The California Haunted Trail
California's haunted map runs the length of the state. Gold Rush ghost towns sit in the Sierra foothills and mission bell towers line the coast. San Francisco keeps its Victorian hotels in circulation as inns, while Los Angeles holds a dense cluster of downtown buildings and movie palaces carrying decades of layered history. More than 500 documented locations sit across this network, reaching north into wine country and east into the desert. Southern California carries the heaviest concentration, which is why the featured loop starts there: seven daytime stops between Santa Monica and the Inland Empire, four historic hotels for the overnight leg.
The curated weekend cut
HauntBound's editors picked 7 daytime stops and 3 overnight inns from the 549 places below and mapped them in driving order, with drive times, the full stories, and a printable field guide. Free by email.
Southern
121 stopsBay Area
80 stopsCentral
66 stopsLos Angeles Metro
39 stopsNorthern
34 stopsLos Angeles
33 stopsCentral Coast
21 stopsGold Country
20 stopsSierra Nevada
17 stopsSacramento Valley
16 stopsInland Empire
13 stopsSan Francisco Bay Area
12 stopsNorth Coast
12 stopsCentral Valley
11 stopsSan Diego Metro
8 stopsSouthern California Coast
7 stopsSouthern California High Desert
4 stopsNorth Bay Sonoma
4 stopsOrange County
4 stopsNorthern California Bay Area
3 stopsDesert
3 stopsCentral California Coast
2 stopsEastern Sierra
2 stopsSanta Cruz Mountains
2 stopsSacramento
2 stopsSan Gabriel Valley
2 stopsMojave Desert
1 stopsInland Southern
1 stopsLos Angeles South Bay
1 stopsNorth Bay
1 stopsShasta Cascade
1 stopsLos Angeles County
1 stopsSilicon Valley
1 stopsSanta Ynez Valley
1 stopsAntelope Valley
1 stopsOrange County Ca
1 stopsElsewhere in California
1 stopsEvery entry links to its full HauntBound page with sources, accessibility notes, and family ratings.