Haunted California: Ghost Towns and Ghost Tours

The cities we cover in California

California is a big state with an uneven haunted scene, so our coverage starts where the stories are thickest.

San Francisco

The Gold Rush port that gave English the word shanghaied, rebuilt on top of its own 1906 burn zone. Alcatraz, the Queen Anne Hotel and the Pacific Heights mansions anchor a deep haunted circuit; the San Francisco guide compares the walks, the ghost hunts and the honest way to see Alcatraz at night.

San Diego

Old Town's adobes and the Gaslamp Quarter's Victorian blocks give San Diego a deeper spooky bench than its beach-town image suggests, and the Whaley House is often called one of the most haunted houses in America. Our San Diego guide sorts the tours worth your evening.

The ghost towns that built California's reputation

Calico, in the Mojave Desert, is the state's most polished ghost town. A mining camp from the late 1800s, it was bought and preserved in the 1950s by Walter Knott of Knott's Berry Farm, and today you can pan for gold, walk the preserved storefronts and decide for yourself whether the whispers visitors report after sundown are spirits or desert wind.

Bodie, in the eastern Sierra, is the opposite: nothing staged, nothing rebuilt, just streets of buildings left as they were when the town emptied, and a long list of reported apparitions to go with them. Cerro Gordo, a silver town in the same mountains, keeps an impeccably preserved miners' bunkhouse. Ballarat offers the lonely, wind-scoured version of the same story for travelers who want their ghost towns without gift shops.

Questions people ask

What is the most haunted city in California?

No consensus exists in a state this size, but two cities dominate the conversation: San Francisco, on the strength of Alcatraz, the Queen Anne Hotel and its Pacific Heights mansions, and San Diego, where the Whaley House is routinely cited among the most haunted houses in America. The ghost towns are their own category entirely.

Is San Diego worth visiting for ghost tours?

Yes, especially if you are already there for the beaches and the zoo. The historic core is compact, the walks are easy, and the stories run older than most of the West Coast. Start with our San Diego picks.

When should you go?

The ghost towns reward daylight and mild seasons, since Calico and Ballarat sit in serious desert heat all summer. San Diego's walks run in the evening year-round, and October dates fill first.

Compare California against the rest of our haunted city guides, or meet the team behind them on our own Arizona walks in Flagstaff, Tucson and Prescott.