Spooky Things to Do in Colorado Year-Around

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Autumn is in full swing in Colorado. Fall foliage colors are bursting at lower elevations, ushering in the spooky season. Meanwhile they are already fading out at high elevations, a foreboding sign of a long winter to come. With Halloween approaching, I’ve become curious about Colorado’s most notorious hauntings, but knowing that our blink-and-you’ll-miss-it autumn is followed by a relentless winter, I’ve also become curious about spooky things to do in Colorado that aren’t seasonal.

Colorado is the perfect place to seek out spirits and beasts; just think of the many abandoned ghost towns, Victorian-era Wild West buildings, and the vast, mysterious backcountry wilderness where anything could be lurking. The state has quite the storied history, as evidenced by the many spooky things to do in Colorado both at Halloween and year-around.

Festivals

Frozen Dead Guy Days

Estes Park, March
Website

Bredo Morstøl was a Norwegian parks and recreation director whose family, upon his death in 1989, shipped him on dry ice to the United States. He has been cryogenically frozen ever since, in the hope that modern technology will one day have the ability to reanimate him. His corpse was originally kept frozen in a shed in his daughter’s backyard, but when she was deported, the task fell on Delta Tech and then was passed to various Nederland, Colorado locals. The annual Frozen Dead Guy Days festival has been a weird celebration of his story for more than 20 years, recently moving from Nederland to Estes Park. The festival features coffin races, a polar plunge, a frostbite fashion show, freak show acts, live music, and other events over a three day span.

Emma Crawford Coffin Races

Manitou Springs, October
Website

Speaking of coffin races, Manitou Springs, Colorado has a long-standing legend of its own. Emma Crawford moved to Manitou Springs around 1889 to treat what was presumably tuberculosis. Upon her death in 1891, her fiance and a group of pallbearers hauled her casket to be buried, as she requested, at the top of Red Mountain. In later years, railroad construction caused her to be reburied on the western slope, which eroded with time and pushed the coffin back down the mountain. It would be found by two boys, and Crawford would ultimately be reburied for the last time in a proper cemetery. At the annual Emma Crawford Coffin Races and Parade, put on since 1995, Emma impersonators in corpse paint sit in their coffins while their “pallbearer” teams push them in the race. 

Packer Days

Lake City, May/June (though recently on hiatus)
Website

Alferd Packer (yes, it’s spelled that way) is remembered as the “Colorado Cannibal” for his actions in the winter of 1874. He told many conflicting versions of events, but it’s believed that he falsely marketed himself as an experienced mountain guide in order to lead a group of prospectors across the San Juan Mountains. The group was unprepared and quickly ran out of provisions. Packer finally staggered out of the mountains alone, initially claiming he’d been abandoned by the group and had starved for two months. Witnesses remarked that he didn’t appear starved. Later his story changed when he admitted that members of the party collectively decided to cannibalize others, one by one over many miles, until he was the last man standing. When the winter snow melted, five bodies were discovered violently murdered all in the same spot at Slumgullion Pass, disproving Packer’s story. He was tried for murder and nearly hanged, but escaped on a technicality and lived to be 65 years old. Packer Days Festival includes events like the “Mystery Meat Cook-Off”, a 5K “Run For Your Life” marathon race, and backcountry survival classes. 

Note that the property owners of the Alferd Packer Massacre Site do not want visitors, but the Lake City Museum (aka Hinsdale County Museum) will welcome your curiosity about Alferd Packer.

Other Spooky Colorado Festivals

Luminaria at Mesa Verde National Park (Cortez, December. It’s a beautiful holiday tradition, but some might find it spooky)
Rocky Mountain Nightmares Horror Expo and Film Festival (Denver, May)
Colorado Festival of Horror Convention (Denver, September)
Telluride Horror Show Film Festival (Telluride, October)

Tip: Check the Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society for regular event updates.

Halloween-Specific Events

Haunted Lantern Tour at Cave of the Winds

Manitou Springs, “Director’s Cut” September/October (the regular haunted tour is year-around)
Website / TripAdvisor

Cave of the Winds Mountain Park offers multiple cave tours, plus adventurous activities like zip lines and the “Terror-dactyl”, but the Haunted Lantern Tour will excite those looking for more of a spooky scare instead of an adrenaline rush. Visitors will explore the underground caverns by candlelight, just how the discoverers of the cave system would have seen it in 1881. “Along the way, you will learn the history of Cave of the Winds as well as the frightening folklore, scary ghost stories, and unexplained phenomena of the Manitou Grands.” The “Director’s Cut” version of the haunted tour, only offered September 30 – October 31 and not recommended for children younger than 13yo, is listed as “extra spooky.”

Terror in the Corn

Erie, September/October
Website / TripAdvisor

Anderson Farms offers fun fall festival activities for the entire family, and in the summertime does a U-Pick Sunflowers event. But on weekend evenings in late September and throughout October, the cornfield transforms into a “Mile of Mayhem” maze. Just when you think you’ve made it out of the nightmare and back to civilization, you might notice there’s something strange about the abandoned buildings and grim streets of the town on the other side of the maze…

Other Haunted Houses/Halloween Events in Colorado

Elitch Gardens Fright Fest (Denver, September/October)
Haunted Field of Screams (Thornton, September/October)
Frightmare Compound (Denver, September-November)
Dark Side of the Abbey and Disturbance at the Monastery (Cañon City, September/October)
Creepy Walk in the Woods (Loveland, October)

Tip: Colorado Haunted Houses keeps a compiled list of haunted house locations and events.

Museums

Museum of Colorado Prisons

Cañon City, Year-Around (closed Mondays and Tuesdays during October-April)
Website / TripAdvisor

The building housing the Museum of Colorado Prisons was originally a Women’s Correctional Facility built in 1935. It shares a stone wall with the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility, a prison continuously active since 1871. The exhibits “cover over 140 years of history, depicting prison life from early Territorial Prison days forward.” There is information about “Colorado Cannibal” Alferd Packer, 12 year old murderer Anton Woode, the prison riots of 1929 and 1947, and more. You’ll make your way through inmate cells, solitary confinement cells, kitchens, and other rooms showcasing life behind bars.

If you’re into this kind of thing, you should also check out the Outlaws & Lawmen Jail Museum in Cripple Creek, Colorado. Their Facebook page is littered with reviews from organizations like “Colorado Paranormal Seekers,” “Colorado Spirit Investigators-CSI,” and “Cheyenne Mountain Paranormal Investigators,” who all seemed to have a great time.

Denver Museum of Miniatures, Dolls and Toys

Denver, Year-Around (but only Fridays-Sundays)
Website / TripAdvisor

Grandpa Jerry’s Clown Museum in Arriba closed in 2015 and the Simpich Showcase, Doll Shop, and Marionette Theater in Colorado Springs closed in 2022, but the Denver doll museum carries on. Hooray? Some of the toys shown on their website and Instagram look very cute and imaginative, but we all know they’ve got to have some dolls in there that are creepy AF.

If you want to be creeped out by dolls in the woods (why would you ever want to combine these things?), venture out to Red Feather Lakes, Colorado to find Gnome Road (I actually once found a similar “fairy forest” while hiking the Kerry Way in Ireland, and it was adorable and magical).

Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo Museum

Pueblo, Year-Around (but only Tuesdays and Saturdays)
Website / TripAdvisor

The Mental Health Institute opened in 1879 as the “Colorado State Insane Asylum.” This little museum takes visitors through the history of how mental health patients were treated from that time forward, showcasing the medical equipment and restraints once used. The museum is kept up by volunteers as a labor of love, and puts to use incredible photographs and artifacts that otherwise would have been disposed of by the hospital.

Oddities and Weirdness

Meow Wolf “Convergence Station”

Denver, Year-Around
Website / TripAdvisor

If you’ve never been to a Meow Wolf immersive art installation, it’s impossible to explain to you what exactly you’ll see there. Each of the four locations (Santa Fe, Denver, Las Vegas, and Grapevine) has a different theme, but in all of them you’ll find yourself launched into different worlds every time you explore a new passageway or hidden door. The Denver location takes the idea of “transport” to another world literally. I spent 2.5 hours exploring its post-apocalyptic and sci-fi universes, but still probably didn’t see it all.

If you’re looking for an alternative, there’s also a seasonal Halloween immersive art experience called Spookadelia in Denver.

Cronk Art and Curiosities

Colorado Springs, Year-Around
Website

There are tons of antique and curiosity shops throughout Colorado. I particularly enjoy the ones with slightly creepy historic finds dating back to the 1800s, but a lot of those give me a musty, uninspired vibe, and some more modern stores seem to think selling taxidermy or tye-dye automatically makes them “quirky”. Stores like Cronk Art and Curiosities, or Rocky Mountain Punk in Denver, genuinely are pretty quirky. Their pieces combine nature and art in a way that is both cool and unsettling at the same time; both old and new. Similar shops include the Golden Curiosity Shop in Golden, The Learned Lemur, the Terrorium, and the Oddemporium in Denver, and Novis Mortem in Colorado Springs. Of course there’s always the Oddities and Curiosities Expo, which has events in major cities across the country.

Tip: If you’re into fossils, there are a lot of national monuments in Colorado that would interest you, such as Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument near Colorado Springs, Dinosaur National Monument along the Utah border, and the dinosaur track site near La Junta. If you’re into insects, check out the May Natural History Museum in Colorado Springs, one of the world’s largest private insect collections.

UFO Watchtower

Center, Year-Around
Website / TripAdvisor

The UFO Watchtower is exactly what it sounds like. This 10 foot tall platform from which to contemplate the skies was jokingly built by the property owner after locals regularly reported UFO sightings in the San Luis Valley. Now a popular roadside attraction, sightings have not slowed down. This is often theorized to be a result of the particularly clear, dark skies over the desert; Great Sand Dunes National Park, an International Dark Sky Park, borders the Watchtower property (and also Colorado Gators Reptile Park, for some reason; what’s that theory about reptiles and aliens?).

Graves to Visit

Doc Holliday

Glenwood Springs, Year-Around
Website / TripAdvisor

Doc Holliday is most famous for his participation in the legendary OK Corral shootout with Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, Arizona (I wrote about things to do in Tombstone and Bisbee here), and was cemented into our hearts when Val Kilmer played him in the Hollywood movie about Tombstone. In later life he moved to Leadville, Colorado, then Denver, and ultimately Glenwood Springs where he hoped the medicinal waters would be good for his health. He died in Glenwood Springs.

William “Buffalo Bill” Cody

Golden, Year-Around
Website / TripAdvisor

Like Holliday, the famous ringleader of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show also sought out the healing waters at Glenwood Springs at the end of his life. He died shortly after while visiting his sister in Denver. He would be buried at Lookout Mountain, but the road to it was too snowy in winter, so his body lay in wait at Olinger’s Mortuary (now Linger’s Eatuary restaurant) until conditions were right. At least, this is what Denver officials believe. Residents of Cody, Wyoming, the town named for and founded by Buffalo Bill Cody (check out my article on Cody, Wyoming here), insisted that he wanted to be buried there. Legend says they secretly transported Buffalo Bill’s body back to Cody and interred him in a secret location at Cedar Mountain, and the grave in Denver is either empty or hosts a lookalike that was covertly swapped for the real Cody. One story says they made the swap while his corpse was stored at the mortuary, but this is questionable because his family gazed upon him at the open casket funeral. If he was ever moved, it seems it would have had to happen after burial.

Tip: We’ve all dreamt of dining in a converted mortuary-turned-restaurant, right? Right?? Linger Eatuary is the perfect spot, not just because of its morbid decor and history, but also the genuinely appetizing and unique menu.

Vampire Grave of Theodore “Fodor” Glava

Lafayette, Year-Around
Website

This Transylvanian immigrant most likely died of influenza, but because he was Eastern European and pale, locals obviously assumed he was a vampire. Legend says they dug him up, drove a stake through his heart, and reburied him. A tree then grew from the location of the stake. Some say a tall, thin, pale apparition can be seen wandering the cemetery at night. If the poor guy wasn’t undead before, I imagine it became more difficult for his spirit to rest after his corpse was desecrated.

Other Famous Graves in Colorado

Alferd Packer “Colorado Cannibal”
Chief Ouray
Joe Cocker (musician)
Knights of Pythias “brotherhood” (illuminati cult?) cemetery

Tip: Find a Grave has a full list of famous graves in Colorado.

Haunted Places

Stanley Hotel 

Estes Park, Year-Around
Website / TripAdvisor

The Stanley Hotel is one of the most famous haunted hotels in the United States, mostly because it inspired Stephen King’s The Shining, but ghostly experiences were reported long before King. The hotel has leaned into its reputation and offers both a “Spirited Tour” and a “Shining Tour”.

There are plenty of haunted hotels throughout Colorado, including the Strater Hotel, Melrose Hotel, Hotel Colorado, Hotel Jerome, The Broadmoor, The Patterson Inn, Boulderado Hotel, and Brown Palace Hotel.

Miramont Castle

Manitou Springs, Year-Around (tours and tea are Tuesdays-Sundays)
Website / TripAdvisor

Miramont Castle was built by a Catholic priest named Father Francolon, a Frenchman who came to the United States on a mission to convert indigenous peoples. According to historians, he “was extremely unpopular, even to being poisoned in the chalice.” When he left Miramont, the Sisters of Mercy took over, turning the estate into a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients. With this history in mind, I can see why Miramont Castle is a prime location for ghost sightings, despite the fact that its innocent function today is the hosting of afternoon tea parties.

Phantom Canyon Road

Cañon City, Not advisable in winter
Website / TripAdvisor

Even without tales of hauntings, Phantom Canyon Road is sketchy. Only confident drivers in high clearance vehicles less than 25 feet long should attempt this drive, though it is quite scenic. There is two-way traffic but there are moments when the road is only wide enough for one vehicle, with steep drop-offs to the side. Ghost towns dot the way, but legend has it the phantom of Phantom Canyon Road is a man in a prison uniform who was executed at Colorado State Penitentiary.

While you’re at it, check out the Gold Camp Rail Tunnels near the same area. If you park at the second tunnel at night and turn off the lights, listen for the laughter of children and watch for small handprints on the windows.

Walrus Ice Cream

Fort Collins, Year-Around
Website / TripAdvisor

Old Town Fort Collins supposedly has a “network of underground tunnels and bunkers that date back to its early years as a pioneer town” and was named the third most haunted city in the United States by Yelp in 2019. The creepiest place in Fort Collins is, surprisingly, the Walrus Ice Cream shop. The tunnel beneath it is where horse-drawn hearses once discreetly dropped bodies off for the mortuary next door.

James and Eva Howe House

Fort Collins, Private property (just look as you drive by)
Website

Also in Fort Collins is the James and Eva Howe house, which comes with a very real history. Newspaper clippings from April 1880 tell us that James murdered Eva by stabbing her in the neck. James was then lynched by an angry mob, the only lynching to ever take place in Fort Collins. The Armadillo Restaurant and its barn (now closed) were later built on the site of the murder, while the home itself was uprooted from its foundation and moved to 1314 West Myrtle.

Other Haunted Places in Colorado

Boulder Theater (Boulder, Year-Around)
Riverdale Road (Thornton, Year-Around; this is where they host Haunted Field of Screams) 
Third Bridge (Aurora, Year-Around)
Old Town Pub (Steamboat Springs, Year-Around)
It’s a bit in poor taste, so I’ll simply mention in passing that real historic sites like the Ludlow Massacre Site, Amache National Historic Site, Sand Creek Massacre Site, B-17 Bomber Crash Site, and Wichita State University Plane Crash Site are ripe for accusations of hauntings.

Pretty much every town in Colorado has its own haunted history walking tour; many can be booked on GetYourGuide and others are referenced on official tourism board websites for each city.

Whether Halloween is approaching or not, there are plenty of spooky things to do in Colorado. Did I miss any creepy festivals, museums, haunted places, or roadside oddities that you would have listed? Have you ever experienced a paranormal encounter or something else unexplainable in Colorado? Share your stories in the comments!

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