The Most Haunted Places in Colorado

Ranked

1. 

   1. Silver Cliff Cemetery Silver Cliff · Cemetery / Burial Ground · Family Comfort: High

   Local legend dates the small blue-white lights that drift among Silver Cliff Cemetery's headstones to the town's 1870s mining boom; the earliest known written report is a 1956 Wet Mountain Tribune story, and the best known is National Geographic writer Edward Linehan's in August 1969. Researchers have proposed phosphorescence on damp grave markers, retinal phosphenes, or reflected town lighting as explanations; local lore holds that the lights still appeared during a blackout staged to test them. The cemetery remains in active use and open to visitors who want to judge the phenomenon for themselves.

   5 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 1956-1969 · retold in 4 later publications

2. 

   2. Hotel Colorado Glenwood Springs · Haunted Hotel / Inn · Family Comfort: Moderate

   HauntBound identified four distinct published accounts at this working hotel, across three kinds of published source. Four later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include apparitions and disembodied voices.

   4 original accounts · documented across 2 decades, 1993-2006 · retold in 4 later publications

3. 

   3. Briarhurst Manor Manitou Springs · Haunted Dining / Bar · Family Comfort: High Visits by guided tour only

   Physician William Bell, co-founder of Manitou Springs, built Briarhurst in 1872; it burned in 1886, was rebuilt by 1888, and the family left for England in 1890. It later ran as a restaurant until 2024 and will reopen as a wedding venue. A 2014 television investigation recorded audio in nearly every room, and staff have reported disembodied voices, full-body apparitions in the foyer, unexplained lights, and a vase that flew off a mantel.

   4 original accounts · documented in 2009 · retold in 3 later publications

4. 

   4. Strater Hotel Durango · Haunted Hotel / Inn · Family Comfort: Moderate

   HauntBound identified four distinct published accounts at this working hotel, across three kinds of published source. Five later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include apparitions and phantom sounds.

   4 original accounts · documented in 1890 · retold in 5 later publications

5. 

   5. Hotel Jerome Aspen · Haunted Hotel / Inn · Family Comfort: Moderate

   HauntBound identified four distinct published accounts at this working hotel, across three kinds of published source. Three later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include apparitions and cold spots.

   4 original accounts · documented in 1936 · retold in 3 later publications

6. 

   6. Patterson Inn (Croke-Patterson-Campbell Mansion) Denver · Haunted Hotel / Inn · Family Comfort: Low

   HauntBound identified six distinct published accounts at this working hotel. Four later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include apparitions and cold spots.

   6 original accounts · retold in 4 later publications

7. 

   7. Hotel Boulderado Boulder · Haunted Hotel / Inn · Family Comfort: High

   HauntBound identified four distinct published accounts at this working hotel, across four kinds of published source. Four later publications retell those accounts. Reported phenomena include cold spots.

   4 original accounts · retold in 4 later publications

8. 

   8. Molly Brown House Denver · Museum / Historical Site · Family Comfort: High

   HauntBound identified four distinct published accounts at this museum site, across four kinds of published source. One later publication retells those accounts. Reported phenomena include apparitions and disembodied voices.

   4 original accounts · retold in 1 later publication

9. 

   9. The Brown Palace Hotel and Spa, Autograph Collection Denver · Haunted Hotel / Inn · Family Comfort: High

   HauntBound identified four distinct published accounts at this working hotel. Reported phenomena include apparitions and cold spots.

   4 original accounts · documented in 2018

10. 

    10. Museum of Colorado Prisons Cañon City · Museum / Historical Site · Family Comfort: Moderate

    The Museum of Colorado Prisons occupies a 1935 cell house for female inmates beside the Territorial Correctional Facility, operating since 1871. Exhibits cover a 1929 riot that killed seven guards and a gas chamber used in 32 executions through 1967, plus former inmates like Alferd Packer. Visitors report tobacco smell in the laundry room and a presence tied to Charlotte Van Deventer, the prison's first matron.

    3 original accounts · documented in 1897 · retold in 3 later publications

Superlatives

Most documented counts published accounts. The ranking also weighs how many decades those accounts span and how independent they are, so the place with the most accounts is not always the place ranked first.