Clinton Road in West Milford, New Jersey, has surged in search interest as Halloween approaches, with lookups spiking between July 2025 and July 2026.
The 10-mile stretch, located roughly 50 minutes from New York City, sits entirely within dense forest where thick trees form a canopy that can plunge the route into near-total darkness after sunset. Car rental company Sixt ranked it the number one scariest destination in its survey of creepy spots, calling it “one of the country’s most haunted roads, with a reputation built on decades of local folklore and eerie encounters.”
“The 10-mile stretch of heavily forested road is particularly unsettling after dark,” Sixt representatives told The Post. “When its dense tree canopy leaves parts of the route almost completely shrouded in darkness.”
The road’s paranormal reputation draws heavily from documented local history. Writer J. Percy Crayon described the area in 1905 as being full of “robbers, witches and ghosts that made their appearance in frightful forms.” According to Weird NJ, the most commonly reported ghost story involves a young boy who haunts a bridge and returns coins thrown into the water below. The publication’s writers visited to test the legend and found “dozens of coins resting on the bottom among the stones of the creekbed.”
Phantom vehicles rank among the other recurring claims. Witnesses have described a pickup truck and a black Camaro that materialize in rearview mirrors before vanishing without explanation.
The road also carries traces of industrial history. The New York Daily News reported that an old ironworks at the site includes a pyramid-shaped structure built by a short-lived ironworking community active until the 1850s. Some theories attribute the pyramid to ancient Druids who supposedly used it as a shrine.
The location’s most verifiable horror connection involves Richard Kulinski, the serial killer known as the Iceman for his practice of freezing victims to obscure time of death. North Jersey reported that Kulinski dumped a body along Clinton Road in 1983. A passing cyclist discovered the remains, according to the same account.
The Iceman case represents a rare instance where documented crime overlaps with the road’s supernatural mythology, giving visitors a concrete historical anchor for the area’s darker reputation.
Interest in Clinton Road continues to build annually as October progresses, with paranormal enthusiasts and curiosity seekers making the drive despite—or because of—the warnings embedded in local lore.