- Happy Halloween.
What's up friends?
I am Miranda and I have an extra special episode
of "Miranda in the Wild" for you.
(brisk music)
For Halloween I want to see if I can spend the night
in a ghost town.
I don't like scary things,
I don't like the dark, eww, and I don't like being scared.
I just don't think that this is what I signed up for.
I'm a big baby.
(sprightly music)
(haunting organ music)
This is my spooky show, gosh darn.
(haunting organ music)
So here in Washington we actually have
a number of ghost towns.
These are basically just old towns that were developed
for certain industries, like mining,
that are no longer a functioning town today.
One of those is Monte Cristo.
I want to hike out to the ghost town at dark
and then explore just with headlamps.
Then I'll spend the night in the campground,
and then hopefully in the morning I can go
check the town out again and demystify the scary ghost town.
So Monte Cristo was a mining town that was in operation
in the late 19th century.
The town is no longer a town today,
it's just a collection of buildings and ruins
that you can go hike to.
But potentially it's still very creepy.
Or maybe just like interesting and historical.
We shall see.
(lively banjo music)
(car door slamming)
We have begun the walking,
and we should be to camp in like four miles,
which is a pretty short hike,
which is great because it's kind of late in the afternoon.
This is the trail into Monte Cristo.
As you can see, it's more of a road than it is a trail.
This is kind of like the pathway where the trams
or the trains or the people would have gone into town.
So we're gonna lose light here rather soon
because we we're in the woods
and you can see that shadows are getting really long.
It's just kind of beautiful.
It just feels like a nice, cool fall day.
Nothing scary here, just some trees,
and a lot of spiderwebs.
Keep hearing voices behind me.
Spooky proceed at your own risk sign.
(lively banjo music)
Spooky bench.
Spooky plant.
Oo, actually these plants are kinda spooky.
Spooky leaf.
Spooky pooper.
Wha, wha, wha, wha.
Boo!
Heh, heh.
Spooky trees, spooky producer.
- Ahhh!
- Ah!
Oh my gosh.
This is the spookiest thing
we're gonna see on the entire trail.
Somebody's dirty tissue.
You wanna talk about the real horrors of backpacking,
it's dirty tissues on the ground
and pooping in places you're not supposed to.
(lively banjo music)
(slow ominous music)
It's starting to get darker.
It's getting to be about dusk.
I find dusk to be the spookiest time in the woods.
Wait, wait for me.
(slow ominous music)
I'm now wondering why we're doing this.
I don't like the dark and I don't like being scared.
I've not done a lot of night hiking,
and it's not something that I am super comfortable with,
but it is something that a lot of hikers choose to do
for like a whole variety of reasons.
You know, it might be if you like live in a really hot area,
like a hot time of year.
I know a lot of like through hikers
will choose to night hike to cover more mileage,
or like sunset or sunrise hikes, whole variety of reasons.
(slow ominous music)
Oh, we're gettin' there.
Ghost town that way.
Camp, toilet, this way.
I found my tent site for the night.
That's a sweet tent platform.
So I'm gonna set up my tent, eat some food,
and then once it gets dark it's ghost town time.
Get scared people. (spooky organ music)
Wah, hah, hahhh.
So now that it is totally dark out,
we are going to check out the Monte Cristo ghost town.
So let's go do it.
I'm feeling a little bit scared,
but that's why we're here.
Everybody ready?
Hey, slow down, stay with our group,
stay with our group.
Can we just set some ground rules really fast?
- [Producer] What? - No jump scares.
No like touching things.
No pretending you heard noises you didn't hear.
Ah, here we go.
Welcome to Monte Cristo.
The adventure begins.
Mmkay, all right, great.
Let's go check out this town.
I just don't think that this is what I signed up for.
No.
- [Producer] Yeah.
No.
Ahhh!
(sinister carnival music)
It seems sort of like,
you know, like carnival-y.
It is a little creepy.
(laughing) I'm scared, I don't like it.
I mean, look,
there's like nothing welcoming about this sign.
Horrifying fallen-over sign
with a scratched out horse on it.
I don't feel very welcome right now.
(sinister carnival music)
So we are going up to the first house here.
It's a little red house.
Man, this place is freaky.
What's that thing on the door?
You guys see what I'm talking about?
On the door, is that a light?
is there a light on over there?
Is that a light?
Is there a light on there?
It's a piece of paper.
Wow!
- [Producer] It's like a piece of reflective.
- Oh God.
This door has two deadbolts on it.
They really do not want people going into these houses.
Probably because of all the ghosts.
(ominous music)
That is some one-star lodging right there.
I'm guessing that this was not actually
where people slept, right?
That's a bed.
Oh my gosh!
- [Producer] Come check out the bed.
- [Miranda] Wow, spooky.
(ominous music)
That house is absolutely the scariest though.
- [Producer] We should go look at it.
Yeah, let's go walk up to it.
- No.
Okay, so this is far and away The scariest house here.
All the other houses are like this lovely red
and this one is scary chipped white paint.
And I can't see where I'm going.
I don't care for it one bit.
So this is the railway turntable.
So this is like where the trains would switch,
like turn around in town.
We're gonna make like a train and get outta here.
(distant whistling)
- [Miranda] Why would you do that?
- [Producer} What's Up?
Oh.
- [Cameraman] I'm sorry, I was just whistling.
- There is no such thing as just whistling in a ghost town.
(ominous music)
Guys?
Do you guys hear that?
It totally sounds like people talking.
What is that thing right there?
(ominous music)
Ah!
Nope, nope.
There's a creepy something over there.
Oo, oo!
Ahh!
Moth.
Oo, oo, no!
Who did that?
(Miranda and producer laughing)
There's definitely people over there.
(ominous music)
Oh, my headlamp died.
Aw, terrible timing.
So I'm in my tent.
My headlamp died, which is fantastic.
Just goes to show, bring extra batteries.
I'm still hearing a lot of weird noises outside,
but that's kind of typical I think for me
sleeping in the woods as comfortable as it-
(ominous music)
Did you hear that?
Okay, I think there are bats actually.
Did you hear that?
- [Producer] No.
- There's a like (clicking teeth).
- [Producer] Uh.
Creepy.
(tranquil music)
Good morning my friends.
It is a beautiful morning today.
Quite different than the spooky, scary night last night.
And believe it or not,
I'm headed back into the Monte Cristo town site.
I wanna take a look at it in the light of day
and see if I can enjoy more of the history
and less of the scare factor.
Whoop, whop, all right.
Here is the wood sign for Monte Cristo.
Significantly less scary during the day.
Here's the bridge.
Here's the sign.
This sign like totally spooked me out last night,
and I feel like it's honestly still a little bit spooky.
(tranquil music)
So I can see like the red houses up in front of me.
It's really kind of cool.
Oh man!
Yeah, just like a completely different experience
coming in in the daylight.
Oh, the railway switch.
I'm wanna go check these houses out.
(tranquil music)
So last night that little piece of paper
freaked me out.
It was like a reflective paper
and I thought there was a light on in the house.
(tranquil music)
Oh, what's this?
Wow, this thing is cool.
Check this out.
So this is part of the foundation for the lodge.
Bed frame falls into the category of still scary
even in the daylight.
Oh my gosh,
there's a whole nother building.
I think I was so nervous about the dark
I was not even paying attention.
There's some cool stuff up here.
This is terrifying.
There is no way I could have done this at night.
This is so creepy.
Hello!
Knock, knock.
Look, this is the entirely back section of the house.
It is fascinating how something that
really otherwise would be considered trash,
because it has history to it,
I'm like viewing as cool and beautiful.
One person's trash is the other's treasure, eh?
(tranquil music)
Oh man,
I am kicking myself for not going up there last night.
Like being too scared.
But you guys were also scared.
It wasn't just me.
Y'all, y'all got freaked out too.
- [Cameraman] Yeah.
- Yeah, I can pinpoint exactly what I thought was voices
hearing it in the water.
That sort of like higher pitch noise,
kind of like this,
like sounds like someone being like,
"Ha, ha, ha."
This isn't scary,
this is like a fairy wonderland.
(slow, dreamy music)
So last night this was definitely the scariest thing for me.
It was like even getting close to this house.
If anything,
you walk around the other side and there's a doorway
that's like now closed but would have faced the water,
and it just seems kind of peaceful and lovely.
It also looked like a spooky ghost house last night.
Now it just looks like an old building.
I have now seen all of the Monte Cristo ghost town
during the day.
Definitely feels less scary.
It's such a beautiful day.
Light makes all the scary go away.
It's time to hike out of here and head back to my van.
Let's go!
All right, so I managed to survive in the ghost town
even though I did get really scared.
I wished that I had summoned up the courage
to explore the rest of the ghost town at night.
But it was a good reminder that during the daytime,
most of the things that I found really scary
actually just turned out to be buildings,
and just kind of like trees and interesting noises.
If you've ever done a scary Halloween hike,
or if you like night hiking,
let me know in the comments below.
And as always,
if you enjoyed this video, hit the like button,
subscribe to our channel,
and I will see you all in the wild.
- Arrr! (Miranda screams)
(laughing)
(spooky organ music)
- I mean, a lot of people wonder if Sasquatch exists,
but very few people wonder how Sasquatch is doing.
And if I'm being honest, that's hurtful.