As we all know, travel opportunities were extremely limited during the Covid pandemic, especially before vaccines were widely available. About a year into the pandemic, some friends invited me to go to Baker City, Oregon for a few days as a change of scenery. I was on the fence about it, until I did some research on the hotel they wanted to stay at, the beautiful Geiser Grand Hotel.
I said “yes” to the trip once I learned that the hotel is haunted. I was excited and anxious about staying in a hotel that is apparently quite active paranormally. My anxiety grew after my husband insisted that I get my own room instead of staying with my friends in their room, given that we didn’t yet have Covid vaccinations. I would have to stay alone in a haunted hotel. Yikes!
Baker City is a four hour drive from Portland. I left on a sunny day and once I reached Deadman’s Pass outside of Pendleton I found myself in a heavy snowstorm. Thankfully, the weather was again nice when I reached Baker City. Downtown Baker City is charming. I had some hours before check in and until my friends would return from a day of skiing. I enjoyed a beer at a local brewery and visited an interesting heritage museum. Finally, it was time to meet up with my friends and check in.
While checking in, I asked the staff about the hotel’s ghosts. Instead of trying to brush this question off, they assured me that there is activity but that the ghosts are friendly. I guess that was reassuring. She also told me that some of the ghosts are playful, and do things like hide guests items in the rooms. My room was on the opposite end of the floor from my friends, and there wasn’t anyone else staying on my side of the floor. I also learned that it was next to the most haunted room in the hotel. My room was light and beautiful, the afternoon sun streaming in through the windows. As a precautionary measure, I introduced myself to whomever might be around and let them know that they could be present but were not allowed to scare me in any way.
After happy hour and dinner, it was time to head to our rooms. I went to mine with trepidation. I prolonged getting ready for bed but eventually, it was time to settle in for the night. I left the bathroom light on to ensure I had some light and tucked in with a good book. A few minutes into reading, I heard a strange knocking sound. I was immediately scared, but soon figured out it was sounds from the nearby elevator. I got back to reading and eventually turned out the light to fall asleep. But sleep didn’t come easily that night.
Though nothing happened physically, I spent the night in some kind of half-asleep state. I think it was hypervigilance and anxiety that prevented me from truly falling asleep. But I was also on alert because it felt like something was trying to communicate with me all night, a telepathic version of someone poking at me for attention. It is a phenomenon I have experienced before. In this case, I kept getting strong images in my mind, like little movies, that weren’t related to anything I was consciously thinking about. An image I saw multiple times was a kitchen, with a pair of hands with a knife, chopping things. One image I saw very clearly was green apples. It was a curious image for sure and I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
Finally, daylight arrived. My friends and I met for breakfast and after eating, we went to check out the lower level of the hotel. One of things I saw was a poster offering on premise ghost hunting opportunities about six times a year. When chatting with hotel staff later, they said that they usually get several EVPs and other interesting phenomenon during the sessions. I later found an article about the hotel’s ghosts, and something stood out to me. One of the ghosts is a chef who died in the hotel in an accident. I can’t help but think that the former chef spent hours trying to communicate with me while I tried to sleep. Why else would I keep getting images of hands chopping food?
Before I went to sleep the second night, I told the room that there was to be no interfering with me and that I needed to sleep. Though I didn’t sleep very well, I was not bothered again by odd images and that sense that I was being pestered all night.
While nothing dramatic happened while I as at the Geiser Grand, I do believe I experienced something. I would actually like to go back for a weekend and join one of the ghosts hunting nights. But I’d like someone to go with me so that I don’t have to spend the night alone!