TERRIFYING TRUE FOREST HORROR STORIES: There Is Nowhere To Run To In The Woods

People living and working in remote areas often encounter things far creepier than just silence. These are real-life stories of unsettling encounters, from faces at the window to gruesome discoveries deep in the woods. EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/ForestHorror READ or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8cuh5y FEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: People who live and work in remote areas know that sometimes too much quiet can make your mind race. However, some experiences stick with people long after they occur because of the degree of creepiness. On Reddit, plenty of people who live in rural areas or make their livelihood there, share their scary stories for the rest of us to freak out over. We know that often strange people linger around woods, parks, and other desolate areas. And we have all heard plenty of the kind of creepy stories that backpackers experience. However, in this episode, the stories are more than a little unpleasant, because the people who suffered them weren't just out and about anywhere; they were at their homes, or doing their jobs. Imagine living in the woods, and looking up from your bathtub to see a face looking back at you. Or imagine you are working as a forest ranger and come across a thumb nailed to a tree. Tonight I will share some of the terrifying real-life stories, stories that are the stuff of nightmares. CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)… 00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding 00:01:39.734 = Show Open 00:02:35.745 = Living In Remote Places 00:21:34.077 = Park Ranger Scares *** 00:40:20.539 = Backpacker Terrors *** 01:00:46.336 = Show Close*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break LISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps *No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast* SOURCES and RESOURCES: “Terrors of People Living In Remote Areas” by Matthew Lavelle: http://bit.ly/2Y5j1r2 “Park Ranger Scares” by Rosa Pasquarella: http://bit.ly/2xNbZZ6 “Horrifying Backpacker Stories” by Jen Lennon: http://bit.ly/2LXcfNs(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.) WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness. Originally aired: July, 2021 LIKE WHAT YOU’RE HEARING? WEIRD DARKNESS posts episodes 7 DAYS A WEEK! Listen FREE wherever you get podcasts or visit https://weirddarkness.com/listen. • Paranormal • True Crime • Ghosts • UFOs • Cryptids • Unexplained • Want even more? Become an OFFICIAL WEIRDO for commercial-free episodes, bonus episodes, weeknight live chats, audiobooks & more at https://WeirdDarkness.com/OFFICIAL Weird Darkness host Darren Marlar shares wilderness horror stories from Reddit, told by people who live out in the country, park rangers who work the backcountry, and backpackers from Alabama to the Adirondacks. It opens with a woman alone at night on a rural property who saw a man's face at her kitchen window, and the next day she and her husband found his makeshift cabin on their land, where he'd stashed canned goods from their kitchen and pinned up selfies taken in their bed. Others describe an intruder in rural Louisiana with a white sheet tied over his head and a peeper in the Australian desert who stacked wooden pallets under a bathroom window to see in. From there, the park rangers take over, starting with a trip leader on Mount Sterling in North Carolina who watched a man with no headlamp or gear sit under a tree and stare at a camp of middle schoolers until 3:30 in the morning. Rangers also came across a human thumb nailed to a tree, a child's stuffed animal hanging from a noose, and a cleanly severed deer head with no blood, lying on a trail in Yellowstone's Lamar Valley. The episode closes with backpackers, including a 12-year-old and his older brother who hid on an Alabama hilltop while hog hunters with dogs fired into the woods around their campsite, and two friends in the Adirondacks who watched a man with a shotgun search their tent. A solo hiker's Kodak disposable camera came back from Costco with ten pictures of the hiker asleep inside the tent, and another backpacker found a cell phone deep in the woods, still switched on, with 911 as the last number dialed.