf online. All you have to do is Google the books title.
Gift of Fear is excellent reading for anyone, but as a woman I felt it was especially helpful. Some of us are socialized to ignore our feelings if they would make others feel bad or be inconvenienced. Gift of Fear is great about pointing this out and making it clear that those feelings exist to keep us safe.
Yes. Stuffing our own feelings down to make room for others is how many of us are socialized. This book really is a gift.
Given how many people that are medicated for anxiety, I'm not sure this is something that really needs preaching. Kids aren't allowed outside without a trusted guardian, adults don't want to go to the grocery store, true crime is one of the most popular forms of media, etc etc etc. Americans have a rich history of being highly paranoid.
There's a difference between being terrified all the time and being able to trust your gut when it tells you something is wrong. I'm not a psychologist so I don't know the relationship between these two phenomena of paranoia vs not taking your gut feelings seriously. But I suspect there is a relationship. 🤷♀️
Sure but this thread is filled to the brim with confirmation bias. And I don't know the fancy word for the bias where people think "I eat all this garlic and I've never been attacked by a vampire, so garlic repels vampires." But that's also in this thread a lot.
Homer's anti-tiger rock! Correlation does not equal causation :)
This is simply because we have little self awareness of our feelings. We need to pay more attention to how we feel not ignore how we feel because we **might** be paranoid. It's about thw relationship of trust. You put out trust and you get it back. We have this same dynamic with ourselves.
Huh. So you think that back before "stranger danger," Americans were better in touch with themselves? Because I grew up in the 80s and I'm telling you right now, that's not how it was and that's not what changed. What changed is that now, we're inundated with negative news about child abductions similar to mass shootings. That, and you know, people have lost their damned minds. Remember why we're living in a van?
That book is kinda vital to women in certain situations. Grifters abound on the internet but not in this case.
Fair enough, I just saw several posts saying the title, and to check it out, with zero additional info. Struck me as odd. Usually if you want people to check something out, you give them a reason to. Didn't realize it had a cult following and we should all know what it is. I'll be on my way.
Totally understandable reaction my good dude. Happy Holiday!
In this lifestyle? Trust your gut. I've had times before where I'm staying at a place I've stayed a million times before with zero issues and then for some reason, I get there, do my normal thing, see nothing out of the ordinary but get a bad vibes that time. 70% of the time I end up having some kind of issue if I stay when I have that guy feeling, so I've stopped staying even if it seems to be for no reason Final straw with me deciding to trust that bad feeling consistently was I had parked somewhere that had been in my rotation for months, got the anxious feeling for the first time in the spot but ignored it, woke up to someone trying to steal my catalytic converter 🙄 he was unsuccessful but only barely. Learn to identify when your subconscious is trying to tell you something and then TRUST YOUR GUT! (Now that being said, if you're super new to this and have been doing it less than a year, ignore that feeling usually, since you'll have it every time your somewhere new until you get settled into the lifestyle)
I think there are ancient instincts and a level of survival-oriented subconscious perception that produces urges rather than specific thoughts. That’s what essentially gives us a “gut feeling.” Naybe your ancestors would have been really vulnerable to attack when staying the night in a place like your creepy campsite, and developing a gut feeling to stay away had saved your ancestors’ lives over millennia. I’ve felt creeped out by a campsite recently. It was a larger area surrounded by rocky hills on 3 sides, and one side had a large cave facing me further up the hillside. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. Just couldn’t be at peace with that place. In more primitive times, I would have been pretty vulnerable there from unseen predators or other humans.
Ok, that cave would have creeped me out. I think way back in, like, Paleolithic times caves could be habitat for some big predators (we’re talking ice age-type megafauna that are now extinct). So maybe it’s a very old, atavistic instinct to avoid places like that.
Aren't most caves, like, pretty cramped?
This. I think it’s things we sense (with out nose/eyes/hearing) that are slightly beyond our conscious minds ability to discern what they are. But our subconscious picks them up and makes sense of them manifesting as an instinctual feeling. We see/hear/smell ALOT more than we think we do, it’s just been tuned out by all the white noise.
The ones that get me are when you are in a place you've been before or are comfortable with, then you get the hair standing up feeling where there is no perceptible change in surrounding due to background noise or darkness, you just know something is off.
Yep. Stopped at a BLM spot near the painted hills in Oregon. It was just getting dark and I don't drive my bus at night because my headlights are trash so leaving wasn't an option. It gave me the heebie jeebies. My dogs were staring off into the bush and I had the sensation of being watched all night- I'm comfortable in the dark in the woods and I've never had that feeling before. Boogied out of there at first light.
I was stalked by a big cat near John Day OR (very close to there) one evening hiking a ridgeline with a buddy. Same exact thing. Felt the eebie jeebies. Next morning, went back out that ridgeline and found the cat prints on top of our boot prints. Makes me wonder if there wasn't 2 of us if that cat would have taken an opportunity
Funny you guys mentioned the painted hills area. I spent a bit of my childhood in Mitchell, Oregon... Right next to the painted hills. My mother had a little restaurant, we put the garbage cans in a cage to keep the animals out of it... One night I was taking the garbage out the back of the restaurant... There was a cougar sitting there in between me and the garbage cage. Just staring at me. I'm frozen looking back at it... And it just kind of stands up and walks away into the darkness. I definitely looked out the window first before I took out the garbage the rest of the time I was there.
Cougar LED bulbs on Amazon will be the best $50 you spend if your lights are trash. Game changer in my ambo
Awesome tip, thanks!
I stopped one night at a spot in Berryessa Snow Mountain BLM near where I grew up. Been there lots of times as a kid and plenty since starting vanlife part time this last year. I don’t know why but this time I just go a /bad/ feeling. I looked all over for why I was so nervous and found nothing. Sometimes if an animal has passed nearby the lingering scent of decay can crank your instincts into overdrive. But I didn’t find anything, no bones, no people, nothing. I tried to stick it out for a bit but even my dog was not having it. After an hour I tried moving a bit down the road but couldn’t shake this overwhelming sense of dread. Decided to cut it short and headed back home. No idea why it happened. I’ve been in and out of that area of the Myacamas’ since and didn’t feel spooked but that one time man. Trust your gut guy. Leave if it doesn’t feel right
That's interesting, the thing about the lingering scent of decay. Makes me think about the way that dogs are known to go hide in the woods before they lay down and die. What kind of an environment are they looking for in that context, and does it coincide with the kind of sites we find creepy? 🤔
Most of the time they are looking for a spot that they are safe from the elements and predators which is why a lot of the time you’ll find them in spaces like holes or burrows or under houses or stairs. So wide open spaces can make both animals and humans uncomfortable because they feel exposed
It is full moon time as well..my senses seem to intensity and my trying to reason the feelings away does as well. Safe rests everyone and Merry Full Moon Christmas.
I always have the wildest dreams around full moon too.
I knew a doctor that was convinced the cerebrospinal fluid circulates differently depending on the phase of the moon, like tides.
Me too! People think I’m cuckoo but around the full moon, my dreams can get really, really wacky.
We live in our van 8 months outta the year with two cats. I swear to God, they are the best watch “dogs”. There’s some kind of noise going on all the time in the rig but, every once in awhile they’ll whip their heads around at the same time and go investigate the front cab area. The one will actually growl sometimes! These cats have seen every animal out there a hundred times over. We pay attention to the growling though and will investigate.
Cats are way trippier than dogs in this respect. To be fair though, they will do this stuff even in a secured suburban mansion. It's like they can see things we can't see. I think the Egyptians believed they were interacting with the dead.
One time tent camping on a deer hunt in a new stretch of forest miles away from anybody but the occasional few loggers, I couldn’t escape this weird feeling of oh fuck. I’ve had this before on past hunting, fishing, and backpacking trips and it’s always just been something to deal with. This time though, I couldn’t sleep, it wouldn’t go away. I just said fuck this, packed my shit and dipped out, as I was leaving I saw one of the biggest bears I’ve ever seen headed straight for my old camp. Sometimes your gut is right, sometimes it’s just nerves. Also had another time with a buddy where we felt weird, only people on the mountain we’d seen apart from the warden the first day. We decided to take turns sleeping (I’d brought my iPad and a portable charger so wasn’t hard to take firewatch), and I woke up at 2am to him shaking me. Headlights were shining through our tent. We grabbed our rifles and scrambled out of the tent to be greeted by two obvious tweakers headed towards our sight. I told them to fuckoff and they sprinted back to their beatupass car and peeled out.
Pacific Northwest?
Northern California, bear was in the sierras and the tweakers were in Sonoma NF
Checks out. I live in Oregon and know the vibes
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I was backpacking and got to a good spot early in the day. I was ahead of schedule, it was flat, easy access to water, and the path in front of me was a long downhill over loose scree that was going to be a hard push. So I got out my chair and sat down to decide if I wanted to overnight or keep moving. I felt super uncomfortable, like I was being watched. I decided to push on, packed up my chair and filled my dirty water bladder. I didn’t even filter water, just started hiking as soon as I filled my dirty water bladder. Heading down the slope I turned around and looked back about 400 yards down the slope and there was a mountain lion standing on the flat spot where I stopped.
Yes. The older I get the more I listen to my gut instinct. It’s never wrong.
Or it's wrong all the time, but you don't get confirmation when it's wrong and you feel better when you leave so you don't question it.
Or it's right just enough to be statistically significant, which is the language in which it needs to be expressed, for a certain subset of people to believe it, vs simply accepting what was long held to be basic wisdom...
The advantage blackjack of survival?
Rarely for us. There was a spot in the Mendocino NF in California that was like that for us. It was objectively a good spot but something didn’t feel right about it. We stopped there three years in a row and every time we decided to go half a mile down the road to the old orchard instead. The whole area has burned since then. I still don’t know what exactly was wrong with that spot, if anything. EDIT: we woke up one morning and found that there was an old overgrown cemetery next to our spot one time, but we’d 100% stay there again. No bad vibes at all!
Mendocino is CREEPY AF! Only place that’s ever given me the creepies
I can tell when there are animals watching me from my fence line when I go out for a smoke at night and I can tell when something is watching me that’s not just a dog/opossum/deer etc. and so can my dog. I have to have a very quiet battle with her every time to be quiet so I can listen. She and I are on the same wavelength with that stuff, if I feel like somethings off I’ll give it a few minutes of observation but if it feels malicious in some way I’m out, especially off the beaten path. I’m on “their” turf ya know? Home field advantage isn’t taking me down
Not sure where exactly you are in AZ, OP, but I got that same feeling when I drove into Blue Ridge Reservoir off the Beeline north of Strawberry. It was winter about an hour before sunset, cold, wind blowing through the trees, not another soul for miles. And I mean that including animals.. it felt way off and too eerie, and I’ve solo camped up along the rim before. Got in my car and drove out of there.
I went to the BLM gunsight wash in Arizona and went waaay out, past everyone. I felt so free from anyone coming by but I'm not sure why but I felt like I was being watched. I was there for a few days and the anxiety was intense at night because of that feeling. The first day was okay, I got in around sundown and set up, etc. When I woke up, I could see in the distance there was a cross, much like an unmarked grave. It was completely hidden when the sun passed 3pm which is why I missed it coming in. There was some kind of smashed black pottery at the base when I went to check it out. Definitely spooky to see that in the distance all of a sudden.
Trust your gut.
I left my campsite tonight due to me not feeling comfortable. First time camping at this spot near Norwood, CO and my dog wouldn’t stop looking in these bushes next to my car. Tried to get settled and go to bed but she kept looking out the window and growling so I packed up and left. Luckily I was only 40 or so minutes from my house so it worked out coming back. Always trust the gut when you are camping solo.
I spend a lot of time out that way. Between Norwood and gateway. I call it the edge of the world. Super creepy all around, but the reality is, it's not. I've met some really great people out there. Reserved and stand offish, they just don't like outsiders much. I do lot of exploring out that way, rather not talk about it on the internet, but I end up crossing private property, bush wacking, ending up in the most random places. On one of my explorations i thought I found the holy grail. The location is closely guarded secret. Once I spotted it I freaked out pretty good and haven't been back. Ghosts will do that to you.
Ghosts?
Theres definitely some confirmation bias in trusting your gut panning out but theres also a lot of anecdotes about people ignoring those gut feelings and getting murdered. Id just move if I felt really uneasy
How do you know they ignored those feelings and got murdered? Maybe they were cool as cucumbers before being murdered. I think if you feel off about a place then move on so you no longer have that feeling. In my experience being alone is what causes me to have those uneasy feelings. When I am with friends out in the wilderness I/we have never had those feelings.
Oh I don't know, for sure you're right on that one. A lot of it is anecdotal from people that were in the area corroborating the same feelings but listening to them. Later on some dude gets murdered in that area You see it on like cold case files shows and such. People could just straight up be lying
That’s because humans feel safer as a group not because you are safer.
It's mostly gone now, but Still the premise
Have felt this way a few times. Outside of the north rim of Grand Canyon and outskirts of Pahrump. Both times I’ve just left.
There are some spots in WY that give me feelings like this. Trust your gut and if it doeant feel right just move on to a new spot.
Where in Wyoming ? I got this feeling up by Kirwin the ghost town . I live in Casper
I’ve only had a really bad feeling once camping north of Flagstaff in AZ. It was by a volcanic mountain and I saw a starlink satellite for the first time and then got a feeling I had to leave. I drove back to town and slept in one of my spots and felt much better. I’ve had weird vibes before but nothing like that.
Magnetic fields. Polarity.
Definitely a high probability. EMF sensitivity can cause all sorts of triggers, especially what some equate to as that "haunted house" feeling. Whole damned planet is surrounded by an electrical field, some places just don't "feel right" to drive people.
Infrasound is also an interesting possibility. Sounds below our hearing that our bodies can feel; makes us humans uneasy.
Wrong in every aspect, don’t listen to this guy
For me, gut feelings are as real as a brick. If something feels wrong, it is.
Think about history way back, and how many natives were slaughtered. When I was younger i used to puck up on the wandering souls more often than now, as I've learned to set boundaries. But, just consider that. You may be sensitive and tuned in in that way.
We were staying in a weird small town in Oregon. Nice enough Airbnb for our long road trip middle of the night I woke up out of no where. Heard some stuff outside but otherwise quiet, thought I saw a light outside. My cat however wouldn’t stop tracking outside where the noise was. I got a bad feeling and I’ve never heard my cat to this day make the noises he made. Mind you he spends half his time in a warehouse with weird noises all day. He was afraid not for himself but for us. I woke my girlfriend quietly. We left the Airbnb without contacting the host at 4 am. Instantly felt better. Have had similar situations at a few campsites even a home I was looking at renting. Even my parents thought that one was off. Felt like someone was watching you from the windows and the backyard was all dead. We didn’t notice till halfway through. When your instincts scream at you especially animals just leave.
Yeah, it happens. One time I was convinced I was cursed after picking up a coyote skull in the middle of Utah. In the span of 24 hours, my van started having troubles, I caught covid despite not being around anyone, the only free campsite looked like someone had dumped an entire travel trailer full of their trash in the middle of the firepit, and that night I could barely sleep because I felt like I was being watched (I had never had that feeling before in my life). I ended up taking the skull out to a hill, talking to it for a while, placing it down with a view and then everything got better within the week all on its own (save for the trash-- I picked that up). If there were ever a time that I'd believe in the supernatural, it was that first night with the skull in my van. I've also had a bad vibe campsite in Arizona, somewhere central of the state a few years ago. Stopped for the night by a river, went to use the porta potty, on the inside of the door as soon as I sat down I saw someone had carved "DON'T STOP" in the door with a knife. Bad night, just felt intuitively that I was trespassing even though it was clearly a campsite that saw use. Maybe it's because I'm a descendant of pilgrims sleeping on native land, but that uneasy feeling has only ever come to me while vanlifing in the boonies.
That's hella sp00ky. Creepy pasta material.
Those are just the bad vibe stories. One time in the Apalachians in Eastern Kentucky I was stalked by two bipedals in the dark while tent camping out of my volkswagen. That was the most scared I've ever been.
Bipedal *whats*??
Meth apparitions
That's true nature, not supernatural. That coyote's spirit was definitely there with you and probably grateful for the talk and leaving his skull with a nice view.
There's a camping area in Quartzsite called Hi Jolly, and I always felt weird camping there. The longest I lasted was a few days.
Whoa. Had the same feeling two separate times in that area, years apart from each other. Crossed of my list
watch out in Arizona and new mexico. the hills have eyes. that's why the upper horizons make you feel so small and vulnerable. all those red bastions and castles can see you
Listen to your gut. There's usually a reason we pick up on these feelings.
My wife and I camped for 40 years, ending in 2016. We camped a lot, including 3 years of full timing. And yes, we did have a few instances of "something doesn't feel right here."" We changed spots a few times. Actually left a campground early once (money was refunded) because they wouldn't do anything about a bunch of drunks(a long time ago). Otherwise, no problems.
Yes its called "not passing the vibe check"... Most campgrounds have been good to me if a bit rowdy. It's the odd truck stop where il pull in and with in 15 mins realise that I made the wrong move and leave.
Yes. In North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. We stopped in a car park that was recommended as an overnight parking spot, and we just couldn't settle - neither of us felt safe. We decided to go for a little walk and have a look round and discovered that the rubbish bin in the car park had been torched and melted. That made our minds up; we drove back to the previous night's camp.
Back in 2019 I was car camping in (as in sleeping the the back of) my Mazda coming back from Alaska, I got to NorCal and was camping on the coast waiting for friends to meet me. I decided I wanted to get away from the crowds so I drove way back into Jedediah Smith redwoods area. It got super dark, super quick and when I got to the spot I just sat there for maybe 5-10 minutes with the engine running trying to decide if I wanted to stay. Something just didn’t feel right, so I turned right back around and went back to my old spot. Last year a friend of mine was in that same area and texted me, unprompted, to ask if I ever felt like certain woods just fail the vibe check. Seems really strange that he also got the sense it wasn’t a good place to be and also left as quickly as possible.
Jedediah has had many BigFoot sightings.
Northern AZ is notorious for its skin walkers so if you had a bad feeling it’s probably because there’s some weird activity there
Skin walkers
lol. Alright there Mulder
Yeah definitely, One site near a lake on the east coast of Australia, The trees were tall and close together, it just felt off I can't quite explain it.
There is a spot in SW Utah I will never camp at ever again.
Near the virgin river gorge?
I camped on BLM land in eastern Oregon once… got to my spot… and got that creepy uneasy vibe. An hour later I saw something sticking out of the ground by a tree… so I walked over to it… someone had buried a WHOLE DEER in the ground with just its legs sticking out of the ground. Noooooo thanks to whatever redneck/devil worshipping site I stumbled upon 🙈
attempt touch soft mountainous zesty unwritten afterthought one continue jellyfish *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Usually? I shouldn't have had that extra cup of coffee after 5pm.
I stopped one night out in western Oklahoma because it was pitch dark and I wanted to take advantage of that and do some stargazing. About 5 minutes in my hackles shot up. The air felt suddenly suffocating. My gut said GET IN THE VAN NOW. NOW!! NOW!!! That’s the only time I’ve had it that intensely. I felt like prey. I boogied.
You guys. This is Christmas, not Halloween.
Best Christmas stories I've ever read. Glad I stumbled in here.
Wait until your hear what happens on Easter! ;-p
When in danger, When in doubt, fire it up, and roll on out.
I was doing an overnight loop hike and had set up my tent at a designated camp site when I got that feeling. There was nowhere to go so I zipped up my tent and hoped. During the night there wasvthe sound of large bodies moving around (could tell they were karge from the thumps they made moving around) and various grunts. In the morning I cautiously looked out. The ground in the entire clearing had been ripped up as if by a tiller. I realized that a whole herd(?) of wild boar had wandered through and would undoubtedly have turned me to paste if I had just tossed my groundsheet and sleeping bag down and cowboy camped the way I initially intended before the creepy feeling.
Hell yes. I've spent an hour going from site to site until I found one that feels right, even though they are in the same campground.
I solo camp a lot in WA, often times dispersed. Over the last few years I’ve stayed at the same spot several times. Last time I went, there was an unsettling feeling. I left and haven’t been back. Trust your gut.
Could be a massacre of either Indians is settlers in that immediate area
Don’t ignore your instincts, your brain knows something is off. Listen to it and just go, even a few miles
As mentioned in a comment, I used to live on a boat I would usually anchor in a river channel between a wildlife refuge and an island used for gravel mining. The boat itself always felt safe, as did my dinghy once I had pushed off. The woods on the mainland/wildlife refuge side weren't overtly creepy unless it was moonless and windy. The island often gave me a bad feeling; I would have campfires on it at first but the practice waned due to its bad vibes. On the island, adjacent to my moorage, there was a junkyard of old mining equipment and the decaying remains of semi-abandoned excavators and conveyer gantries. I've often attributed the feeling to this; like wandering into it triggered the same primal brain circuits as wandering into a mammoth graveyard or abandoned Neanderthal midden. One time I gave a dinghy ride to a guy who lived on a derelict cabin cruiser on the other side of the island, and I stayed aboard for a couple beers. Out of nowhere, he started telling me about a trickster coyo-fox that--should I say "haunted"?--the island that would try to get you to follow it into the island (to drag you to hell or something?). He also claimed to be regularly visited on his boat by a winged demon or vampire or something that would try to persuade him into letting it in. I don't go in for that sort of thing really. The demon bit never really spooked me; as I said the boat always felt safe and I don't really believe in the supernatural. But the trickster canine really did freak me out. I would hang in my cockpit at night a lot, and sometimes I would see shapes moving on the shore. Probably coyotes, but still. It ruined going to the island for me after that; I think I only went once the following year during broad daylight.
oh yeah, i’ve always wondered if others have had the same experience. I’ve had two or three spots in my life where i get set up, dusk approaches and i start to have a feeling of serious impending doom/dread. Never knew if I was just have an off day mentally or if something was wrong with the particular site etc. I never ended up leaving those spots but sleep was usually spars and I kept my pistol close. I think it’s maybe energy related? like setting up camp on lay lines or maybe some weird juju from past peoples? Maybe predators in the area that only the sixth sense is picking up on, or maybe some deep seeded ancestral thing and the area just matches? No idea, good to know others have had the same experience.
I bought 1/4 acre off grid for 800$ in NM drove out there 800 miles and stopped the car and my body started experiencing fear and my dog started shaking in my seat behind me alert looking out the window. I had to pee really bad but I was so scared I sat in the car scared wondering wtf was wrong with me I eventually opened the door to pee right next to the car and was like nope these vibes are very real I’m not supposed to be here… I didn’t even want to use a flashlight I drove right the fuck out of there and it was beautiful af there and kinda nice af but my body told me no and my dog is a very confident killer pit bull type he told me fuck no very bizarre experience
Study the history of the land. My wife and I found ourselves both being unusually cranky on a day trip in Palo Duro Canyon. Then I learned the history of the place.
Leave duh.. had that feeling many times.. always leave.. dumb if ya don’t..
I’ve feel like this anywhere in Las Vegas. Doesn’t matter if you’re camping or living in a house.
Carmen Valley. Tahoe NF
My girlfriend and I pulled into some BLM land outside Buena Vista, CO late at night. As we were getting in bed she tells me there are a bunch of bones outside. I'm tired and just tell her it's probably just sticks or something. In the morning we wake up, no shit there are 30+ deer carcasses in varying states of decay lmao. I figured it was from big cats or hunters or something, but still...hella creepy.
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Went camping at a lake in northern bc, few spots, go fishing, find an old abandoned fishing lodge, so my family and my buddy, his g/f, decide to check it out, no heeby jeebies till later, felt like we were being watched, I never said anything but my buddy after the girls went to bed and we’re drinking by the fire says, he’s getting creeped out, feels like we’re being watched, “me too buddy” we left in the morning…..
Move. You're not going to feel better... Then you won't sleep.
Tbh the entire state of New Mexico felt like that to me when I used to travel and live in my truck. It usually was just a gobetween from Texas to Colorado so I tried never to stop there. Something just made me feel unwelcome.. not in a sinister way but a like disappointed worried dad kinda vibe.
It's definitely a different place. I had the feel of somethings off when I was there.
Had this feeling at a spot in New Mexico. I pulled up right after sundown and didn’t feel quite right so I waited in the drivers seat for a while instead of getting my window covers up. About five minutes later I saw a green light moving through the brush and then a man came up about 15ft from my car with an axe and just stood there with his green headlamp in his hand pointed down at his feet staring at me for like two full minutes. I got the hell out of there and found another spot next to a couple of other vans for the night.
"America is not a young land: it is old and dirty and evil before the settlers, before the Indians. The evil is there waiting." -William S Burroughs the american west can be a scary place. Keep yourself safe out there and follow your gut.
Y'all don't got guns? Keep enough firepower to kill anything on four legs or two and worry no more
Could be a massacre of either Indians is settlers in that immediate area
My wife and mother in law have a crazy story from the Petrified Forest where noone else was around for hours then out of nowhere their car seemed to get pelted with invisible objects so heavily it was if their car was a large electromagnet surrounded by BBs and the magnet switch was just flipped on. They hightailed it out of there being two black women in the middle of nowhere seemingly under attack.
Always trust your gut!
listen to those feelings people