America’s ‘creepiest road’ is a ‘paranormal’ hot spot where cars roll uphill

A normal-looking road in California has earned itself a reputation as the ‘creepiest’ in the US with people claiming cars roll uphill on their own. 

Slymar’s Gravity Hill has become a bit of a tourist attraction, thanks to the bizarre phenomenon, with ghost hunters and supernatural experts keen to check it out. 

Numerous videos online appear to show the cars eerily making their way up the hill – seemingly defy gravity. 

DISCOVER SBX CARS: The global premium car auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie

People claim to have seen ghostly ‘child-like’ figures

Spooky stories of ghostly highway men and phantom hitchhikers have been shared since the dawn of the automotive industry.

In more recent times, this trucker managed to capture a mysterious ghostly figure on dashcam while driving on empty road, a Tesla driver spotted ‘ghosts’ walking around cemetery and this Rolls-Royce parked up in India has locals convinced it has a haunted history.

Meanwhile, over on Gravity Hill as well as cars lurching backwards unassisted, like a sort of haunted autonmous vehicle, some folks claim to have spotted child-like apparitions near the road and heard disembodied voices in the distance. 

Cue the spooky music. 

“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 featured the ‘haunted’ hill. 

There’s a simple explanation for why the cars appear to roll uphill

Part of the mystery can be easily explained away by science. 

The layout of the road is essentially a huge optical illusion, that makes a slight downhill slope appear to be an uphill one instead. 

So, a car parked up and not in gear will appear to be rolling uphill against gravity.

According to data from the Los Angeles Region Imagery Acquisition Consortium Program the road slopes downhill from north to south. 

The hill has an elevation of 518 meters (1,700ft) at the top – which most view as the bottom – to 502 meters (1,650ft) at the bottom.

There are actually a bunch of ‘Gravity Hills’ across the world, including in the UK, Spain, South Africa, Mexico and Japan – as well as a healthy smattering all over the US. 

But before you get too comfortable with that simple solution – it doesn’t explain the fact that people claim to have spotted ghosts in the area or where exactly those voices are coming from.  

Looks like it could be a job for the Ghostbusters.