Burkittsville, Maryland -
Spook Hill
Defying the laws of gravity and common sense, vehicles appear to roll backwards up a hill.
- Address:
- Gapland Rd, Burkittsville, MD
- Directions:
- From the downtown square in Burkittsville, drive northwest on W. Main St./Gapland Rd. You'll head uphill and see a large red barn on the left. Drive past the barn, over the crest of the hill, and almost to the bottom of the hill on the other side. Stop, put your car in neutral, and coast backward uphill. Watch out for cars coming over the hill behind you!
- Hours:
- Public road. Hazard flashers recommended. Use at your own risk.
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Visitor Tips and News About Spook Hill
Spook Hill reports and tips from RoadsideAmerica.com visitors and Roadside America mobile tipsters. Some tips may not be verified. Submit your own tip.
Spook Hill Oh my goodness. It really works! We put the car completely in park first to make sure there was no rigging. And when we threw it in neutral, the minivan, with 7 people in it, quickly began to accelerate uphill. Well worth a side trip! [Lisa M, 10/10/2011]
Gravity Hill aka Spook Hill Point your car towards town and the red barn at the intersection of Gapland and Mountain Church Road and put your car in neutral. You definitely feel as if the car is being pulled uphill! Fun! [Kelly, 07/07/2010]
Spook Hill I live in Baltimore -- I had to go to Spook Hill after reading the other posts here. I found it easily....no GPS. I put my Jeep in park to completely stop it at the bottom of the hill. Then putting it in neutral, it did begin to move up the hill. I was surprised, as I was skeptical, but it did happen. [Kathy, 06/08/2010]
Gravity Hill aka Spook Hill I lived in Burkittsville most of my life and every Sunday we would go to my grandparents in Boonsboro MD, so we had to cross over South Mountain. I used to beg my parents to stop on Spook Hill and put the car in neutral so the car would roll up the hill. The history behind this is it's the ghosts of the battle in Burkittsville of the Civil War and they are pushing your car up the hill and they think it's their cannon their pushing...if you do this at midnight supposedly you can hear their footsteps pushing you up the hill. I investigated this further when i was older I took a 4 foot level and checked to see if the grade of the road was going up hill.....and it is! People think its an optical illusion. You be the judge. And there's no Blair Witch in Burkittsville. I used to camp in the woods all the time and never had a problem. [Earle G., 09/03/2009][RA: Ghosts -- they're just so confused.]
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