These Five Spooky L.A. Drives Will Chill You to the Bone
Southern California is home to plenty of diabolical driving destinations — like "Blood Alley" and the "Death Trap Highway" (a.k.a. State Route 138, the Pearblossom Highway in the Antelope Valley).
But if you're like some Southern Californians, you don't find the traffic nearly scary enough on its own, and you're looking for even more ways to scare your pants off while in the driver's seat.
In fact, there's plenty of spine-chilling scenery along SoCal roads and streets — and it goes way beyond the daily commute.
Just like the best of the Hollywood set, many of our local spooky destinations have undergone makeovers and name changes — think Glendale's "Dead Horse Canyon" becoming "Greenbriar." But make no mistake, there's still plenty of terrifying terrain for daring drivers to explore.
So, whether you're a paranormalist, an oddities aficionado or a horrifying history hound, here are five of the most scream-worthy streets where you can get your creep on — during the Halloween season, or all year long.
1. Beverly Hills Bermuda Triangle, Beverly Hills
You might not think that the celebrity Shangri-La of Beverly Hills would be cursed — but at least one intersection has seen more than its fair share of misfortune, often with tragic results. It's the "Beverly Hills Bermuda Triangle," located at the convergence of Whittier Drive and North Linden Drive in "The Flats" of Beverly Hills.
In 2010, Hollywood publicist Ronnie Chasen was shot and killed while driving through the "triangle." But her tragic death was just the latest in a series of bizarre incidents in the immediate vicinity — which included Howard Hughes crashing (and destroying) a prototype of his XF-11 spy plane there in 1946, barely walking away from the accident alive. In 1947, Bugsy Siegel was murdered when shots fired through the window of his girlfriend's house at 810 Linden Drive, at the bottom-right corner of the triangle.
William Jan Berry of the musical duo Jan & Dean, who recorded the 1964 hit song "Dead Man's Curve," crashed his Sting Ray there in 1966 — a wreck that left him in a coma and, when he awoke, with brain damage and partial paralysis. But today, Whittier Drive is a quiet residential street featuring several triangular medians at cross streets as you head south. The "cursed" one might look indistinguishable from the others — but don't linger too long, and get out while you can.
2. Dead Man's Curve, Beverly Hills
Less than a quarter-mile north of the "Bermuda Triangle" is the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Whittier Drive — the eastern end of "Dead Man's Curve," one of several hairpin turns along Sunset between The Flats and the 405 Freeway. This one bends to the north as you're heading west, past Greenway Drive and Copley Drive (both on your left).
Although it's not the spot where Jan of Jan & Dean crashed himself, it's widely thought of as the locale mentioned in the song "Dead Man's Curve" — a concept not unique to Los Angeles or even Southern California, as there are such deadly "curves" throughout the country. But this is probably the most famous one known to Americans, immortalized in rock and roll history.
Its dangers are real, too: It nearly took the life of Mel Blanc in 1961, when the voice actor crashed head-on into another car. Today, it's less frequently the site of drag racing (as depicted in the hit song) — but the 90-degree turn occasionally still sends cars careening and motorcycles leaning way too far to one side. If you'd like to attempt driving it yourself, make sure you come out of the experience alive by observing the posted speed limit of 25 mph. There are now also barricades to help keep you from veering into oncoming traffic.
3. Gravity Hill, Altadena
A "gravity hill" involves a spooky phenomenon in which a car appears to defy gravity by rolling uphill instead of downhill when left in neutral gear. And you can get behind the wheel and experience one of SoCal's very own in the northernmost section of Altadena — just south of the supposedly haunted Cobb Estate and the abandoned "White City" of Echo Mountain and the Mt. Lowe Railway.
To try it out for yourself, head north on East Loma Alta Drive until you reach the Rubio Wash Debris Basin on the left, around the second intersection of Sunny Oaks Circle. As your car faces north, the road in front of you (as seen through your windshield) looks like it's going downhill; the road behind you (as seen through your rear-view mirrors) appears to rise. Turn your hazard lights on, and if there's no traffic coming from either direction, leave your car on and shift into neutral. Take your foot off the brake, and your car will slowly roll backwards — or is it being pushed by some unseen force? (Note: This may not work if your car has one of those "Vehicle Hold" settings that keeps the brakes engaged even with your foot off the brake pedal.)
Although gravity hills — or, rather, anti-gravity hills — have been explained away as an optical illusion or a weird force in the earth's magnetic pull (hence their other nickname, "magnetic hills"), some people think the Altadena one is actually haunted and that it's ghosts who are actually pulling your car in the opposite of the expected direction. To test that theory, some suggest sprinkling baby powder on the hood and trunk of your car and looking for handprints appearing after you experience the reverse-rolling.
4. Colorado Street Bridge, Pasadena
Most of the troubled souls who jumped off the 150-foot-tall Colorado Street Bridge in Pasadena did so during the Great Depression, which had the highest rate of suicide than any other period in recorded history. But even in recent years, the precipice has tended to attract about a dozen jumpers a year. Neither spiked barriers nor signs declaring "There Is Hope" have completely thwarted the suicidal tendencies of the bridge's visitors — and some say that some of those spirits haven't completely left the scene.
Despite its grisly history, driving across this postcard-perfect civil engineering landmark is a joy — even if the lights do sometimes flicker off at night. The Colorado Bridge was built in 1913 as a "work of art" — with 11 Beaux Arts-style arches, constructed out of 11,000 cubic yards of steel-reinforced concrete, rising up over the Arroyo Seco, rounding the ravine at a 50-degree angle.
From Orange Grove Boulevard, take Colorado Boulevard west to cross over the Colorado Bridge, with the former Vista del Arroyo Hotel (now the U.S. Court of Appeals) on your left. Or, head east along Colorado Boulevard from North San Rafael Avenue to cross the bridge coming from the opposite direction. There's nowhere to park on the bridge itself — but at both approaches, you can park your car on a nearby street and experience the bridge on foot. For a more complete experience, you can also exit Colorado Boulevard at Linda Vista Avenue and drive under the bridge overpass (maximum clearance 14' 10").
5. Laurel Canyon Boulevard & Dead Man Overlook, Hollywood
For those most interested in haunted Hollywood lore, head up Laurel Canyon Boulevard — starting at Sunset Boulevard, near the site of the former Garden of Allah Hotel and at the same intersection where starlets were once discovered at Schwab's Pharmacy. Laurel Canyon's thick tree canopy makes this a darker drive than most, even in daylight — but this winding canyon pass, which leads to Studio City in the San Fernando Valley, is riddled with stories of hauntings.
One mansion — once owned by the likes of burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee and musician/songwriter Carole King — was allegedly so haunted, actress Courteney Cox had to sell it. And the current resident of Errol Flynn's former Laurel Canyon mansion, music producer Rick Rubin, attests to its own spiritual inhabitants.
On your drive heading north, take special care at the intersection of Laurel Canyon and Lookout Mountain — where drivers have reported seeing a "ghost carriage" pulled by two ghostly white horses crossing their paths around the stroke of midnight. If you manage to survive that intersection, proceed north on Laurel Canyon and turn left on Mulholland Drive, where one more mile down the road is Dead Man Overlook, situated between Fryman Canyon Park and the Autry Overlook. Open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., it's a great place to watch the sunset glow give way to the nighttime sparkle of the Valley lights below — as long as you don't succumb to the steep, dirt incline (and you stay on this side of the wooden fencing).
