A Spooky Season Trail
Quiet lakeshores, historic inns, a Main Street movie theater, and an old stone fort all hold stories the Adirondacks have passed down for generations. This trail follows the region's best-known legends and local lore, pairing each ghost story with the real history and places behind it. Visit a single stop or wander the whole route, and see why the park's past still lingers.
Legends, lore, and places to explore
Day 1
A Haunting at Hotel Saranac
Some buildings do more than stand in a village. They anchor it. The Hotel Saranac has held its post ...
Some buildings do more than stand in a village. They anchor it. The Hotel Saranac has held its post at the center of Saranac Lake for generations, a gathering place where the community came together and travelers found a warm welcome. On a cold October evening, with lamplight glowing against the early dark, it still draws you in.
Step inside the renovated hotel and you’ll find fresh rooms and storied history under one roof. Some say the past hasn’t quite checked out. The hotel was built on the former site of Saranac Lake High School, and local lore holds that Howard Littell, the school’s longtime superintendent, still makes his rounds through the basement and hallways. On the third floor, guests have reported hearing the ghostly scratching of a cat at the door of Room 308, once home to longtime resident Emily Balsam.
The hotel’s haunted reputation has earned national attention, too. In 2020, USA Today’s 10Best list of haunted hotels ranked the Hotel Saranac No. 7. In 2026, readers placed it No. 5 in the USA Today 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards for Best Haunted Hotel.
Stay the night, or simply stop in for a look around. Either way, it’s a fitting place to settle in for a good ghost story and experience a little of Saranac Lake’s history after dark.
Day 2
The Lady in the Lake
Lake Placid is near perfection in the fall, when the mountains turn red and gold and the water goes ...
Lake Placid is near perfection in the fall, when the mountains turn red and gold and the water goes deep and still. It’s also the setting for one of the region’s most enduring ghost stories.
In 1933, Mabel Smith Douglass went out rowing on the lake and never returned. Nearly three decades passed before scuba divers located her in the deep water near Pulpit Rock. Local lore says she never fully left. Campers and boaters have long told of a figure seen near the rock, and over the years, she became known as “The Lady in the Lake.”
Paddle out near Pulpit Rock on a calm evening, or watch the lake from the shore as the light fades. Whether or not you spot a figure on the water, it’s easy to understand why a story like this took hold in such a quiet, mysterious place.
The Ghost in Theater 3
Built in 1926, the Palace Theatre has been part of Lake Placid’s Main Street for a century and is st...
Built in 1926, the Palace Theatre has been part of Lake Placid’s Main Street for a century and is still showing films today. The historic theater has since been divided into four screens, but if you’re looking for a little extra atmosphere with your movie, ask about Theater 3.
Few things say spooky season like a movie night, with a warm lobby, the smell of popcorn, and the dark of the theater settling in. At the Palace, local lore says Theater 3 has a resident ghost named George, believed to be George Bola, the contractor who built the theater in 1926. Owners and employees have reported phantom footsteps on the stairs to the projection booth, slamming doors, and even the sounds of construction or work taking place in the early morning hours.
Catch a movie, take a seat, and settle in for the show. And if you hear footsteps or the sounds of someone hard at work behind the scenes, perhaps George is still keeping an eye on the theater he helped build.
A Pillow-Tossing Poltergeist
Some places feel made for a quiet night: a creaky floorboard, a warm lamp in the window, and the Hig...
Some places feel made for a quiet night: a creaky floorboard, a warm lamp in the window, and the High Peaks standing dark against the sky. The Stagecoach Inn is the oldest operating inn in Lake Placid, and it has been welcoming travelers in the heart of the High Peaks for generations.
Staff and guests say one resident has stayed on. Believed to be a woman, she’s described as friendly and mischievous, with a habit of rearranging things. Pillows seem to be her favorite, turning up in places no one remembers leaving them. She’s also known to flip the couch’s decorative “Welcome Friends” pillows upside down or backward, sometimes even when the rooms are completely empty.
Spend a night at the inn, and ask the innkeeper about the stories they’ve collected over the years. You may leave with a tale of your own, or at least discover that your pillow has found a new home.
Day 3
Maritime Mysteries of Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain stretches more than 122 miles, and almost every mile of it has a story. Its shoreline...
Lake Champlain stretches more than 122 miles, and almost every mile of it has a story. Its shoreline is dotted with forts from the wars fought over it, its depths hold a remarkable collection of shipwrecks, and its waters are said to be home to a sea monster. Then there’s the legend that fewer people know.
Local lore tells of the Champlain Witch, a mysterious figure blamed for the lake’s sudden storms, rogue waves, and other strange happenings on the water. Sailors have long told stories like this, and it’s easy to see why. Champlain is big enough to make its own weather, and conditions can turn quickly. In some tellings, the Witch is behind the loss of the Sarah Ellen in 1860, which now rests on the lake bottom alongside many other wrecks.
Take a ferry across, walk the shore near one of the old forts, or simply watch the horizon change from the beach. The lake rewards a long look, and it’s a good reminder of how much history lies beneath the surface.
Echoes Among the Ruins
Few places capture the region’s early history quite like Crown Point Historic Site. Overlooking Lake...
Few places capture the region’s early history quite like Crown Point Historic Site. Overlooking Lake Champlain, this strategic military outpost played an important role in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. Today, visitors can explore the ruins of British Fort Crown Point, walk among the remnants of French Fort St. Frédéric, and take in sweeping views of the lake and surrounding landscape.
It’s a place where the past feels close. Wander among the weathered stone walls and earthen fortifications, and it’s easy to imagine the soldiers who once stood guard over this important passage. With centuries of conflict and countless lives tied to the site, it’s not hard to imagine a few stories lingering among the ruins.
Visit for the history, stay for the atmosphere, and take time to explore the grounds. Whether you’re drawn to the military history or the mysteries that come with it, Crown Point offers plenty to discover.
Day 4
The Story Haunting Big Moose Lake
In 1906, Big Moose Lake became the setting of a murder that would capture the public imagination and...
In 1906, Big Moose Lake became the setting of a murder that would capture the public imagination and later inspire Theodore Dreiser’s classic novel An American Tragedy. Grace Brown, a 20-year-old woman from upstate New York, was killed by Chester Gillette, who was later convicted of her murder.
Grace was pregnant with Gillette’s child, and letters she had written to him became central evidence during the widely publicized trial. She pleaded with him to marry her, and the letters were later published in newspapers across the country, bringing national attention to the case. Gillette was convicted of first-degree murder and executed at Auburn Prison in 1908.
More than a century later, stories of Grace’s ghost lingering along the shores of Big Moose Lake have become part of the area’s folklore. Whether you come for the legend or the scenery, Big Moose rewards a slow visit. Walk the shoreline in the fading light, listen to the quiet, and take a moment to remember Grace as a person, not simply a ghost story. Here, the line between documented history and Adirondack legend can feel especially thin.
The Woodsman Who Never Left
Not every ghost story comes with a grand history. Some are just quiet, a little odd, and tied to one...
Not every ghost story comes with a grand history. Some are just quiet, a little odd, and tied to one particular spot in the woods.
Jasper Day was a woodsman who lived on his own in Inlet, near the Fifth Lake carry, on land now followed by the trail that bears his name. Local lore says that, in a way, he never left. The story goes that his presence still lingers at the bridge crossing the outlet between Fifth Lake and Sixth Lake.
It’s easy to imagine a quiet life in the woods here. Walk the trail with the leaves underfoot and the forest gone hush, then pause on the bridge and listen to the water moving below. It’s a beautiful corner of the Adirondacks, and perhaps an understandable place to linger, even in the afterlife. According to local legend, Jasper Day may still be doing just that.
A Sorrowful Story in Stone
Some ghost stories are told through what’s left behind. At the Rhinelander Estate, that’s the stone ...
Some ghost stories are told through what’s left behind. At the Rhinelander Estate, that’s the stone foundations of a mansion that once stood here, built in the early 1800s by Phillip Rhinelander Jr.
The legend that has followed the estate for generations is a sorrowful one. The story goes that Phillip built the house as a stronghold to keep his wife, Mary, confined within it. Mary died there in 1818, and the cause of her death is unknown. Over the years, some have speculated that she was poisoned, but that remains a story, not a fact. After her death, Phillip left, the mansion stood empty, and it burned to the ground in 1875.
Visitors have reported strange sensations at the site for roughly two hundred years, and many describe a feeling that Mary’s presence still lingers among the ruins. Come to walk the quiet grounds and take in a piece of Adirondack history, and think of Mary, a woman whose story deserves to be remembered with care.