One of the spookiest ‘paranormal’ hotspots in the US sits in the foothills of Southern California on a ‘haunted’ stretch of road where vehicles actually appear to roll uphill on their own.
The creepy crossroads is Sylmar’s Gravity Hill, a sloped stretch of road where visitors are left awestruck as their vehicles start lurching ‘up’ the incline.
The eerie phenomenon can be seen in dozens of YouTube videos.
Other visitors claim they’ve also seen child-like apparitions near the road and heard sounds of disembodied voices in the distance.
‘Your eyes tell you one thing, but then the way the environment reacts is something else – and that is a very, very astute thing to notice when it comes to paranormal phenomena,’ paranormal investigator Susan Slaughter said on an episode of Paranormal Caught on Camera that focused on the hill.
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One of the most mentioned ‘paranormal’ hotspots in the country, Sylmar’s Gravity Hill can be found among a series of foothills in Southern California
Visitors say they’ve seen child-like apparitions and heard sounds of disembodied voices there in the distance, as well as a gravity-defying phenomenon
‘Because what your eyes translate, doesn’t necessarily mean that that’s what’s really happening,’ she added.
Slaughter’s description of her experience on the hill is not unique, and points to some of the explanations for the strange occurrence that have been debated and – some say – debunked.
One is that it’s simply an optical illusion caused by an obstructed view of the horizon, which makes judging the actual direction of the slope of the road difficult due to an absence of a point of reference.
Another is that the movement is the result of magnetic forces, an anomaly that causes objects to move in unexpected ways.
Some maintain it’s the work of unseen apparitions – ones that are said to push cars up the street that’s just a 30-minute drive to Beverly Hills and Downtown LA.
Meanwhile, urban legends persist claiming that the driver of a school bus full of children lost control and crashed at some point on the unassuming road, which is flanked by a cemetery.
Saud Bekissel, host of Last Podcast on the Left, joked about this prospect on the show’s inaugural episode in 2019.
The road at Gravity Hill stands out for several spooky reasons – one of which is its close proximity to the Glen Haven & Sholon Memorial Park cemetery
‘Apparently, a bunch of ghost kids pushed your car up a hill,’ the comic said during a segment focused on the rural road, which once connected the San Fernando Valley to the rest of California.
‘[That’s] the nicest thing a ghost could do,’ he went on, laughing off the eeriness. ‘Saves you gas, really helps you out.’
This has often been dismissed as superstition, and no record of such a crash exists.
But during its stagecoach days, numerous accidents and tragedies did, in fact, take place – further fueling rumors of its haunted nature.
The fact that objects like a ball and car, and streams of water appear to move up the slope as opposed to down doesn’t help its unsettling feeling.
Moreover, the number of eerie experiences cannot be ignored – as tourists and locals continue to flock to the site armed with cameras and levelers intent on finding proof of the paranormal.
The street appears to slope downhill from south to north, but looking at elevation from the Los Angeles Region Imagery Acquisition Consortium (LARIAC) Program, this is quickly proven wrong.
Visitors report their vehicles going up the hill’s slope when left in neutral
‘Your eyes tell you one thing, but then the way the environment reacts is something else – and that is a very… astute thing to notice when it comes to paranormal phenomena,’ investigator Susan Slaughter said on an episode of Paranormal Caught on Camera centered around the hill
Slaughter’s description of her experience on the hill is not unique, and points to some of the explanations for the phenomenon that have been debated and – some say – debunked
Instead, the data shows that the road slopes downhill from north to south, from an elevation of 1,700 feet.
The bottom of the hill – which most believe is the top – is 1,650 feet.
But the lack of horizon and missing views of Angeles National Forest to the north obscures this fact, creating a trick of the eyes that makes it appear as if things are rolling up the hill.
Beyond California, the visual phenomenon may also be the root cause of nearly two dozen other ‘gravity hills’ across the world.
More than a dozen of them are located in the US alone, including two in California. One can be found in the redwoods of the Santa Cruz Mountains, while the other is only a few miles away from the one in Sylmar in famously hilly L.A. County.
However, the Sylmar Gravity Hill in Kagel Canyon appears to be the most pronounced example of the phenomenon, and it is compounded by its creepy setting and somewhat unsettling history.
The street appears to slope downhill from south to north, but looking at elevation from the Los Angeles Region Imagery Acquisition Consortium (LARIAC) Program, the opposite is proven to be true
The road actually slopes downhill from north to south, from an elevation of 1,700 feet to 1,650 feet. Seen here is a view of the hill facing north
This level seemingly shows the hill’s north-to-south incline, although it’s actually opposite to that
This dates back to the 19th Century, when the road was used by early settlers to travel on horseback.
The old stagecoach trail claimed countless lives, and its neighboring cemetery, Glen Haven Memorial Park, was erected in 1940, feeding into the eerie lore.
Still, many remain firm in their belief that the not-so-scenic SoCal hill is haunted, with some claiming they’ve spotted handprints on the side of their cars after being brought for a ride on the misleading hill.
However, Robert Furey – Professor of Integrated Sciences at Harrisburg University – previously debunked these claims in an experiment he performed at another ‘gravity hill’ in suburban Pennsylvania.
The legend there, like that of Sylmar, is if you throw a powdery substance like flour on the sides of your car following the unexplained movement, you see the fingerprints of the kids.
‘It’s just like taking actual fingerprints,’ Dr. Furey told Fox43 News in October 2022 of why hand prints appear.
‘If you put dust on the car, the oil that somebody’s hand left there acts like a fingerprint. And so you think you’re seeing ghost handprints.
Many have reported that when they park their cars at the bottom of the hill and put them in neutral, the vehicles start to roll uphill against the force of gravity.
The fears surrounding the phenomenon are compounded by the street’s creepy setting – next to a cemetery – and somewhat unsettling history
But the layout of the surrounding land makes the slight downhill slope appear to be an uphill one, serving to create an optical illusion – all because of the obstructed horizon. Pictured, Glen Haven Memorial Park, located right along the stretch in question
‘So as cool as it is to experience, it’s not supernatural activity, and we can lay that to rest.’
Furey has a very scientific explanation for the actual phenomenon as well,
‘What you’re actually seeing is clues on the horizon that that make you think that the angles are different from what they actually are,’ the expert explained.
‘The mind wants to think that the intersecting road is perpendicular, but in reality, it is not.
‘They use water to show this is not the case,’ he continued, referencing a method used by a YouTuber who visited Sylmar in 2009.
Dr. Robert Furey – Professor of Integrated Sciences at Harrisburg University – batted back near-identical claims concerning another ‘gravity hill’ in Pennsylvania back in 2022, seemingly debunking the one in Sylmar in the process
‘The angle of the road to the side and the these, these visual clues and cues that you get from looking around you make it look like it’s rolling backwards up the hill.
‘But, in reality,’ he continued, ‘there’s a… dip right before the intersection that’s making the vehicle roll.
‘When the car was rolled, they look like they’re rolling backwards up the hill – but, in fact they’re rolling backwards, down a slight hill.’
As for where this illusion starts, Furey is clear: the phenomenon begins ‘in our minds.’
