The Bay Area’s nine counties hold more than 150 years of Gold Rush towns, shipyards, mining camps, military posts and grand hotels, and they’ve produced some of the best-known ghost stories in California. This guide covers haunted places in the Bay Area region by region, with the real history behind each legend. For deeper dives into the two big cities, see our guides to haunted places in San Francisco and haunted places in San Jose.
Several of these locations are businesses, museums or parks with set hours. Please visit respectfully and never trespass.
San Francisco
1. Alcatraz Island
The former federal penitentiary (1934–1963) is the Bay Area’s most famous haunted location. Rangers and visitors have reported voices, slamming doors and cold spots, especially in the solitary cells of D Block. Night tours run from Pier 33. Read more in our San Francisco guide.
2. Stow Lake, Golden Gate Park
The White Lady of Stow Lake, a mother said to search the water for her lost baby, has been part of San Francisco folklore since a 1908 newspaper report. It’s the city’s best-known urban legend and one of the oldest in the Bay Area.
North Bay
3. Angel Island Immigration Station
Angel Island State Park, by ferry from Tiburon or San Francisco
From 1910 to 1940, the immigration station on Angel Island detained and interrogated hundreds of thousands of new arrivals, most of them from China, sometimes for months. Detainees carved poems into the barracks walls that are still visible today. The weight of that history has given rise to ghost stories, including a well-known legend of a young bride said to haunt the women’s quarters. Whatever you believe, the station is a moving place to visit, and a museum now tells the detainees’ stories.
East Bay
4. USS Hornet, Alameda
707 W Hornet Avenue, Alameda
Commissioned in 1943, the aircraft carrier USS Hornet fought in the Pacific in World War II and later recovered the Apollo 11 astronauts after their return from the Moon. Over decades of service, hundreds of people reportedly died aboard. Today it’s a museum, and crew members, volunteers and visitors have described doors opening and closing, tools moving, phantom footsteps and sailors in uniform who vanish around corners. The museum has hosted overnight and paranormal events on board.
5. Rose Hill Cemetery, Black Diamond Mines
Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve, Antioch
In the 1800s these hills held five coal-mining towns, and Rose Hill Cemetery holds many of the miners and their families. Its most famous resident is Sarah Norton, the midwife of Nortonville, who was killed in October 1879 when she was thrown from her buggy on the way to a birth. Storms are said to have repeatedly disrupted her funeral until she was buried quietly without a service. Visitors since then have described a glowing woman in white, nicknamed the “White Witch,” moving among the graves. The preserve is managed by the East Bay Regional Park District; stick to posted hours.
Peninsula and Coast
6. Moss Beach Distillery
140 Beach Way, Moss Beach
This cliff-top restaurant began as a Prohibition-era speakeasy in 1927. Its resident ghost, the “Blue Lady,” is said to be a woman in a blue dress who died on the beach below during a doomed romance with the bar’s piano player. Staff and guests have reported phone calls with no one on the line, objects moving, and women losing a single earring. It’s one of the most frequently cited haunted restaurants in California, and the ocean view is worth the trip on its own.
7. Colma, the City of the Silent
South of San Francisco
After San Francisco banned new burials in the early 1900s and moved most of its cemeteries out of the city, the small town of Colma became the region’s burial ground. Today its residents are vastly outnumbered by the dead, who include Levi Strauss, Wyatt Earp and Joe DiMaggio. With more than a dozen cemeteries in a town of a couple of square miles, Colma has no shortage of ghost stories. Visit during cemetery hours and be respectful of active services.
South Bay and Santa Cruz Mountains
8. Winchester Mystery House, San Jose
Sarah Winchester’s endlessly expanding mansion, with its stairs to nowhere and doors that open onto walls, is the most famous haunted house in the Bay Area and one of the best known in the world. Visitors and staff report footsteps, voices and cold spots. See our full San Jose guide.
9. The Former Toys “R” Us, Sunnyvale
El Camino Real, Sunnyvale
For years, employees at the Sunnyvale Toys “R” Us reported toys falling from shelves, lights switching on and the smell of flowers in one aisle. The activity was blamed on a ghost nicknamed “Johnny Johnson,” said to be a 19th-century farmhand from the days when the site was a ranch. The story drew TV crews and psychics and became one of the South Bay’s most famous retail hauntings.
10. Brookdale Lodge
Highway 9, Brookdale, Santa Cruz Mountains
Just outside the Bay Area, this historic lodge is known for its Brook Room, a dining room built over a running creek. Its best-known ghost is “Sarah Logan,” said to be a young relative of the lodge’s founder, Judge James Harvey Logan, who drowned in the creek. Local historians have found no record that a Sarah Logan ever existed, but the sightings of a little girl in an old-fashioned dress keep coming, and the lodge has been featured on paranormal TV shows. It’s a good reminder that a legend and the history behind it are not always the same thing.
Tips for Visiting Haunted Places in the Bay Area
- Check opening hours; many sites are parks, museums or businesses
- Book Alcatraz night tours and USS Hornet events early
- Bring layers. Bay Area fog makes nights cold, especially on the coast and the water
- Keep a written log and audio recordings of anything you experience
- Respect cemeteries, private homes and memorials
Experiencing Activity at Home?
Famous haunted places make for a great night out, but most of the calls we receive are from people dealing with activity in their own homes, from San Francisco and Oakland to San Jose and the Peninsula. If something in your home doesn’t add up, start with Is My House Haunted? 12 Signs to Look For, and get in touch when you’re ready.