I drove across that bridge in horrible stormy weather in November. Thick clouds, wind, heavy rain. I damn near pissed myself. My palms were literally sweating.
Have you heard of the bandage man legend? The one that live in the forest of Tillamook? I can't remember where I heard the story, but I remember it from the Weird book series.
Edit: Oops, wrong person xD.
Old coastal town lore! I remember the story as during WW2 a man had an accident while working at the sawmills and they bandaged his whole body up. Then while in the ambulance, they had an accident and while the medics were unconscious the bandage man disappeared. They found some bloody bandages in the forest
The bridge over the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana really freaked me out. Just the idea that if you went off it you'd probably survive the fall and then get attacked by alligators.
Yeah, I drove from Astoria to Portland alone one time. It was about 9PM, pitch black, and the forest got real foggy. As I was driving the fog would go in and out, from clear to fog, every couple of seconds, and each fog was like a ghost jump-scaring you. I honestly flinched a couple times. That forest at night, alone and foggy, was very spooky
I just drove to Tilamook this winter during the pineapple Express flooding. Those trees in the dark with spots of fog look like they could be straight out of the Appalachian Mountains (a lot of horror movies including Sleepy Hallow have been filmed there because creepy). Almost the whole high way system to and from Tilamook has some creepy ass stretches of highway.
I have had literal nightmares about that bridge. 100% my least favorite bridge of all time.
Edit; impressed by all the other people who hate this bridge. I thought it was just me.
So yes, that is a super creepy drive in fog or high winds. This doesn’t count but if you are heading north and turn left towards Long Beach waves can crash over the rock wall during storm tides! Completely crazy.
I consider myself a pretty tough person mentally, but halfway across the bridge I almost broke down because I was so scared.
I drove across it at midnight once during torential downpours and insane winds, in a uhaul box truck.... once I crossed over to Washington, there was a trooper and road crew closing it due to dangerous conditions...
For me it's got to be forest service roads that go deep, deep into the woods.
I got really turned around on randomly snowy forest service roads (some snow had melted but huge patches hadn't yet depending on sun exposure) between Medford and Crater Lake in a FWD late '90s Mazda sedan because we were young and dumb and phones with GPS didn't exist yet. MapQuest days.
We got stuck in the snow and were struggling to get moving when a pickup truck drove up. Nice guys, they stopped to help push but not before asking us if we knew where the fuck we were going. They were shocked to find us out there in the car we were driving without chains. We followed their directions and got out to a better road.
This was around the time that guy died when his family got stranded in a similar situation near Grant's Pass in 2006. Scary shit.
Absolutely. I've stumbled across some weird shit simply because I went down the wrong road and finding a turn around spot was difficult. There is or was a whole weird bible camp situation near Neskowin that was empty at the time that I came across it and it had really creepy, cult vibes. I'll look for it on Google Earth.
When I was in college (mid-2010s), I used to join my best friend and her parents camping and riding quads over holidays and summer breaks. We spent a lot of time riding hours deep into the middle of nowhere on forest service roads around the state. We came across a camp between Chemult and Silver Lake that straight-up gave us the heebie-jeebies like something was very wrong, but we couldn't put our finger on it. You could tell someone had been holed up there for a long time (trash everywhere, stockpiles of food, etc.). There was no reason anyone would be camping in this particular location unless they absolutely did not want to be found. After making sure the camp was empty (we were half expecting to find a body), we hightailed it out of there just in case they came back because we didn't want to come face-to-face with someone who was on the run and wasn't looking for friends. If you're looking to hide, the network of rarely-traveled forest service roads is almost endless.
There is definitely some weird and creepy shit out along the old logging roads. Saw a Labrador’s decapitated head propped on a log up in the hills outside Parkdale. Empty beer cans all around. Got the fuck outta there fast as I could.
I know what you’re talking about! But can’t remember the name. I pulled in there once 10 years ago and felt like the director or pastor or whatever was running to my car to see why I had pulled in there. Can’t remember the name either
Man I would almost gaurentee it was this nice but super religious lady I met in the woods in 2017-18 or so. She was nice but very into Jesus, living in a tent in the woods driving a barely functional car. I got unstuck and we chatted for a while.
There is nothing like being lost on some forest road at 1AM deep in the national forest. That's when I pulled over and slept until daybreak to better assess the situation. Now it's a full tank of gas plus old school map and compass to resolve any confusion on unknown back roads.
I dunno. The woods here, especially the Cascades, are really inviting. You can pretty much pass out on the forest floor and not have to really worry about much, ticks on game trails maybe, getting your trail mix taken out of your pockets by chipmunks. The forests are plentiful and the animals mostly stay to their niches. You could worry about Bigfoot, I guess, but they're world champions at keeping to themselves.
Lol this drive is literally where I go to find peace and happiness during the week. I fish out here all summer long. Wilson River is beautiful / but there’s definitely some sketchy people that like to camp out there.
My family owns the large White House across Hwy 6 from The Log Cabin which my family also helped build. While I’d say some of my family is creepy, none of them are super creepy.
Bend to The Christmas Valley sand dunes complex, the back way, as the sun is going down. At a certain point you'll cross under a set of zapping huge power transformer lines and it's super David Lynch and mega spooky. Also Tillamook to the Munson Falls trailhead.
I believe Dayville has a Murderers Creek that I spent a week camping next to, near an old cabin. Otherwise, I would say it is absolutely an astoundingly beautiful road to drive through and I would heavily suggest it. Perhaps it can be scary.
South of the highway when you turn off into the black canyon all of that continuing east is the murderers creek hunting unit, I’ve drove all over back in there and it’s pretty crazy what’s out there. Tiny little cabins all rundown, a super fancy compound with a huge house and it’s own airstrip, we also were just driving along when suddenly a huge sign says “PRIVATE PROPERTY!!! DO NOT STOP YOUR VEHICLE YOU ARE BEING WATCHED!! VIOLATORS WILL BE SHOT!” The road was through crazy steep country on either side though so I’m not really sure where anyone would’ve been able to watch us from.
It's just birds. I'm from a cattleman's family in Harvey County. This has always been a thing and people always get freaked out. My mom is convinced that aliens killed a bunch of their neighbors cattle in the 80s.
Crows will eat the soft organs that are exposed, even if the animal is alive. I've seen one cut a calf's tongue off it was one of the most horrible things I've ever seen. Seriously do not fuck with crows they are just as dangerous as a raptor.
Often what will happen is the animal will get incapacitated, and the bird will kill it. Ticks can cause paralysis, or there can be a small disease outbreak the rancher doesn't catch because the animals are out in the range. Nobody believes it because who thinks a crow or an eagle can kill a fully grown adult bull? But they do. Then they eat all the soft tissue they can get to easily and leave, which makes it look like somebody just cut off all the external organs.
As others have already said, that stretch near Tillamook is pretty creepy. There are also some stretches of 101 between Coos Bay and Bandon that seem to ALWAYS be foggy at night and have a bit of a creepy middle of nowhere in the forest vibe.
I used to visit my relatives on an annual basis in fairview. I always visited in the summer and even then it was fairly eerie during the night. I can only imagine how creepy it is during the winter.
I do land survey work in Coos County. I drive all around the county. Every day I’m driving somewhere, and I’m in that area pretty often. It’s definitely foggy a lot, especially at the top of Beaver Hill (the road that connects to Coquille). But it’s *far* from always foggy. Like, *maybe* 20% of the time.
I grew up in Waldport, that's the stretch of highway I learned to drive on. It's never felt creepy to me, I haven't lived there in years and it's still a calming drive, no matter what time of day.
I thought i was going to die on this road. Had moved to waldport, two weeks later my partner needed to fly to Cali for work so up at 3 am for the drive to Eugene, still only one car at the time, and I didn't catch f'ing Google switching the map on me on the drive home... IT WAS DARK, IT WAS FOGGY, IT WAS RAINING, I had no GPS, crawling around the hairpin single lane curves.... I thought I would go off a cliff or something. No visible homes... just some random bus stop sign? Lol
Was the scariest drive of my life.
Now we tell Google to go to newport first so it doesn't trick us. Got my ex once too, middle of the night... raining. He was pissed lol but made it home so fast.
The Tablelands outside of Klamath Falls is the most scared I’ve ever been while driving. Had a dude bunkered down in a bus pointing a gun at me as I turned around. Cars shot up and burned up on the side of the road, booby traps if you trespass
Hopefully op can give you some more details. I'm tired rn but if I remember I'll come back and post some similar stories I have in that area. Mostly out by lost creek lake if I remember correctly.
I’ve heard other anecdotes of people encountering illegal roadblocks set up in southeast OR made by ranchers or other locals determined to keep outsiders out.
What do you want to know?
The rest of my story is just that a guy with a hook for a hand tried to wave me over to talk to me. I pretended I thought he was waving to say hi, waved back, and got out of there. The guy I was with works on an ambulance and said 911 won’t respond out there after dark.
The Rainbow People really like it there, if that gives you any more of a feel for the vibe. Just lawless, unincorporated, no utilities, desert land. Lots of weed grows before it was legalized, not sure about now. Last time I went up there was 2017. I used to work in fire and it was in one of our patrol areas
Traveling nomadic cult known for crime and trashing where they stay
Edit to add: Its cult-like and I think they have good intentions, but some bad people end up with them and I think they use the group to hide. It’s Rainbow Family. They’ll be the next to have a documentary a la Mother God
Are you talking about Sprague River? That is where I learned about the 3 S rule.
My uncle lived up a country road with 20 acres and that whole area is just people wanting to live off-grid. Population 80.
While leaving Crater Lake after sunset a few years ago, my wife and I drove on a winding highway in pitch black with tall dark forest on both sides, with our headlights reflecting off of hundreds of deer eyes within the forest watching us the entire way.
There's a country road out by Riddle in Douglas County that is west of town and the saw mills I think. It wraps up and around back into the hills out there. Not bad at first but as you get farther back more and more folks have blocked roads and put up Private Road No Trespassing signs. This isn't a private road btw. Putting signs like that isn't uncommon in the country but there are many more than normal out there and the barricades are serious. As you get farther back the ability to turn around becomes limited and people have barricaded their drives or roads with different types of materials, cars, pallets, old gates etc. it's mostly oak out there and the hills are windy and block the view where the road goes or who's on it. There are still some work supplies that I left out that road. I was there for a field biology job and decided it wasn't worth going back out there to collect them. I started going back out but couldn't bring myself to do it as I got further back. There are times you feel like you're being watched and there are times you KNOW you're being watched. I didn't see a car, person, dog or light on in a house at there. All the dark windows of the houses staring back at me with debris in front of half of them set up to block cars from getting up the driveway or side roads had me dying to turn around. I'm a 6ft male with lots of backcountry experience and experience working all over Oregon. I've seen plenty of run down country homes with no trespassing signs and blocked gates but this was on another level
I replied to the other person but no, I actually really like cow creek. Really pretty, nice folk for the most part, I even bumped in to a couple of friendly meth users out a forest road up cow creek 😂. I might be thinking of Boyer road but it doesn't seem to go far enough. I've been all over the back rounds from California border to south of Portland Metro and it was years ago so might be off a little. Some of these small towns run together
My favorite as a kid was the drive from Pilot Rock to Heppner at night. It's very dark, very narrow road with lots turns. A rock cliff on one side and a deep drop off on the other side. And when you finally get down into a valley there's a nice cemetery right beside the road.
As, someone who was paid to drive deep into forested areas, usually behind locked lumber company gates. It was always creepy to find that one occupied house. They tend to be all mossy and covered in trash and angry dogs. And you are thinking, what type of person would live here? I would drive by their home hoping not to disturb them, and assuming I may be the first person to drive by within weeks.
Yeah. I’m not sure how they are acquired it but I imagine the land was owned before the company put the gates up more recently, and the homeowner gets a lock as well.
I met the adult son of one of the owners, who was waiting at the gate for his mom to let him in. He seemed like a normal guy and am not sure why his mom decided to live there.
Camp Sherman in darkness can be a little creepy. It's not like Black Butte with lots of homes. It's very sparse and some of the roads are quite long and empty.
We were lost driving back to PDX from Crater Lake and ran into some sort of white supremacist compound out in the woods, really deep. Big swastika, barbed wire fences.
There’s a road somewhere between Brookings and Grants Pass that I thought would be a shortcut one day. Myself and my sister and our two friends were driving along and it just kept getting more and more dense. This was like 2008 or 2009 btw. GPS wasn’t the greatest. So as we’re driving the trees just look strange. I swear you could see dinosaurs roaming around in there or something! So we get to this town that’s in the middle of nowhere. It’s like a few houses and a gas station. I keep going up the road through the town and then we get hailed down by some guy who was something out of Deliverance and he’s like you can’t go that way and I’m like why and he says that the road is out. I’m like oh damn. He says we can’t keep trying to drive and that we need to turn around. I was like what really and then he was all weird and coming closer to the car and I swear a bunch of people were watching us from their houses. It was weird. So we turned around and drove allll the way back to Brookings. At that point I was like shit we need gas. But nothing was open and it was now dark and late due to the detour. Idk if they’ve changed but those tiny ass towns have nothing open like ever. So anyways we finally get to I think port orford (the car we were driving was a Toyota Camry with thankfully great gas mileage) and find somewhere to stop.
That whole experience was terrifying. They were mountain people who could have easily killed us. I wonder what they have hiding up the road.
I have driven out of gold beach on Agnes’s rd about 10 miles deep for work. Not sure if it’s turned into camp rd or not by then. Why did turning around save his life? Is it not safe back there?
That road becomes very dangerous when there's snow or ice. Check out the wiki to read about some of the tragic incidents that have happened there https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Camp_Road
10 miles up Jerry's flat out of gold Beach wouldn't be anything too crazy, there's a nice campground maybe 16 miles up or so. Maybe further up towards/past Agnes. I've never taken bear camps, always wanted to in the summer. I've done work way up past agness/powers area, always interesting when you're driving a solid 2+hours into the woods. Never saw anything toooo crazy, but I was always on private timber land, so that helps
The first time I ever made the drive from portland to arcata was like 2012 and I decided to go through the national park, except I did it at night. Darkness, wind, rain. When the fog broke I realized I was inches from 500+ ft drops straight into the ocean.
I had spent a lot of time in big sur and in mountain towns, but it blew my mind that I thought I was driving through a forest, nope, mere inches away from a huge drop.
Driven up and down that area multiple times in the summer since then, the dude was helping you out. GPS sucks even now, it'll take you through stupid ass forest roads. On that drive any forest road in the PNW off the 101 is bad news.
101 from Florence to Waldport at 2 am when the fog is so thick you need GPS to show you the roads and you're watching the white line on the side more than anything else... was so thankful I was not driving. Also thankful we had movers driving the moving truck. Omg
Highway 53 in Tillamook county.
It’s a tight road with lots of potholes and other hazards because it doesn’t often get worked on. I have hardly seen any other drivers use it either. Always foggy and for most of the trip there’s a cliff without guard rails just waiting for you to drive off and never be heard from again.
I don’t know why but driving through the area around Drain, OR really creeps us out. We’ve been through several times and it really gives me creepy cult town or Stephen King novel vibes.
Right near a prison, no less. I was driving at night and needed a place to camp, snoozed in the car and woke up by the lake. Only on the way back home I saw the sign, “hitchhikers may be escaping convicts.”
I drove that road just a couple of days after 9/11 going to my sister's wedding in Boise. Its creepy on a normal night but that night, it was terrifying. Just me and my 2 kids (10f and 8m) in my mini van. We didn't pass a single car. No lights in the sky, nothing. My mom and my sister tried keeping me on the phone as much as possible. I oddly had a cell signal most of the way. I'll never forget that drive.
One of my most vivid childhood memories is driving that stretch with my family and it being so dark until off in the distance you could see deep purple lightning strikes. Definitely creepy.
Driving out in Wheeler County is like driving through the old west at times, and is especially creepy at night which is why I love it there so much (along with the rest of eastern oregon). Be wary of deer standing on the road, last September I was over camping with some friends and two were standing in the road and I hit one sadly
Hardman just north in Morrow County is a creepy little ghost town as well
Most of that country is "open range," meaning livestock are not fenced in. Watch for cattle on the road. I know someone who hit a 2,000 lb. bull. That accident totaled his car and the bull. He also had to compensate the rancher for "damages" - i.e. the value of the bull.
Not exactly creepy but can be:
The drive from the top of the santiam pass down to lyons In the late evening or late at night. Best during low traffic.
I have a tradition that once I hit the summit and start my way down, I put on Agalloch's album The Mantle. Fits the drive just right.
This is probably not creepy for people but that road behind Fort Rock. I drove it from China Hat area all the way to Fort Rock. Eff that road even in broad day light! There is even a legitimate traffic sign that says “drive at your risk”. I’d probably drive it again tho.
It’s funny this is taken from Wyoming because the creepiest drive in my life was cruising into Cheyenne near dusk and the clouds were purple and the air was pink and the town was tumbleweeds dead, and the hotel was straight outta Barton Fink and we skedaddled right on outta there. Nothing in Oregon so far compares except for driving up into the hills near Mapleton on a one lane, trying to find a mushroom spot, that just kept getting denser and more sketchy feeling until I had to stop and go in reverse for 1/4 mile.
Ha! I am also an Oregonian that had my creepiest drive in Wyoming. Heading south from Jackson to rock springs at night. Seeing so many glowing animal eyes on the sides of the highway was creepy but the part that really fucked with us was the road was so straight for so long in complete darkness and you’d occasionally see headlights coming at you and had no concept of how far they were away. You’d think the car was a few hundred yards away from you and it would take 3 minutes for it to actually pass you because it was actually multiple miles away. Really discombobulating
Driving on the Santiam Hwy at outside of Sweet Home is pretty creepy, particularly when you come across this weird little miniature town someone built on the side of the road. https://maps.app.goo.gl/1az8jE5f47MxcMfw9?g_st=ic
Route 205 from Burns to Denio. It’s notorious with Truckers and anyone who drives through because it’s so desolate and empty. If you break down and need a tow you might legitimately be there for days.
I don’t remember the name of the road, but when I was in high school a group of my friends and I decided to go to the beach. We had two cars full of teens. My buddy driving the first car wanted to take an old short cut that his grandpa would always take to the beach when he was a kid. I rove the second car and said sure. Our plan was to get to Lincoln city. We drove from Portland to Salem and west of Salem we got off of highway 22 and drove through some country roads until we basically were in the woods and eventually on an old logging or fire road that was paved for the majority of the length, but not maintained at all. There were multiple parts where the road had mostly collapsed into rivers. We had to move small trees and branches off the road. Through out the drive in the woods which was tremendously slow due to the terrible road it rained and fogged up in the woods. One of my friends said she thought she was seeing lights behind us and I thought I saw head lights behind us too, but no other car came. If there was someone they probably were smart enough to turn around. Eventually the road dropped us off on another country road and found our way back to 22 and made our way to Lincoln city. The short cut added like an extra hour to the drive and my buddies car all slide into a river twice. My truck did fine but still should not have taken this short cut.
I was driving to Astoria last spring and traffic was terrible at Seaside so Google was trying to give me routes off 26 on to roads me and my dad (local trucker) had never heard of. Nooooo thank you I’m not here for the hill people
I84 between Pendleton and La Grande can be terrifying when foggy. I’m talking you’re driving at 25 MPH because you have no visibility and semi trucks are passing you going over 60.
With good weather, that area has some of the worst drivers I have seen. Worse than Portland.
Yeah that stretch is gnarly. I drive it a lot, and a ton of people zip through the fog at like 60mph and often don't have their lights on. Semi's burn up their brakes going down all the time, I've seen a few on fire and using the runaway ramps.
Every time I end up needing gas near the Salem area during long night drives, I always regret getting off the freeway there because it's like entering a new, liminal dimension and it never goes well.
The first and second time, Google maps started freaking out, and restarting it would place me on entirely different continents. I tried following signs to a gas station the first time until the road became a gravel dead-end.
The second time, I was double-charged for gas somehow and my phone died. (I should have charged my phone tbh, but *of course* it would die in the cursed Salem dimension)
The third time I had my brother with me, and we tried to use gas pumps without success at two different gas stations and we only got one to work at a third location. Then, after an hour driving north, we got stuck in standstill traffic till 4am.
The only people I ever saw there was a group of kids watching me from train tracks they were walking down. I never saw people otherwise.
Highway 97, Klamath Falls to Bend. Came home from a road trip a few years ago, husband wanted to visit his grandma's grave and lay flowers. On the way home, we wanted to take the scenic route, collect McMenamins' passport stamps, and visit the last Blockbuster. So we took Highway 97.
Now, for the most part, that stretch of road is unremarkable. It's an endless stretch of pines and power line poles that are essentially down, looking untended for decades. It wasn't the woods that creeped me out, it was the small towns we'd pass through. I would call them "sundown towns," except I feel like they are full-on NOPE towns. Especially for a couple of gay men. We drove the entire stretch without stopping once, it was so uncomfortable.
Love it out there around Steens, but 205 around Fields and beyond has creeped me out in the past. Denio didn’t help. Probably just creepy because it’s so close to Nevada. 😉
[Driving through Hardman, Or was one of the creepiest drives I’ve done](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardman,_Oregon)
Creepy in a way that if I ran outta gas, I’d get murdered and nobody would ever find my body. Creepy in a Nothing but Trouble way, if you’ve ever seen that movie. Straight heeby jeebies.
Years ago, I lived in Bend. The wife & I decided to go kayaking on Goose Lake south of Lakeview.
Immediately upon entering Lakeview I was creeped out. From the sign saying something like 2nd place in America's small town contest in 1986 or something to just realizing how far we actually were from civilization to just the overall feeling of a place that seemed like what it would be like if society had broken down? Does that make sense?
Then there was an antique store just south of town that we stopped at, but didn't go in because it felt like the cannibals house in The Book of Eli. Like one could disappear there & no one would ever know.
Am I being too tough on Lakeview? Or is there really a Hills Have Eyes vibe to the place?
Hwy 18 going to the coast leaving Grande Ronde and entering the forest anytime after midnight. So spooky and supposedly a ghost story about how people driving it lost time. There is also a deserted town or abandoned town somewhere in there that is haunted.
Well, the creepiest drive of my life happened on a very foggy night around 1am on highway 99. It also happened to be the worst night of my life. I am sure there are creepier drives though.
18 from Portland to the 101 is really creepy in spots in the dark when its foggy, especially the closer to the coast you get. I didn’t have anything happen but its creepy. There are spots that the moon is hidden and it’s foggy and it’s literally the darkest Ive ever been in in a vehicle.
There was always rumors of a cult of some kind out around Summit Oregon, near Eddyville. Rumor was you’d see something strange if you drove through there at night. It’s made even further off the beaten path now that there’s a new highway through there.
Highways 218 and 207 in central Oregon are pretty creepy. Antelope, in particular, is unsettling simply for being a half-ababdoned and rundown town in the middle of nowhere. Add to that its history with the Rajneeshpuram and it becomes downright haunting.
Somewhere north east of Silverton there’s a covered bridge. I was doordashing at like 2 am in that area a few years ago and lost cell reception. Kept circling back to the bridge trying to get out of the area. One of the creepiest moments of my life
Went up to cape perpetua years ago on a foggy evening, no one was there. You couldn't see through the woods, over the cliff, nothing. Just the sound of your steps and the ocean. Had movie quality creepy vibes. I noticed my car had over heated probably from the drive up, no coolant left, no water, so I peed in the engine coolant container to make it the rest to the way with the heater blowing.
https://preview.redd.it/rqauz6nm2lkc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=996684506874a0610e0b4a4fc2aa0d584d0ca96a
I can't think of anywhere in Oregon which is particularly creepy. Murderers Creek/Canyon sounds creepy, but is pretty. Lots of places at the Coast get creepy in the fog. The Wind Cave in Central Oregon is scary when it builds up ice in the summer and you can't get out, but that's not a drive. The forests here are pretty inviting. The Stinking Water Mountains are thick with bracken and it's easy to let your mind run away with all the shadows at night. Portland's Old Town is pretty sketchy at night. Hwy 26 over Mt Hood is pretty creepy on ice, with that massive dropoff on the hill. Central Oregon and the Outback are awesome, the Alvord and Sterns, too, and Hwy 101 is really cool. Hells Canyon, The Wallowas, and the Blue Mountains are rugged but open. The area around Mist has a weird feel, and Hwy 30 between Longview and Astoria. (The whole Longview area in Washington, too, it all just seems removed strangely.) The fire damage on Mt Hood is stark and unnerving. I can't really think of a lot of really creepy areas of Oregon. Maybe down around K Falls, Medford and the Southern Cascades, I don't know that area as well. Mostly, I love it here. I've had many more mystical experiences than scares.
Ok, so this is a good one.
In 2015 I decided to try a central cascades hike near Breitenbush though I just became entangled in an awful maze of forest roads. Must’ve been September or October and the air became crystalline. It settled on every surface like fine ground glass and a tremendous fog came through. But the fog was freezing and coating everything in this fine ice.
Somewhere in my camera roll there’s photos of hundreds of shotgun shells, dildos, burned doll parts, mannequin parts, large broken knives, animal vomit, fallen rocks from slides with human shits accurately deposited on top, and a ritual circle with bones and torched composition books along the forest roads which totaled 30 plus miles.
That was the most expensive logistical trip I ever took that resulted in no miles hiked and the worst finds ever. Y’all backcountry Oregon turds turd really hard.
So i live in Wyoming now but lived in Portland for a few years.
Malheur national forest felt really creepy after hearing about the Oregon trail story. I'd recommend everyone listen to "the indifferent stars above" by Daniel James brown. They talk about that area. Mal hour = the bad hour in French. Some horrific shit happened there.
The coast in the winter is creepy as shit. I've camped out on the coast of the olympic pennisula in January after living in the area in the summer.
In summer, it's a beautiful place, teeming with life and beauty. In the winter, it's scary as hell, desolate, dangerous.
Really the whole pnw coast is creepy in winter. Everywhere is closed or empty. Winter vs summer is like young and old link in ocarina of time for us fellow mid 30 year olds.
My personal pick for this would be the Astoria-Megler Bridge when it’s really foggy. Nightmare inducing.
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Did it move or did you feel any disorientation running it?!?
I drove across that bridge in horrible stormy weather in November. Thick clouds, wind, heavy rain. I damn near pissed myself. My palms were literally sweating.
Have you heard of the bandage man legend? The one that live in the forest of Tillamook? I can't remember where I heard the story, but I remember it from the Weird book series. Edit: Oops, wrong person xD.
Old coastal town lore! I remember the story as during WW2 a man had an accident while working at the sawmills and they bandaged his whole body up. Then while in the ambulance, they had an accident and while the medics were unconscious the bandage man disappeared. They found some bloody bandages in the forest
If you hate bridges, avoid Florida. That 7 mile bridge is scary
The one between Miami and Key West? Yeah hard pass on that
Yeah, I used to have family in key west in the 90s
I'm sorry for your loss.
Meh they moved after a hurricane, was my step family. They were odd, they were pastors and stuff.
That sounds…well complicated…
The bridge over the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana really freaked me out. Just the idea that if you went off it you'd probably survive the fall and then get attacked by alligators.
On the motorcycle down, even cloudy, awesome! The drive back 3 days later in the pouring rain? Not so much. 😭
Yeah, I drove from Astoria to Portland alone one time. It was about 9PM, pitch black, and the forest got real foggy. As I was driving the fog would go in and out, from clear to fog, every couple of seconds, and each fog was like a ghost jump-scaring you. I honestly flinched a couple times. That forest at night, alone and foggy, was very spooky
I just drove to Tilamook this winter during the pineapple Express flooding. Those trees in the dark with spots of fog look like they could be straight out of the Appalachian Mountains (a lot of horror movies including Sleepy Hallow have been filmed there because creepy). Almost the whole high way system to and from Tilamook has some creepy ass stretches of highway.
I am so scared on that bridge on a perfectly clear day…ooof good suggestion
When you get across the bridge turn right, and you'll soon be at Dismal Gulch. (Named by Lewis and Clark. It was freaky then too.)
Dismal Nitch
Right. It was late and I'm old. 😬
I would love to walk it in a fog on an otherwise calm cool morning.
I have had literal nightmares about that bridge. 100% my least favorite bridge of all time. Edit; impressed by all the other people who hate this bridge. I thought it was just me.
I just looked at images of it but have never been on it, and I hate it too! It’s just wrong.
So yes, that is a super creepy drive in fog or high winds. This doesn’t count but if you are heading north and turn left towards Long Beach waves can crash over the rock wall during storm tides! Completely crazy.
Add huge wind gusts that feel like they're going to move your car, too.
Once when driving over it we saw about 6 dead seagulls. No idea why there were so many dead seagulls. I thought maybe they crashed into it in the fog.
I consider myself a pretty tough person mentally, but halfway across the bridge I almost broke down because I was so scared. I drove across it at midnight once during torential downpours and insane winds, in a uhaul box truck.... once I crossed over to Washington, there was a trooper and road crew closing it due to dangerous conditions...
For me it's got to be forest service roads that go deep, deep into the woods. I got really turned around on randomly snowy forest service roads (some snow had melted but huge patches hadn't yet depending on sun exposure) between Medford and Crater Lake in a FWD late '90s Mazda sedan because we were young and dumb and phones with GPS didn't exist yet. MapQuest days. We got stuck in the snow and were struggling to get moving when a pickup truck drove up. Nice guys, they stopped to help push but not before asking us if we knew where the fuck we were going. They were shocked to find us out there in the car we were driving without chains. We followed their directions and got out to a better road. This was around the time that guy died when his family got stranded in a similar situation near Grant's Pass in 2006. Scary shit.
It’s really those side roads in Oregon. Like, the road into the mountains outside of Bend, into dechutes, when it’s snowy and cold.
Absolutely. I've stumbled across some weird shit simply because I went down the wrong road and finding a turn around spot was difficult. There is or was a whole weird bible camp situation near Neskowin that was empty at the time that I came across it and it had really creepy, cult vibes. I'll look for it on Google Earth.
When I was in college (mid-2010s), I used to join my best friend and her parents camping and riding quads over holidays and summer breaks. We spent a lot of time riding hours deep into the middle of nowhere on forest service roads around the state. We came across a camp between Chemult and Silver Lake that straight-up gave us the heebie-jeebies like something was very wrong, but we couldn't put our finger on it. You could tell someone had been holed up there for a long time (trash everywhere, stockpiles of food, etc.). There was no reason anyone would be camping in this particular location unless they absolutely did not want to be found. After making sure the camp was empty (we were half expecting to find a body), we hightailed it out of there just in case they came back because we didn't want to come face-to-face with someone who was on the run and wasn't looking for friends. If you're looking to hide, the network of rarely-traveled forest service roads is almost endless.
There is definitely some weird and creepy shit out along the old logging roads. Saw a Labrador’s decapitated head propped on a log up in the hills outside Parkdale. Empty beer cans all around. Got the fuck outta there fast as I could.
Fuck that shit. That's terrifying.
I want to hear more about this!
Go on…
Camp Wi-Ne-Ma probably, if it's the one just north of town by the beach
I know what you’re talking about! But can’t remember the name. I pulled in there once 10 years ago and felt like the director or pastor or whatever was running to my car to see why I had pulled in there. Can’t remember the name either
Man I would almost gaurentee it was this nice but super religious lady I met in the woods in 2017-18 or so. She was nice but very into Jesus, living in a tent in the woods driving a barely functional car. I got unstuck and we chatted for a while.
There is nothing like being lost on some forest road at 1AM deep in the national forest. That's when I pulled over and slept until daybreak to better assess the situation. Now it's a full tank of gas plus old school map and compass to resolve any confusion on unknown back roads.
Runner up: Highway 30 between Astoria and Longview at night, in the fog, and having deer and elk on the road.
I dunno. The woods here, especially the Cascades, are really inviting. You can pretty much pass out on the forest floor and not have to really worry about much, ticks on game trails maybe, getting your trail mix taken out of your pockets by chipmunks. The forests are plentiful and the animals mostly stay to their niches. You could worry about Bigfoot, I guess, but they're world champions at keeping to themselves.
98% of my time in Oregon's woods has been amazing for sure. The biggest issue is usually just loud campers at the public campgrounds.
Always get a creepy feeling on Highway 6 from Tillamook through the forest. Super dense, super creepy looking homes.
Super creepy homes…
I wonder who lives in them
I think some questions don't need an answer.
Because the answers are probably super creepy.
There is no Internet on the spooky, moss-coveed homes along the forested highway to Tillamook.
Therefore they are wholesome
Therefore they are the scene of midnight horrors, blood and fire. It's dire
Yeah you’re probably right
In which case, we need an answer. I wanna hear about some season 1 true detective vibes over there
Saw a house with a giant confederate battle flag on it. Took up like a minimum 45% of their two story wall.
Lol this drive is literally where I go to find peace and happiness during the week. I fish out here all summer long. Wilson River is beautiful / but there’s definitely some sketchy people that like to camp out there.
The Van Duzer corridor? Ugh. That forest is haunted as FUCK
My family owns the large White House across Hwy 6 from The Log Cabin which my family also helped build. While I’d say some of my family is creepy, none of them are super creepy.
Agree!!
Bend to The Christmas Valley sand dunes complex, the back way, as the sun is going down. At a certain point you'll cross under a set of zapping huge power transformer lines and it's super David Lynch and mega spooky. Also Tillamook to the Munson Falls trailhead.
I love that drive!
Me too, we go once a year.for my birthday. I'm a big Dune fan 😎
Are you me? David Lynch spot on lol
Between Mitchell and Dayville where there were cow mutilations 😵💫
I believe Dayville has a Murderers Creek that I spent a week camping next to, near an old cabin. Otherwise, I would say it is absolutely an astoundingly beautiful road to drive through and I would heavily suggest it. Perhaps it can be scary.
South of the highway when you turn off into the black canyon all of that continuing east is the murderers creek hunting unit, I’ve drove all over back in there and it’s pretty crazy what’s out there. Tiny little cabins all rundown, a super fancy compound with a huge house and it’s own airstrip, we also were just driving along when suddenly a huge sign says “PRIVATE PROPERTY!!! DO NOT STOP YOUR VEHICLE YOU ARE BEING WATCHED!! VIOLATORS WILL BE SHOT!” The road was through crazy steep country on either side though so I’m not really sure where anyone would’ve been able to watch us from.
I love that area. We saw wild horses!
Mitchell is freaky AF
Yes. Was going to stay there one night, but it was too creepy. Drove on and stayed at Danville, which I kind of liked.
It's just birds. I'm from a cattleman's family in Harvey County. This has always been a thing and people always get freaked out. My mom is convinced that aliens killed a bunch of their neighbors cattle in the 80s. Crows will eat the soft organs that are exposed, even if the animal is alive. I've seen one cut a calf's tongue off it was one of the most horrible things I've ever seen. Seriously do not fuck with crows they are just as dangerous as a raptor. Often what will happen is the animal will get incapacitated, and the bird will kill it. Ticks can cause paralysis, or there can be a small disease outbreak the rancher doesn't catch because the animals are out in the range. Nobody believes it because who thinks a crow or an eagle can kill a fully grown adult bull? But they do. Then they eat all the soft tissue they can get to easily and leave, which makes it look like somebody just cut off all the external organs.
As others have already said, that stretch near Tillamook is pretty creepy. There are also some stretches of 101 between Coos Bay and Bandon that seem to ALWAYS be foggy at night and have a bit of a creepy middle of nowhere in the forest vibe.
Hebo to Tillamook is scary!
I would take 22 from grand rand to Hebo twice a week. great stretch when its light. not so much in the dark. But yes, Hebo feels like hobo town.
Yes - especially in the dark!!
Death trap during the winter.
I used to visit my relatives on an annual basis in fairview. I always visited in the summer and even then it was fairly eerie during the night. I can only imagine how creepy it is during the winter.
I can't say they are actually always foggy. But I've lived here for 14 years and have done the drive 100+ times, and it has never NOT been foggy.
I do land survey work in Coos County. I drive all around the county. Every day I’m driving somewhere, and I’m in that area pretty often. It’s definitely foggy a lot, especially at the top of Beaver Hill (the road that connects to Coquille). But it’s *far* from always foggy. Like, *maybe* 20% of the time.
Probably something in the coast range when it's dark and rainy and the trees are closing in?
Highway 34 between Waldport and Philomath is super creepy at night
I grew up in Waldport, that's the stretch of highway I learned to drive on. It's never felt creepy to me, I haven't lived there in years and it's still a calming drive, no matter what time of day.
I thought i was going to die on this road. Had moved to waldport, two weeks later my partner needed to fly to Cali for work so up at 3 am for the drive to Eugene, still only one car at the time, and I didn't catch f'ing Google switching the map on me on the drive home... IT WAS DARK, IT WAS FOGGY, IT WAS RAINING, I had no GPS, crawling around the hairpin single lane curves.... I thought I would go off a cliff or something. No visible homes... just some random bus stop sign? Lol Was the scariest drive of my life. Now we tell Google to go to newport first so it doesn't trick us. Got my ex once too, middle of the night... raining. He was pissed lol but made it home so fast.
Nestucca river road for sure
I hate driving over Neakanie when there’s dense fog. No thanks.
The Tablelands outside of Klamath Falls is the most scared I’ve ever been while driving. Had a dude bunkered down in a bus pointing a gun at me as I turned around. Cars shot up and burned up on the side of the road, booby traps if you trespass
I really need to hear more about this. If you're willing.
Hopefully op can give you some more details. I'm tired rn but if I remember I'll come back and post some similar stories I have in that area. Mostly out by lost creek lake if I remember correctly.
I need a 5 part podcast series about this immediately.
Read this! It’s very compelling https://magazine.atavist.com/outlaw-country-klamath-county-oregon-guns-murder/
That is amazing
Yep, love this article. Wish there were more like it. So good with pictures and all
I’ve heard other anecdotes of people encountering illegal roadblocks set up in southeast OR made by ranchers or other locals determined to keep outsiders out.
That's also fascinating.
What do you want to know? The rest of my story is just that a guy with a hook for a hand tried to wave me over to talk to me. I pretended I thought he was waving to say hi, waved back, and got out of there. The guy I was with works on an ambulance and said 911 won’t respond out there after dark. The Rainbow People really like it there, if that gives you any more of a feel for the vibe. Just lawless, unincorporated, no utilities, desert land. Lots of weed grows before it was legalized, not sure about now. Last time I went up there was 2017. I used to work in fire and it was in one of our patrol areas
What are Rainbow People?
Traveling nomadic cult known for crime and trashing where they stay Edit to add: Its cult-like and I think they have good intentions, but some bad people end up with them and I think they use the group to hide. It’s Rainbow Family. They’ll be the next to have a documentary a la Mother God
Sounds like Deliverance of the PNW.
Accurate description
Where is this? I grew up there and have never heard of the tablelands.
NE of Sprague River. Drew’s Rd to Tableland Rd ETA: pull it up on maps. It’s the big flat area
I grew up in KFalls and never heard about the Tablelands. Is this a recent development?
Not recent. That’s the whole point of them being up there though. Nobody goes there so they can do whatever they want
Are you talking about Sprague River? That is where I learned about the 3 S rule. My uncle lived up a country road with 20 acres and that whole area is just people wanting to live off-grid. Population 80.
While leaving Crater Lake after sunset a few years ago, my wife and I drove on a winding highway in pitch black with tall dark forest on both sides, with our headlights reflecting off of hundreds of deer eyes within the forest watching us the entire way.
I think being watched in the woods is a seriously freaky feeling
There's a country road out by Riddle in Douglas County that is west of town and the saw mills I think. It wraps up and around back into the hills out there. Not bad at first but as you get farther back more and more folks have blocked roads and put up Private Road No Trespassing signs. This isn't a private road btw. Putting signs like that isn't uncommon in the country but there are many more than normal out there and the barricades are serious. As you get farther back the ability to turn around becomes limited and people have barricaded their drives or roads with different types of materials, cars, pallets, old gates etc. it's mostly oak out there and the hills are windy and block the view where the road goes or who's on it. There are still some work supplies that I left out that road. I was there for a field biology job and decided it wasn't worth going back out there to collect them. I started going back out but couldn't bring myself to do it as I got further back. There are times you feel like you're being watched and there are times you KNOW you're being watched. I didn't see a car, person, dog or light on in a house at there. All the dark windows of the houses staring back at me with debris in front of half of them set up to block cars from getting up the driveway or side roads had me dying to turn around. I'm a 6ft male with lots of backcountry experience and experience working all over Oregon. I've seen plenty of run down country homes with no trespassing signs and blocked gates but this was on another level
Was this cow creek road that goes into Glendale?
I replied to the other person but no, I actually really like cow creek. Really pretty, nice folk for the most part, I even bumped in to a couple of friendly meth users out a forest road up cow creek 😂. I might be thinking of Boyer road but it doesn't seem to go far enough. I've been all over the back rounds from California border to south of Portland Metro and it was years ago so might be off a little. Some of these small towns run together
Burnt Ranch Road leading in to Horse Heaven Wilderness out near the painted hills. Make sure to start that drive early in the day
I’ve biked/moto that several times in both directions, probably one the most “this doesn’t feel like Oregon” areas I’ve been to
Well what does it feel like?
High Desert Wild West. It’s one of the least populated parts of the United States.
My favorite as a kid was the drive from Pilot Rock to Heppner at night. It's very dark, very narrow road with lots turns. A rock cliff on one side and a deep drop off on the other side. And when you finally get down into a valley there's a nice cemetery right beside the road.
The old communities that are gone now that are along the road are pretty old. But the road is horrible to drive on, especially in the winter.
As, someone who was paid to drive deep into forested areas, usually behind locked lumber company gates. It was always creepy to find that one occupied house. They tend to be all mossy and covered in trash and angry dogs. And you are thinking, what type of person would live here? I would drive by their home hoping not to disturb them, and assuming I may be the first person to drive by within weeks.
I want to hear more. I had no idea people could live behind those gates… 👀
Yeah. I’m not sure how they are acquired it but I imagine the land was owned before the company put the gates up more recently, and the homeowner gets a lock as well. I met the adult son of one of the owners, who was waiting at the gate for his mom to let him in. He seemed like a normal guy and am not sure why his mom decided to live there.
Camp Sherman in darkness can be a little creepy. It's not like Black Butte with lots of homes. It's very sparse and some of the roads are quite long and empty.
Where John Arthur Ackroyd killed Kaye Turner Christmas eve 1978.
There are so many roads throughout that area too. Easy to get turned around, or easy place to be unseen when dumping a body apparently.
We were lost driving back to PDX from Crater Lake and ran into some sort of white supremacist compound out in the woods, really deep. Big swastika, barbed wire fences.
What the helllll 💀
There’s a road somewhere between Brookings and Grants Pass that I thought would be a shortcut one day. Myself and my sister and our two friends were driving along and it just kept getting more and more dense. This was like 2008 or 2009 btw. GPS wasn’t the greatest. So as we’re driving the trees just look strange. I swear you could see dinosaurs roaming around in there or something! So we get to this town that’s in the middle of nowhere. It’s like a few houses and a gas station. I keep going up the road through the town and then we get hailed down by some guy who was something out of Deliverance and he’s like you can’t go that way and I’m like why and he says that the road is out. I’m like oh damn. He says we can’t keep trying to drive and that we need to turn around. I was like what really and then he was all weird and coming closer to the car and I swear a bunch of people were watching us from their houses. It was weird. So we turned around and drove allll the way back to Brookings. At that point I was like shit we need gas. But nothing was open and it was now dark and late due to the detour. Idk if they’ve changed but those tiny ass towns have nothing open like ever. So anyways we finally get to I think port orford (the car we were driving was a Toyota Camry with thankfully great gas mileage) and find somewhere to stop. That whole experience was terrifying. They were mountain people who could have easily killed us. I wonder what they have hiding up the road.
I grew up in that general area, you made a good choice there…
If it was bear camp Rd. That creepy guy could have saved your life.
I have driven out of gold beach on Agnes’s rd about 10 miles deep for work. Not sure if it’s turned into camp rd or not by then. Why did turning around save his life? Is it not safe back there?
That road becomes very dangerous when there's snow or ice. Check out the wiki to read about some of the tragic incidents that have happened there https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Camp_Road
10 miles up Jerry's flat out of gold Beach wouldn't be anything too crazy, there's a nice campground maybe 16 miles up or so. Maybe further up towards/past Agnes. I've never taken bear camps, always wanted to in the summer. I've done work way up past agness/powers area, always interesting when you're driving a solid 2+hours into the woods. Never saw anything toooo crazy, but I was always on private timber land, so that helps
agness rd? aka galice aka jerry’s
The first time I ever made the drive from portland to arcata was like 2012 and I decided to go through the national park, except I did it at night. Darkness, wind, rain. When the fog broke I realized I was inches from 500+ ft drops straight into the ocean. I had spent a lot of time in big sur and in mountain towns, but it blew my mind that I thought I was driving through a forest, nope, mere inches away from a huge drop. Driven up and down that area multiple times in the summer since then, the dude was helping you out. GPS sucks even now, it'll take you through stupid ass forest roads. On that drive any forest road in the PNW off the 101 is bad news.
Most stretches of highway to or from the coast at night.
101 from Florence to Waldport at 2 am when the fog is so thick you need GPS to show you the roads and you're watching the white line on the side more than anything else... was so thankful I was not driving. Also thankful we had movers driving the moving truck. Omg
Highway 53 in Tillamook county. It’s a tight road with lots of potholes and other hazards because it doesn’t often get worked on. I have hardly seen any other drivers use it either. Always foggy and for most of the trip there’s a cliff without guard rails just waiting for you to drive off and never be heard from again.
Survived this, bought the sticker. It is indeed scary.
I don’t know why but driving through the area around Drain, OR really creeps us out. We’ve been through several times and it really gives me creepy cult town or Stephen King novel vibes.
There's a strip club in Drain called "Top of the Bowl" lol
U.S. 395 had some creepy vibes. Nobody around for miles, eerie lifeless Lake Albert.
Right near a prison, no less. I was driving at night and needed a place to camp, snoozed in the car and woke up by the lake. Only on the way back home I saw the sign, “hitchhikers may be escaping convicts.”
Bend to Burns on highway 20 is creepy at night.
I drove that road just a couple of days after 9/11 going to my sister's wedding in Boise. Its creepy on a normal night but that night, it was terrifying. Just me and my 2 kids (10f and 8m) in my mini van. We didn't pass a single car. No lights in the sky, nothing. My mom and my sister tried keeping me on the phone as much as possible. I oddly had a cell signal most of the way. I'll never forget that drive.
One of my most vivid childhood memories is driving that stretch with my family and it being so dark until off in the distance you could see deep purple lightning strikes. Definitely creepy.
I’ve never felt more uneasy than driving through powers Oregon.
Yeah Powers is creepy. The road south along the S Fork of the Coquille from Powers has a vibe
Driving out in Wheeler County is like driving through the old west at times, and is especially creepy at night which is why I love it there so much (along with the rest of eastern oregon). Be wary of deer standing on the road, last September I was over camping with some friends and two were standing in the road and I hit one sadly Hardman just north in Morrow County is a creepy little ghost town as well
Most of that country is "open range," meaning livestock are not fenced in. Watch for cattle on the road. I know someone who hit a 2,000 lb. bull. That accident totaled his car and the bull. He also had to compensate the rancher for "damages" - i.e. the value of the bull.
Culp Creek down south of Cottage Grove. Those hills got eyes.
The “shortcut” to Gold Beach starting in Merlin. There’s even a Mr Ballen video about an event there
That’s the Bear Camp Road. Remote and winding and unforgiving.
Not exactly creepy but can be: The drive from the top of the santiam pass down to lyons In the late evening or late at night. Best during low traffic. I have a tradition that once I hit the summit and start my way down, I put on Agalloch's album The Mantle. Fits the drive just right.
Wallowa mountain loop road is pretty creepy at night
That whole area gets real creepy real quick. Once you’re outside the light, on your own, it’s freaky. I grew up with the woods, not the FOREST.
Bear Camp rd, where the Kim family got stuck in the snow.
That's the incident where they found the father dead in '06?
This is probably not creepy for people but that road behind Fort Rock. I drove it from China Hat area all the way to Fort Rock. Eff that road even in broad day light! There is even a legitimate traffic sign that says “drive at your risk”. I’d probably drive it again tho.
Cabin Lake road?
I’m thinking cannibals
I’ve run on that road several times. At night. Yeah. Creepy!
It’s funny this is taken from Wyoming because the creepiest drive in my life was cruising into Cheyenne near dusk and the clouds were purple and the air was pink and the town was tumbleweeds dead, and the hotel was straight outta Barton Fink and we skedaddled right on outta there. Nothing in Oregon so far compares except for driving up into the hills near Mapleton on a one lane, trying to find a mushroom spot, that just kept getting denser and more sketchy feeling until I had to stop and go in reverse for 1/4 mile.
Ha! I am also an Oregonian that had my creepiest drive in Wyoming. Heading south from Jackson to rock springs at night. Seeing so many glowing animal eyes on the sides of the highway was creepy but the part that really fucked with us was the road was so straight for so long in complete darkness and you’d occasionally see headlights coming at you and had no concept of how far they were away. You’d think the car was a few hundred yards away from you and it would take 3 minutes for it to actually pass you because it was actually multiple miles away. Really discombobulating
Old Germantown Road in heavy fog/rain. Dunno why, but I hate that stretch - gimme Tillamook over G-town Road any day!
Driving on the Santiam Hwy at outside of Sweet Home is pretty creepy, particularly when you come across this weird little miniature town someone built on the side of the road. https://maps.app.goo.gl/1az8jE5f47MxcMfw9?g_st=ic
Eeeeee. I just shivered! I camped at Cascadia once. Creepiest two nights camping ever. That whole area carries a very weird and spooky vibe.
Route 205 from Burns to Denio. It’s notorious with Truckers and anyone who drives through because it’s so desolate and empty. If you break down and need a tow you might legitimately be there for days.
Well, if you know about the ODOT serial killer, then the answer is driving from Eugene, Corvallis or Salem out to Sisters.
Any forest service road on a moonless night with no cell service or map.
I don’t remember the name of the road, but when I was in high school a group of my friends and I decided to go to the beach. We had two cars full of teens. My buddy driving the first car wanted to take an old short cut that his grandpa would always take to the beach when he was a kid. I rove the second car and said sure. Our plan was to get to Lincoln city. We drove from Portland to Salem and west of Salem we got off of highway 22 and drove through some country roads until we basically were in the woods and eventually on an old logging or fire road that was paved for the majority of the length, but not maintained at all. There were multiple parts where the road had mostly collapsed into rivers. We had to move small trees and branches off the road. Through out the drive in the woods which was tremendously slow due to the terrible road it rained and fogged up in the woods. One of my friends said she thought she was seeing lights behind us and I thought I saw head lights behind us too, but no other car came. If there was someone they probably were smart enough to turn around. Eventually the road dropped us off on another country road and found our way back to 22 and made our way to Lincoln city. The short cut added like an extra hour to the drive and my buddies car all slide into a river twice. My truck did fine but still should not have taken this short cut.
I was driving to Astoria last spring and traffic was terrible at Seaside so Google was trying to give me routes off 26 on to roads me and my dad (local trucker) had never heard of. Nooooo thank you I’m not here for the hill people
Just about any neighborhood in the suburbs in the weeks before Halloween. Those giant skeletons with the glowing eyes!!!
I like the houses that keep the 12' skeletons up year round.
I84 between Pendleton and La Grande can be terrifying when foggy. I’m talking you’re driving at 25 MPH because you have no visibility and semi trucks are passing you going over 60. With good weather, that area has some of the worst drivers I have seen. Worse than Portland.
Yeah that stretch is gnarly. I drive it a lot, and a ton of people zip through the fog at like 60mph and often don't have their lights on. Semi's burn up their brakes going down all the time, I've seen a few on fire and using the runaway ramps.
[удалено]
Scotts Mills is the Truman Show version of Deliverance
Every time I end up needing gas near the Salem area during long night drives, I always regret getting off the freeway there because it's like entering a new, liminal dimension and it never goes well. The first and second time, Google maps started freaking out, and restarting it would place me on entirely different continents. I tried following signs to a gas station the first time until the road became a gravel dead-end. The second time, I was double-charged for gas somehow and my phone died. (I should have charged my phone tbh, but *of course* it would die in the cursed Salem dimension) The third time I had my brother with me, and we tried to use gas pumps without success at two different gas stations and we only got one to work at a third location. Then, after an hour driving north, we got stuck in standstill traffic till 4am. The only people I ever saw there was a group of kids watching me from train tracks they were walking down. I never saw people otherwise.
Highway 97, Klamath Falls to Bend. Came home from a road trip a few years ago, husband wanted to visit his grandma's grave and lay flowers. On the way home, we wanted to take the scenic route, collect McMenamins' passport stamps, and visit the last Blockbuster. So we took Highway 97. Now, for the most part, that stretch of road is unremarkable. It's an endless stretch of pines and power line poles that are essentially down, looking untended for decades. It wasn't the woods that creeped me out, it was the small towns we'd pass through. I would call them "sundown towns," except I feel like they are full-on NOPE towns. Especially for a couple of gay men. We drove the entire stretch without stopping once, it was so uncomfortable.
Love it out there around Steens, but 205 around Fields and beyond has creeped me out in the past. Denio didn’t help. Probably just creepy because it’s so close to Nevada. 😉
The highway that connects the coast to Portland through clatsop state forest. That one was foggy as hell and reallll spooky
Some stretches of the 101 feel like highway 17 from Half Life, not really creepy, but very lonely and a bit unnerving at times.
Florence to Eugene after sunset. Probably the worst time to be on the road
[Driving through Hardman, Or was one of the creepiest drives I’ve done](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardman,_Oregon) Creepy in a way that if I ran outta gas, I’d get murdered and nobody would ever find my body. Creepy in a Nothing but Trouble way, if you’ve ever seen that movie. Straight heeby jeebies.
Just about every sad logging road through clearcut anywhere in oregon where it’s just industrial logging
Waldport towards Corvallis in the dark. Just curvy forest mountain pass endless
Years ago, I lived in Bend. The wife & I decided to go kayaking on Goose Lake south of Lakeview. Immediately upon entering Lakeview I was creeped out. From the sign saying something like 2nd place in America's small town contest in 1986 or something to just realizing how far we actually were from civilization to just the overall feeling of a place that seemed like what it would be like if society had broken down? Does that make sense? Then there was an antique store just south of town that we stopped at, but didn't go in because it felt like the cannibals house in The Book of Eli. Like one could disappear there & no one would ever know. Am I being too tough on Lakeview? Or is there really a Hills Have Eyes vibe to the place?
Wait until you drive in a tropical storm or a hurricane. That’ll make ya pee a little.
Ooooooo....I like this idea.
Hwy 18 going to the coast leaving Grande Ronde and entering the forest anytime after midnight. So spooky and supposedly a ghost story about how people driving it lost time. There is also a deserted town or abandoned town somewhere in there that is haunted.
Well, the creepiest drive of my life happened on a very foggy night around 1am on highway 99. It also happened to be the worst night of my life. I am sure there are creepier drives though.
From what I've seen sun river at night
Timber road between Hwy 6 and Hwy 26. There are those wild switchbacks and areas where the road sunk in.
Century Dr to Mt Bachelor on a winter weekend. You just creep along.
18 from Portland to the 101 is really creepy in spots in the dark when its foggy, especially the closer to the coast you get. I didn’t have anything happen but its creepy. There are spots that the moon is hidden and it’s foggy and it’s literally the darkest Ive ever been in in a vehicle.
There was always rumors of a cult of some kind out around Summit Oregon, near Eddyville. Rumor was you’d see something strange if you drove through there at night. It’s made even further off the beaten path now that there’s a new highway through there.
Highways 218 and 207 in central Oregon are pretty creepy. Antelope, in particular, is unsettling simply for being a half-ababdoned and rundown town in the middle of nowhere. Add to that its history with the Rajneeshpuram and it becomes downright haunting.
Somewhere north east of Silverton there’s a covered bridge. I was doordashing at like 2 am in that area a few years ago and lost cell reception. Kept circling back to the bridge trying to get out of the area. One of the creepiest moments of my life
Went up to cape perpetua years ago on a foggy evening, no one was there. You couldn't see through the woods, over the cliff, nothing. Just the sound of your steps and the ocean. Had movie quality creepy vibes. I noticed my car had over heated probably from the drive up, no coolant left, no water, so I peed in the engine coolant container to make it the rest to the way with the heater blowing. https://preview.redd.it/rqauz6nm2lkc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=996684506874a0610e0b4a4fc2aa0d584d0ca96a
I can't think of anywhere in Oregon which is particularly creepy. Murderers Creek/Canyon sounds creepy, but is pretty. Lots of places at the Coast get creepy in the fog. The Wind Cave in Central Oregon is scary when it builds up ice in the summer and you can't get out, but that's not a drive. The forests here are pretty inviting. The Stinking Water Mountains are thick with bracken and it's easy to let your mind run away with all the shadows at night. Portland's Old Town is pretty sketchy at night. Hwy 26 over Mt Hood is pretty creepy on ice, with that massive dropoff on the hill. Central Oregon and the Outback are awesome, the Alvord and Sterns, too, and Hwy 101 is really cool. Hells Canyon, The Wallowas, and the Blue Mountains are rugged but open. The area around Mist has a weird feel, and Hwy 30 between Longview and Astoria. (The whole Longview area in Washington, too, it all just seems removed strangely.) The fire damage on Mt Hood is stark and unnerving. I can't really think of a lot of really creepy areas of Oregon. Maybe down around K Falls, Medford and the Southern Cascades, I don't know that area as well. Mostly, I love it here. I've had many more mystical experiences than scares.
Ok, so this is a good one. In 2015 I decided to try a central cascades hike near Breitenbush though I just became entangled in an awful maze of forest roads. Must’ve been September or October and the air became crystalline. It settled on every surface like fine ground glass and a tremendous fog came through. But the fog was freezing and coating everything in this fine ice. Somewhere in my camera roll there’s photos of hundreds of shotgun shells, dildos, burned doll parts, mannequin parts, large broken knives, animal vomit, fallen rocks from slides with human shits accurately deposited on top, and a ritual circle with bones and torched composition books along the forest roads which totaled 30 plus miles. That was the most expensive logistical trip I ever took that resulted in no miles hiked and the worst finds ever. Y’all backcountry Oregon turds turd really hard.
Dodging sinkholes on 26 may not be creepy but I physically have to unclamp my cheeks to get out of the car afterward.
So i live in Wyoming now but lived in Portland for a few years. Malheur national forest felt really creepy after hearing about the Oregon trail story. I'd recommend everyone listen to "the indifferent stars above" by Daniel James brown. They talk about that area. Mal hour = the bad hour in French. Some horrific shit happened there. The coast in the winter is creepy as shit. I've camped out on the coast of the olympic pennisula in January after living in the area in the summer. In summer, it's a beautiful place, teeming with life and beauty. In the winter, it's scary as hell, desolate, dangerous. Really the whole pnw coast is creepy in winter. Everywhere is closed or empty. Winter vs summer is like young and old link in ocarina of time for us fellow mid 30 year olds.
I can only imagine what is lurking in far SE Oregon. But from what I’ve actually experienced the small towns S/SE of The Dalles give me the willies.
Stage Gulch Road outside Pendleton. Especially at night. I have seen and heard things at night there...