The vast American wilderness
is home to evil forces
thought only to exist in nightmares,
but the terrible creatures that roam here are all too real.
Some entities that haunt the land
defy explanation...
while others are steeped in rich, dark history
and deadly legend.
I turn around to look,
but I don't really want to turn around to look
because I don't want to see what's there.
I was scared enough that I could definitely feel
my heart beating.
I was nervous. I was shaking.
Look behind you!
It, like, shrieks this horrible, horrible sound.
Kill it! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!
It felt like I was paralyzed,
like I absolutely could not move or comprehend.
They will do everything in their power to grab you,
to get you, to kill you, to eat you.
When a legend is born of a sinister history,
it never dies.
Well, legends tend to form from the old world's skill
of telling stories through word of mouth
before there was such thing as mass communication,
and they go back eons.
A legend is a story that has been told over
and over and over again.
Something in that story has stuck in time.
It's also maybe something that has happened
that we're afraid of
because it's a power beyond our understanding.
There's a lot of things about legends
that we do not understand.
Consider these warnings.
Stay away, otherwise you're entering at your own risk
and taking life in your own hands.
This stretch of land in the backwoods of Canada
has witnessed a number of gruesome and horrific
incidents over the decades.
The most gruesome of which was born decades ago.
The locals call this highway Ghost Road.
Ghost Road is an infamous legend.
There was a father in the midst of a messy divorce
from his wife, and he had, at that point,
become semi estranged from his kids,
and he had gone out and taken them,
and he drove them to that stretch of road.
He burned the kids to death.
It's said the ghosts of the dead children
now stalk this road,
seeking justice for their demise.
Yet it is an even more disturbing incident
that grips the imaginations of the locals,
the bloody death of a young thrill seeker
on this lonely highway.
As a youth, you're definitely aware of the legend.
Legend has it that Ghost Road
is the site of a fatal motorcycle crash years ago.
No one knows quite when.
There's a teenager who used to go
into a local farmer's field
and rip it up with his motorcycle,
and the farmer got annoyed at this.
He repositioned his barbed wire fence.
And then the barbed wire fence ended up decapitating the kid.
But the legend doesn't end there.
His girlfriend had gone out shortly after he had died,
to kill herself.
Then she had committed suicide on the road.
People quite often see her ghost,
like, with the white dress flowing.
And she's not alone.
According to folk lore, her lover, the ghost rider,
has also stalked the road ever since,
hunting for vengeance.
People who go to Ghost Road claim
that they view this motorcycle headlight
coming towards them across the field.
And now on a chilly October evening,
Paul Nash and his friend, Jordan,
have come to this fabled stretch of road
to see if the chilling stories are true,
but perhaps they have come searching for something
that should be left alone.
So when Jordan and I went to Ghost Road,
it was Thanksgiving weekend,
and it was sort of a typical Thanksgiving weekend
in northern Ontario.
The air was cold.
It sort of smelled of dead leaves,
and definitely farmers' country.
You could smell, like, burning yard waste,
and it sort of had that sort of mist feel about it.
Both had been instructed
on what to do in order to entice
the spirit of the ghost rider.
When you pull over, you have to shut off the car,
turn off the lights
to make sure there's no ambient light or noise.
Are we really gonna wait out here all night?
Yes, we are going to wait out here all night.
That's why we came out here.
If you park where you can see the farmer's field,
you would see the light of the motorcycle going across.
Jordan fancied herself a ghost expert
really describes a lot of who Jordan was.
Like, she was deeply interested in stuff like this.
Jordan was normally sort of a wired person,
so she was definitely on edge when we got out there.
You got to be quiet.
If you hear something bad at a location,
there's a natural curiosity
of going to investigate it...
However, unless you're experienced
or you have the proper equipment,
I highly don't recommend it because it's not safe.
I mean, like, I wouldn't exactly say I'm a nonbeliever,
but I wasn't a believer either.
I sort of... I need evidence.
When you go up there, I mean, you're psyching yourself.
Did you...
Yeah.
You're aware of the stories,
and you're aware that it's there,
so you're already a bit on edge, I mean, believer or not.
I mean, old country road in the middle of October,
you pull over and turn off the lights,
I think anybody would be scared.
Definitely the type of thing that makes your hair
stand on end.
It was definitely the perfect night to see a ghost.
And it appears the spirit
of the dead motorcyclist
is in sync with that sentiment.
It sort of appears as a small light hovering
in the middle of the field.
They see the light,
but it's not going across the field in the distance.
Let's go!
It's headed right for them.
No, no, no.
This lonely stretch of rural Canadian highway
is steeped in bloody legend.
Children have been burned alive,
a gruesome decapitation...
and a bloody suicide...
and now the spirits of all those victims torment the land.
The locals call it Ghost Road, and every now and then,
someone comes out here looking for a thrill.
The dangerous part about seeking any paranormal or ghost location
is typically it's done at night.
It's not safe.
Let's assume that ghosts are real
and they do not want to be bothered.
If you bother them in their natural state,
you know, they will cause harm.
Paul and Jordan have come out to a deserted road
in the middle of the night
in search of the legendary ghost rider that haunts the area.
Now, to their horror,
he's headed right for them.
- What? - Let's go!
And then it starts rather rapidly coming towards you.
- Go, go! - It's not working!
- Drive! - It's not working!
No, no, no.
And then it disappears.
He was just there.
I don't see him.
We're both on edge, just waiting for something to happen.
He may have vanished, but he's not done with them yet.
The phantom rider appears to be toying with them, but why?
This is not how the sighting is supposed to go.
Heart rate's definitely up.
Definitely a bit of fear, sort of the fear you get
when you're confronting something you don't know.
Tonight he isn't the only spirit
who's come out to play.
Three ghosts just walked out of the ditch
on the side of the road.
Ah!
- Let's go! - It's not working!
The ghosts of the murdered children
and the dead girl have them surrounded.
It's chilling.
And now the ghost rider is returning as well.
What I find about places with multiple layers of hauntings,
say at different eras,
is not all of them are friendly.
They usually show some form of aggression,
and it can be as tame
as swear words right up
to physical interaction.
So we sort of felt the car shake and heard a noise,
and we looked back,
they'd actually gotten up on the trunk of Jordan's car.
- Let's go! - Ah!
Move! Move! Move!
Oh, my god!
It was scary because they didn't really fulfill
what you imagine an actual ghost to be.
It was more real.
It was more solid, like they were there.
They were present, and they were like real people.
To the point where the three of them are rocking the car.
Is it something where we're gonna end up
getting hurt, right?
Like, where they're actually coming to actually hurt us.
Jordan started the car in hopes
that they would jump off the back.
Ah!
Of course it didn't happen,
so she was getting frustrated,
and she would just sort of like step on it
and pull the car forward type thing
to try and shake them off, and it wasn't working.
Ah!
They weren't reacting.
Let's go!
- Please. - Move! Move! Move!
Paul and Jordan have undertaken an adventure
they shouldn't have,
and now they're paying a bloody price.
It's quite terrifying.
Oh, my god!
Ah!
Paul and Jordan went out
looking for a legendary ghost
and found him.
Unfortunately, he brought along some friends.
- It's not working! - Hurry!
Ah!
Now they're trapped in the car and under attack
by all of those who died on this very road.
We definitely weren't expecting
anything more than the boy on the motorcycle.
We weren't expecting to, you know, witness ghost children
or the woman in white
or anything outside of what the actual legend says.
I believe that it's very common for ghosts and spirits
to work together.
I feel that they're possibly one and the same.
- I'm getting out. - Don't.
What else are we gonna do?
Paul believes there's only one thing he can do...
Leave the vehicle and face these apparitions head on.
I just said, "Okay. Well, I guess
I'm gonna have to go out and look at them."
I open the car door, and I get out,
and I turn around to look at the back to confront them,
and there's nobody sitting on the trunk of the car.
The ghosts have disappeared,
but are they gone?
At that point, I'm terrified.
Either they really got off the car
and ran quickly into the ditch
or there's something bigger going on.
Paul fears that the legendary spirits
could be preparing for an even greater attack.
I mean, at this point, I was scared without question.
I was scared enough that I could definitely feel
my heart beating.
I was nervous. I was shaking.
As Paul searches the field for ghosts,
Jordan is left alone inside the car,
scared out of her mind, and gripped
by an overpowering sense of danger.
What? What?
It's terrifying to begin with,
and so it's sort of the thing where I turn around to look
but I don't really want to turn around to look
because I don't want to see what's there.
Start the car!
It's not working.
- Hurry! - Ah!
She was terrified.
I mean, I can still sort of remember
the tone of her voice when she screamed.
Yes, yes, yes!
Oh!
Jordan gets the car started.
It's no guarantee they'll make it out alive.
My mind's racing, and Jordan is driving the car probably,
you know, twice the speed limit to get out of there,
and she's not thinking rationally either.
The ghost rider isn't about to let them go so easily.
Did you see that?
So as we're driving away and we turn away
from Ghost Road, on the corner I see the woman in white.
The phantom suicide victim gives them
a final warning... Don't come back.
Paul and Jordan escape Ghost Road,
leaving the blood-chilling apparitions behind.
Both vow never to return.
And now Josh McFarland is going to have his own encounter
with an ancient and deadly legend.
Move! Move! Move!
A legend should always be taken seriously.
There could be truth.
There could be something going on that we don't understand,
so we need to tread lightly in case
it's a part of something bigger that we don't understand.
The thought that it was hunting us was truly horrible.
The horrors of Ghost Road
are exclusive to that small rural area,
but some deadly legends are woven into the foundation
of an entire culture.
At first I didn't really ever believe them.
It sounds like a, you know, regional bogeyman type story,
you know, that they describe them almost as,
you know, like, these monsters in the desert
that I never really bought into
until I saw what I saw that night.
Arizona is a land that is rich in mythology.
Many of the most extraordinary stories
come from the Navajo Nation,
who today has the small city of Window Rock its capitol.
They say that the Window Rock itself
holds a lot of spiritual energy for the Navajos' culture.
Apparently a giant serpent
savaged the people here
until their god punched a hole in the mountain
for it to slither through and disappear,
but there is something else stalking this land,
a creature so terrifying most refuse to speak its name aloud.
Tonight Josh is venturing out into the heart
of the legendary creature's territory.
It's something everyone knows about
but no one really talks about.
Part of the superstition is, like, you don't talk about it.
They gain some of their power
from having people take notice of them
and having people interested in them,
and talking about them invites them to take an interest in you.
And it's not only the Navajo
who take the story seriously.
Paranormal investigators know that legendary creatures
can be rooted in deadly truths
and understand how dangerous it is to come across one.
Depending on how horrific the legend itself is,
the dangers can range from very weak
and no danger to extreme dangers in the case of legends
concerning particularly nasty, malicious creatures of any kind,
not just spirits but cryptids and physical creatures.
And just like the Garden of Eden,
the most beautiful landscape can hide a vicious creature.
It almost feels like there's a...
You know, there's two sides to every coin.
They talk about the good energy or the good shamanistic thing.
It almost feels like, you know, in the area,
it almost makes sense
that there'd be something kind of sinister
to, like, almost protect itself.
Legends just aren't stories.
They could be warnings from our ancestors.
They've seen stuff that we may have not experienced before.
They might be just letting us know what's about to happen
or what's yet to come.
Josh McFarland is not Navajo,
but like everyone in these parts,
he's heard that a mythical beast stalks these lands.
He's never given it much thought until now.
Tonight he and his father
are driving down this dark road,
miles away from the nearest town.
My dad owned and operated a small delivery service
in and around the area, taking small packages
out to rural settlements that are...
It's too much of a hassle for the larger companies.
It was definitely not uncommon at all for us to be driving,
like, very, very far from civilization.
Snakes, horned lizards, well, you definitely
wouldn't want to find yourself alone at night in that area.
We had gotten a call to install a large screen television
in a house just outside of Window Rock.
I always enjoyed the trips
because it's just beautiful landscapes out there.
During the night time, it's almost absolutely pitch
unless there's a full moon.
If you're driving down the highway,
you pretty much can only see the areas in your headlights.
Suddenly Josh senses the area
may not be as deserted as it seems.
When you're in the desert at night,
sometimes you get this feeling like something
is out there with you.
You know, you can kind of feel
that there's something watching you.
If something else is out there,
at least they're not entirely on their own.
Thanks for tagging along.
Man, it's been too long since I been up here.
The reason David was with us,
when we got the call to go out to Window Rock
for this particular delivery, he was there, and he's like,
"Oh, you know, I have family in Window Rock.
"We should all go together
and kind of make a trip out of it."
David and his entire family are Navajo.
About time he learned the truth about his daddy,
don't you think?
We had a couple of other pieces of freight in the truck with us,
so David took their truck in a convoy,
and we were communicating back and forth
with walkie-talkies just to kind of keep it fun,
you know, make it more of a trip together
as opposed to, you know, just us following one another.
However, the fun doesn't last long.
What is that?
Hey, you see that up ahead?
As we were coming down the highway, we can kind of see
what appears to be a very large black or brown dog.
As we get closer and closer, we can kind of see
that it's got this brown wiry kind of matted fur.
Looks like it could almost be covered in, like, a dried blood.
It turns, and it looks at us, and it's got this...
It's like a face.
It's like a person's face
stretched over, like, a bear's skull.
It's eyes were, like...
You see that?
Jet black, just holes in the human mask.
Just these jet black eyes peering through,
and while it, like, the expression in the eyes
was almost angry,
the look on the face was more one of, like, pain.
Whatever this creature before them is,
it has its sights set on Josh and his father.
Ah!
Now that the beast sees them,
there's no escape.
Josh, his father, and their friend, David,
are traveling a deserted road in the heart of Navajo country,
rumored to be stalked by an ancient beast,
and now they're stopped in the middle of nowhere
just a few feet away from it.
I've only seen that face on my father a few times,
both times when his parents died and then that night,
and it was just this face like, "I want to tell you
everything is going to be okay, but I don't know."
I just remember him giving me that look.
David is the only one who's Navajo.
He know what this creature is,
and he knows how much danger they're in.
You should go back.
Back, back, back, back in the car.
The terrified look on David's face
tells them it's something to be very afraid of.
They need to return to their vehicles now.
We better get going.
Hit it with your car.
Put the pedal to the metal, and hit it now.
He said, "You have to speed up. You have to hit that thing.
That is not a dog. You have to..."
He started becoming hysterical, screaming,
"You have to hit it. You have to hit that thing."
Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!
We start to realize this thing is huge.
I remember not screaming.
Nothing was said, and just 10 and two on the steering wheel,
just accelerating as fast as we could,
and I'm ready for impact.
Just then, it, like, shrieks this horrible, horrible sound.
We were inches from hitting it.
Then it jumps back off into the blackness,
and I couldn't see it again.
Do you see it? Do you see it?
It was unnatural.
I mean, it's sitting in the dead center of the highway,
and it's able to clear a whole lane plus, you know,
the little ditch off to the side that separates the road
from a barbed wire fence.
I've never seen...
It was absolutely unnatural.
When Josh and his father ask David what they saw,
they get a blood-curdling answer...
It's a skin-walker.
The skin-walker is a legend from the Navajo people
that is predominately around the southwestern United States.
A skin-walker is a shaman
or a medicine man
that has begun practicing the evil side of shamanism
that involves mostly taking shape, shifting shape.
It's a shape-shifter,
someone who can change from a human to an animal.
A skin-walker is also known as a Navajo witch.
They're known to be harmful.
The legend describes them as being some sort
of an animal-like humanoid.
They're like a magical practitioner,
like a shaman that's started to practice,
like, a blood magic or a black magic.
Not all Navajo shamans are evil,
but those who pursue dark magic or dark energy
could be potentially really dangerous.
And there's a sinister reason
why it is after these innocent travelers.
Once a skin-walker has you in his scent,
they will do everything in their power to grab you,
to get you, to kill you, to eat you.
In order to gain their power, they have to commit
some kind of serious cultural taboo or crime,
you know, killing an infant
or cannibalizing a family member,
something truly heinous,
to, like, gain the power to being able to shape-shift,
and that's what a skin-walker is.
Once it has consumed their flesh,
it must wear the skin of its victim,
even if it is peeled off a human being.
And that's where the term
skin-walker actually comes from.
In order to continue to change shape,
they have to continue practicing
whatever sort of dark taboo
they initially broke in the first place.
So if they were to gain their abilities
through consuming someone's flesh
and cannibalizing them, then to keep their powers,
they would have to continue breaking those taboos.
Fresh human flesh, David believes the skin-walker
was looking for its next prey
when Josh and his father came along.
Right now they all feel lucky to have escaped,
but they aren't out of the woods yet, not even close.
The skin-walker is back and chasing their vehicle.
He has acquired their scent, and there is no stopping him.
Josh, his father and their friend, David,
are being chased by the legendary skin-walker,
which needs a fresh kill to maintain its power.
Move! Move! Move!
David was still freaking out over the radio.
He kept saying, "We have to go faster.
"We have to get out of here.
It is following us. We have to leave right now."
This horrible, freakish creature could actually be following us
and keeping pace with our vehicle,
you know, on the highway.
Fast! Go!
He kept saying, "It's following us.
We have to get out of here. We have to go faster."
He kept repeating that last part.
"We have to go faster, and we have to get out of here."
That was one of the worst parts,
honestly, because David is a very stoic man, you know,
but to hear him freak out and to start screaming over the radio,
you know, obscenities, "We have to get out of here.
We have to leave," it absolutely put my mind in panic mode.
I didn't want was gonna happen.
At that moment, I remember I can...
You know, I can feel that I'm trembling.
My heart is racing.
My vision is kind of feeling blurred almost.
Like, I'm freaking out.
I start hyperventilating.
My dad is trying to comfort me.
You know, "It's okay.
"We're gonna make it out of here.
We just have to drive faster," and then at that point,
we were hauling ass across the desert,
and we get pulled over
by a Navajo Reservation police officer.
As we're pulling over, David is behind us,
so he pulls in with us,
and this obviously makes the officer very nervous.
He exits his vehicle with his, you know,
his hand on his holster.
You guys were going a little fast tonight.
- You in a rush to go somewhere? - There's a skin-walker!
Can you turn the car off for me, please?
There's a skin-walker! We got to get out of here.
And I remember the officer, a Navajo man himself,
he just turns white.
He had that same look on his face, like,
"Is this really happening right now?"
Follow me, guys.
The officer knows that they shouldn't be stuck
in the middle of nowhere with a skin-walker,
let alone say the name out loud.
In Navajo culture, the skin-walker legend
is taken very seriously,
and they do not talk with anyone outside, as they feel
that it will give its source of energy to the skin-walker.
With the police escort in tow,
should the skin-walker reappear,
Josh, his father, and David put the pedal to the metal.
And we high-tailed
it all the way back to Farmington at that speed.
Seeing the city lights of Farmington really actually
did put my mind at ease,
but David was still calling over the radio, like,
"You guys have to come over to our house
right after we get back. Like, you can't go home alone."
And he goes back into his bedroom,
and he's rummaging around for something
I guess his grandmother gave him.
Josh, here!
Look.
It sees you now, okay?
All right. It's going to come for you.
You need to keep this. All right?
- You listen to me. - You listen to me. You keep this. -Yes.
Yeah, he just very panicked, you know,
kind of shoved it into my hand and said,
"You have to keep this in your house, or they can...
It's like, and if you don't have this, they'll be invited in."
It was, like, a... I believe it was a small eagle feather,
maybe a couple inches long.
It had twine, red and white twine
wrapped around the base of it.
I only saw it that one time for just a brief second
because my dad took it and put it in his jacket pocket.
Listen. Listen. Listen. It's seen you now, okay?
All right. It's gonna come for you.
According to legend, if you hold a charm,
it will stop the skin-walker from coming to you,
but you need to hold on to it.
As soon as you let it go, it will come back.
And they would be extremely lucky for getting away
from the skin-walker as they did.
Thankfully they had a vehicle.
Now they have to be careful
and need to hold on to the charm,
and they need to protect themselves from it.
If they lose the charm,
the skin-walker's gonna come right back for them.
With the precious charm in their hands,
Josh and his father pray
they are safe as they speed home.
Several Navajo people that I know are always very adamant
not to go in the desert at night, not by yourself,
especially bilagáanas like myself,
or white people like myself,
are supposedly at risk in those areas.
That conveys just how terrifying and freaky the incident was.
Josh is still haunted by the experience
and fears the consequence of telling his story.
Like Josh and his father,
Paul and Jordan's terrifying encounter
with the legend of Ghost Road
has had a lasting impact on them.
Paul has avoided the area ever since.
I accept that there's stuff that I can't explain,
and stuff that I can't explain terrifies me.
The memory of that night is still pretty thick.
It definitely comes around Thanksgiving every year,
so the smell of leaves,
the cold in the air will always remind me.
So I've never gone back to Ghost Road,
and there's a good chance that I never would.
Ah!