The car’s all packed, you’re loaded up on snacks and your GPS is queued and ready to go!

It’s summertime, which means road tripping season. The classic Americana road trip is a rite of passage for most, consisting of beautiful vistas; the wind in your hair and singing along to cheesy music as you cruise down the highway. But let me paint a different picture for you: A road trip that will take you down a desolate road, past some graveyards and have you checking into some highly questionable lodging. Does that sound appealing to you?

For those of you that said yes, you’re my kind of people! Luckily, this great country of ours has an endless supply of terrifying and otherworldly locations that will satisfy your morbid appetite. If you fancy yourself a junior ghost hunter or like to pretend you’re Robert Stack from Unsolved Mysteries, this list of spooky places will get your heart racing. So prepare to head down the midnight special, exploring the dark side of life.

The Stanley Hotel (Estes Park, CO)

The ideal weekend getaway where you can pretend to be a deranged Jack Nicholson, talk to ghosts and terrify your family! Stephen King fanatics know the Stanley as the real-life inspiration behind his horror classic, The Shining. Looking beyond the Hollywood surface, the hotel’s dark history is just as expansive as the number of guests who have stayed there over the decades. From full-swinging ghostly parties in the ballroom to an array of apparitions making themselves at home, this place is a supernatural playground.

Fun Fact: If you think the film’s room 237 is scary, wait till you walk into the hotel’s room 217. The room where King and his wife stayed was also the site of a horrible explosion in 1911. Ever since then, you’re pretty much guaranteed not to get a good night’s sleep inside that room.

The Queen Mary (Long Beach, CA)

If you have a ghost hunting show, book or podcast, it’s a sure bet you’ve had an investigation here at some point. I myself have walked the halls and decks of this iconic ocean liner, taking a haunted tour deep into the bowels of the cruiser. But alas, no face-to-face ghost encounters.

During the ocean liner's more than 60-year history, there’s been a log of many unfortunate deaths, which has created ghostly guests. Two of the popular haunt spots in this now floating hotel are the first class swimming pool and the boiler rooms. Women and children in vintage attire are said to be seen enjoying dips in the pools just as they disappear. Having served as the "Grey Ghost" during her World War II service, it is said you can hear screams and see injured service at various points inside the boiler rooms. 

The Cecil Hotel (Los Angeles, CA)

Located in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, the Cecil has been home to serial killers, ghosts and just plain evil. The most recent well-known account of WTF occurred in 2013 with the macabre death of Elisa Lam. You all remember this video:

In it, she’s moving in and out of the elevator, hiding from someone and talking to something that can’t be seen. Straight hair-raising. Her body ended up being found nude, inside one of the building’s water tanks. Her bizarre, unexplained death is just the latest one this hotel has seen. Maniacs such as the “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez and Johann Unterweger used the hotel as home base to carry out their horrific acts. Urban legend also has it that the Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short, stayed at the Cecil before her infamous death.

The Villisca Ax Murder House (Villisca, IA)

True story: During a cross country trip with a fellow Myspace writer, we’re in a crappy motel, watching TV when we come upon the story of the murder house. The next day we were set to travel through Iowa near the area, which prompted us to strongly consider making a quick stop at the house of slayings.

We didn’t go, but this spot is basically the precursor to the Amityville Horror. In 1912, the Moore family and two guests were brutally murdered and beheaded inside the walls of this quaint looking home. A total of eight victims, six of which were children, were found in their beds, heads severed by the use of an axe. There are many theories as to who committed this horrible crime, but it remains unsolved.

Waverly Hills Sanatorium (Louisville, KY)

Listed as one of America’s most haunted places, this hospital of death and doom is the prototype of what a scary location should be. Abandoned and imposing from the outside, no one in their right mind would walk in alone during the day, let alone at night!

In 1926, at the height of the tuberculosis epidemic, the new and expanded hospital was opened to house over 1,000 sick and dying patients. Since that point, only darkness and sorrow have taken residence inside this massive building, with well-documented accounts of poltergeist and full body apparitions. Don’t want to sleep for a few months? Then try taking a stroll in the tunnels under the property, which were used to move bodies out of the sanatorium.

The Clown Motel (Tonopah, NV)

Remember this scene in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure?

Those creepy clowns most likely ended up at this motel seeking rest and relaxation. In fact, Pennywise and the Killer Klowns from Outer Space probably left glowing Yelp reviews after their stays. Located in the almost-desolate town of Tonopah, NV, not only are the rooms delightfully clown-themed, but there’s also a clown museum, honoring the red nosed and painted faces.

There’s only two possible outcomes here: Either you’ll run into your nightmare during your stay, or you’ll lose your mind and become one of the jesters yourself!

Bobby Mackey’s Music World (Wilder, KY)

Their slogan is: “Come for the ghosts, stay for the music!” Good ol’ country singer Bobby Mackey probably never expected that his claim to fame would come with an association to a “gate to hell;” however, that’s how many people see his popular nightclub and bar. This spot’s been on my places to visit list ever since I heard about it on an episode of Sightings. The location originally started as a slaughterhouse, and urban legend has it that satanic rituals have been performed by worshippers in the basement over the decades. Turns out underneath the place, there’s a well where a woman’s severed head was supposedly disposed of.

That severed head belongs to the most famous resident ghost, Pearl Bryan. In 1896, her headless body was found a few miles away from the slaughterhouse, but her head was never found.

Roswell Crash Site (Roswell, NM)

If you need some extraterrestrial to go with your supernatural, then there’s only one place for you. Home of the famous 1947 UFO crash landing incident, Roswell, NM is the birthplace of little green men, conspiracy theories and the Men in Black. Mulder, Scully and the rest of the true believers have trekked to this welcoming Southwest town that houses the Roswell UFO Museum, as well a B-horror movie saucer-shaped McDonald’s. That alone should get you driving down Route 66. But don’t forget to keep your eyes up towards the sky, because you never know…