11 Abandoned Creepy Places In The U.S, One in Michigan

Did you ever just want to jump in your car and just do a road trip, maybe not even have a destination in mind. Just head in one direction and see what you will find or end up. These days I know most of us don't have the time to do anything like this.

When I lived in Vegas I headed west from time to time and stopped in some small towns off the beaten path when I was not in a hurry.  So cool to see a ghost town where folks did not live for over a hundred years If these buildings could only talk.

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I went to Alcatraz in San Franciso a few times and it was awesome to see.  Abandoned places are always fun to stop and check out on a driving vacation. although you do need to hop on a tour boat to see Alcatraz. Well, check this out drivinvibin.com has some great suggestions of some creepy places to visit.

Warning Before You visit

Now keep in mind some of these places you can only see on the outside, but some do give tours.

Some abandoned places are legal to visit. They typically have caretakers, rules, and an entry fee. At the same time, there are many abandoned structures and locations around the country that are private or dangerous and illegal to explore.

Here is the list of the top 11 creepy places to visit in the U.S;

Bannerman Castle in New York sits on Pollepel Island right in the middle of the Hudson River and has been around since 1901.

Alcatraz Island is a blast to visit and I loved it. Chicago gangster Al Capone did time there I remember reading as a kid from Chi-town. It is in San Francisco Bay with awesome views of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Old City Hall Station you will find in Lower Manhattan. It has been shut down for quite a while, since 1945. A unique and mysterious place to see.

Michigan Central Station is huge and you will find it right here in Michigan.  It is a lonely train station in Detroit.  "It went into service before completion due to the original one suffering a fire in 1913". It has more than 8 million bricks, 125,000 cubic feet of stone, and 7,000 tons of steel. Like a said HUGE!

Bombay Beach Yes, this is an abandoned beach very close to Coachella Valley in Southern California. They say that the Salton Sea was a big vacation spot for the rich and famous. It had some bad luck though because thousands of fish and birds washed up onshore. The property values took a big dive and it became a place no one wanted to be.

Eastern State Penitentiary is in Philadelphia, and I remember seeing it when I lived there in the early 2000s and it was Erie.  Kind of a gothic-style prison.  Today it sits by itself, and I guess is still considered spooky. It was home to “Slick Willie” Sutton and just like Alcatraz, Al Capone also did time there.

Bodie, California, near the Nevada border this was a gold-mining town back in the 1800s. In1962 it became a State Park. so many of the ghost town’s buildings are still there and standing.

Centralia is smack dab in the middle of Pennsylvania.  Coal mining has always been a tough gig but paid well. This used to be a coal town, and in 1962, there was a fire and the town never recovered.

Cahaba, Alabama, is just west of Montgomery and was the first state capital from 1819 to 1826. It is still Alabama’s most famous ghost town. This was a river town and fell apart a bit after the Civil War. A sad sight, but very historic to see these days.

St. Elmo, Colorado, is another ghost town in the Rocky Mountains from 1880.  Train service stopped going through there in 1926, and by 1958 it was almost unpopulated.  There are a few people living there today with a few businesses like a general store and a guest house.

There ya go, just in time for a Halloween Vacation kids.