Michael Chen

There Is A Trail Up In The Rocky Mountains That You Should Never Hike, And For Good Reason

"This old trail used to be the only way through this little strip of Colorado to get onto Utah in the Winter when the snow was high, but it would give you about a 50/50 shot at making it. About half the people would freeze or starve to death. Take your pick. But the real…

By Jack Follman

Updated 8 years ago, January 26, 2017

“That’s my dad, up there in that cemetery. They found the bastard’s camera down at the bottom of the ravine. Never found him though.”

“Are you being serious?”

“Yep, November 2nd, 1974. We knew papa was heading up into the mountains, but we hadn’t seen him for a week and the sheriff came over, said they found his camera at the bottom of Elmer’s Cliff, but that was it.”

“Holy shit, man.”

I was quickly not starting to feel good about this whole thing. I thought about turning around, but was worried about leaving Ezra up there all alone and wasn’t even sure how to get back down. I pressed on.

“They always said the damned graveyard was haunted by the old dead McCords. If you found it, you would never come back. Sounds like BS, but that picture I showed you is the only known photo of the thing and the man who was in it disappeared without a trace after he stepped in that god forsaken place.”

My skin grew cold even though I was still sweating from the challenging climb.

“You don’t really believe that, do you?”

“I might say I didn’t, but my daddy didn’t go up there with anyone.”

Ezra looked back at me with sweat finally starting to break upon his tanned and wrinkled forehead.

“So who do you think took that picture?”

I didn’t have a response, just thought about walking back down the mountain again. Maybe I could make it out of the forest before nightfall?

“But I would be lying if I said that was the worst story about these mountains. We’re about to come up on the coyote farm.”