Being the Fairytale Traveler often means sleeping in some pretty old places. Naturally, with old places, there comes the possibility of old guests or residents. This means I end up spending the night in a lot of haunted hotels. Since I am always up for a haunted adventure, I love staying in places like these, and the Groveland Hotel’s ghosts must have known it because me oh my, was I up all night!
It was the middle of the night when I woke up to a loud bang in the hallway. It startled me, I could feel my heart climbing out of my chest as I glanced over to the fuzzy red numbers on the clock. 3:03 am. “What the hell was that?” I thought to myself, listening intently for the sound of voices or footsteps, anything to indicate this was a late-night stumbling of someone from the saloon next door and not something you hear about from haunted hotels.
Haunted Hotels, Something I’m Used to
We were at the Groveland Hotel just miles outside of Yosemite National Park and feet away from the oldest saloon in California’s wild west. Earlier that afternoon we had made a walkthrough of the property with the front desk clerk as she shared with us the story of the hotel and its permanent resident, Lyle. When you’re in the business of chasing fairytales, legends, and lore, you tend to find yourself in places like this more often than not; and so I made a mental note of it and carried on without further thought of Lyle, his haunted room, or the ghosts that were living on the floor above me, well until 3:03 am that is.
There was nothing but silence. No footsteps, no door, no voices to ensue the bang that woke me from a dead sleep in the middle of the night. I listened so hard, the only sound I could hear was the ringing in my ears. Was I dreaming? “Bang!” there it was again! I couldn’t believe it, that time I knew I wasn’t dreaming! It came from the hallway just in front of my door. This time I heard footsteps, but they were above me, in the complete opposite direction of the bang.
The footsteps creaked back and forth, back and forth, in the same direction and at the same pace over my bed. What was this person doing at three something in the morning just walking back and forth? “Go to bed!” I thought. Just as I rolled over with a huff my door began to shake -like the kind of shake when someone walks by your room in a really old house, except there was no one in the hallway. “Okay, what the hell is going on here?” I thought. “It’s like a party with no voices!” Then it stopped. Everything just stopped. It was 3:11 am.
Bang!”
“I don’t believe it!” I said out loud as I sprung from my warm cozy bed to put an ear to the door. There is was again, no other sounds to make sense of this noise. Then the footsteps, then the door -this went on until the sun came up.
A very tired morning was upon me as I gathered my things, asking Bugs and the Little if they had heard anything in the night. Naturally, the Little was sound asleep, and Bugs just replied, “I heard something but I was too tired to care.” A likely story when you are on the go as much as we are. We clumsily made our way to the front desk to check out.
Thinking of staying at the Groveland Hotel, click here for our review!
“How was everything? How did you sleep?” asked the bouncing front desk attendant as I handed over my room key. “Actually I loved the bed, the linens were great but I was awake most of the night. Tell me, was there a guest in the room above us?” I asked, dying to know if an insomniac with a disposition to walking back and forth had checked in late last night. “No, that room is empty, no one in there.” She replied. “Funny, I heard footsteps all night long! There was a bang and my door was shaking, this went on until just a couple of hours ago. Have you ever heard of this?” I asked, astonished at her reply as I was certain there was a party going on.
She chuckled and said, “We get that a lot, Groveland Hotel is a special place, it doesn’t surprise me at all.” Just like that, I knew it what kind of guest it was, the kind that doesn’t check out.
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Gosh reading this sent shivers down my spine! I have a love-spook relationship with ghost stories and encounters. I myself haven’t had any encounters, but I love hearing, reading and watching scary ghost stuff– and then I can’t sleep! hahaha. Your post reminded me of some episodes of Ghost Hunters! With the type of places you stay at, maybe you should carry an EMF Meter! haha but no point anyway, because what are you going to do?? might as well try to sleep in peace 🙂
I DO HAHAHAHA I got one for Bugs for Christmas. He’s such a dork, he brings it everywhere LMAO!!! Him and the Little run off to corners of castles and places we’re at and they do little ghost hunts, it’s adorable LOL.
Crazy. This is exactly what was happening at my grandpa’s place. We heard the sound of pots falling and we rushed to the kitchen – everything was in order. Then things would disappear and reappear on the other side of his 500 year old house. Creepy|
500 year old house!!!!!!!!!!! Holy crap!
Stayed there last year! Arrived at 10pm in the pitch black dark of night. Only one room left!
Someone banged on my door in the middle of the night. I came to in confusion for a few seconds and then immediately slipped into a lucid dream type state. It was a woman and she was laughing at me through my door. She walked right through the door and beckoned me to follow her. She was heavy set and wearing clothes women wore two centuries ago. I got up and followed her in the “dream” state. She took me through what looked like a saloon and then outside. There were guys dressed up in what looked like horseback riding/cowboy looking clothing laughing holding mugs of alcohol. They all seemed drunk. She showed me a path in the field.
I woke up the next morning to finish my drive to Yosemite and the field next to the hotel is exactly where she took me! Blew my mind!
WHOA! Now THAT is crazy! What room were you in?
Someone stuck a knife through my door and I heard someone calling my name.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WAY!
I spent the night here several years ago, I was working with SF Water & Power Company nearby and it was the first place I found with a vacancy, so I had no knowledge or history of it. I kid you not as soon as I walked into the place I knew something wasn’t right about it. It had nothing to do with the décor or the people working there, it was just a feeling and the hair on the back of my neck was on end. I checked into an upstairs room that still used an actual key and met with a co-worker of mine later that evening in an upstairs alcove. We talked about the ongoing project with the power company and then he said there’s one more thing I have to tell you and before he could get the words out of his mouth I said, “this place is haunted, isn’t it?” He smiled and shook his head yes. I told him I knew it as soon as I walked through the door. You see, I used to live in a haunted house with my father years before. We did some investigating and found out two people were murdered and found in the attic before we lived there and we had numerous encounters while living there, so ever since then I can usually walk into a place and tell if its haunted or not…back to Groveland…my co-worker and I got the full story of the place the next day from the owner…I never encountered anything while I was there but I didn’t sleep a wink that night.
That is so interesting. I’ve had 3 total experiences in my life. It never leaves you. I totally get what you mean.
I’m staying here right now, and same thing: inexplicable banging, footsteps, door sounds. The banging is actually in my room. The footsteps and door sounds are on the same floor. I asked her to please stop banging, and let me sleep. Finally it stopped. Then she knocked the cup over into the sink when I awoke in the middle of the night, encouraging me to get up and get a drink. I get a maternal feel from her, like a doting mamma that wants a lot of attention. I came here for peace, but I guess that’s not happening. If you want sound sleep, don’t come here.
Wow, I’m telling you that place is surely haunted!