It’s no lie that the UCSC campus is absolutely gorgeous. My daily commutes to and from classes and dining halls feel like walking through a summer camp or national park, and my camera roll is filled with pictures of trees, wildlife, and other pretty scenery that I took on the way. Many people I know echo the sentiment—when I ask people what drew them to attend UCSC, nearly all of them answer with “the campus.”
But, after night falls, it’s an entirely different story. The sunlit redwood forest becomes a pitch-black void all around you and the sound of that cute deer prancing through the underbrush leaves you imagining your own grisly demise at the hands of a serial killer as a simple walk back to your dorm turns into a horror movie waiting to happen.
- Literally Any Bridge
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During the day, the pedestrian bridges are a lovely way to get to and from your classes while enjoying the scenic forest views. At night, though, crossing a bridge becomes a harrowing journey that has me clutching my safety whistle tightly in my hand, looking around nervously for something to pop up out of the darkness. The lamps help illuminate your way, but they make it all the better to see possible monsters lurking in wait for their next victim—you.
- The Walk Between Science Hill and the Media Center
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I’m not sure whether anyone else has had this experience, but the walk through the woods past Clark Kerr Hall between Science Hill and the Media Center always gives me the heebie-jeebies. To this day, I still don’t know whether it was because of the foreboding, labyrinthine concrete walls by Thimann Labs, the barrenness of the Media Center, or simply because I took the path on my own during summer session, when I could make the trip without encountering a single other living soul.
- Forest Shortcut Between College Nine and Crown
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Okay, the entire forest itself just becomes absolutely terrifying at night, but a special shoutout goes to the shortcut trail between College Nine and Crown College. I had the pleasure (Or should I say displeasure?) of taking this path back to my dorm with my friends after dinner at the C9/10 dining hall one night, and the winding path and uneven ground had me in fight-or-flight mode the entire time. 0/10, would not recommend.
- Merrill A Building
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Though Merrill A building may seem as innocuous as any other dorm on campus, it’s also home to a lot of paranormal activity. Numerous sources in Her Campus UCSC have reported eerie phenomena like lights flickering on and off and knocking on the walls when no one was there, as well as the curtains moving by themselves on windless nights. Merrill A residents, beware!
- Porter residence halls
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(CW: mentions of suicide) If there was a prize for the most haunted college at UCSC, Porter College would absolutely decimate the rest of the competition. Over the years, there have been numerous sightings of the naked ghost of a woman named Lily who lived in the woods in the 1970’s, as well as the ghost of a student who committed suicide in Porter A Building more than twenty years ago. Apart from this, residents on the third floor of Porter B Building have reported waking up in their beds to the sensation of being strangled, and the two rooms in the basement closest to its laundry room are rumored to be hotbeds of poltergeist activity. Though I lived in Porter A during summer session this year and never saw anything out of the ordinary, a close friend of mine avoided the basement like the plague—clearly, for good reason.
Happy spooky season!