Haunted Asilomar State Beach, California

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I am now retired from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, but I once worked with the California Department of Health Services – Radiological Health Branch in Sacramento, California. Once a year, our Branch would take a one week getaway for meetings, brainstorming work ideas at either the Marconi Conference Center State Historic Park – 18500 CA-1 Marshall, CA 94940 or Asilomar State Beach, 800 Asilomar Avenue, Pacific Grove, CA 93950. What I discovered is that both places are haunted. There was more paranormal activity happening at Asilomar State Beach, than at the Marconi Conference Center. Perhaps, in a future article I will get into more detail about the paranormal activity that was discovered at the Marconi Conference Center.

Asilomar State Beach and the adjacent Asilomar Hotel & Conference Grounds carry local folklore and anecdotal ghost stories from staff and visitors, though there is no official or scientific proof that the beach is haunted. People who have worked or stayed at the historic Asilomar Conference Grounds sometimes share personal accounts of strange noises or ghostly encounters on the property. Much of the credited paranormal activity in the immediate area is actually associated with the historic Point Pinos Lighthouse just a mile away, which is famously said to be haunted by former keeper Emily Fish. Her apparition is sometimes seen as a lone mist walking around near the lighthouse. The misty, quiet dunes, old rustic architecture, and crashing waves at Asilomar State Beach often lend themselves to spooky campfire tales and with any luck, paranormal activity will be witnessed by a visitor or local. When staying at the Asilomar Hotel, I would walk over to the Point Pinos Lighthouse and I did witness strange cracking sounds at the lighthouse. I met Sunny Lopez, a tourist from San Jose and she tells me that she was sunbathing on the beach and felt two hands on her back. Sunny thought it was her boyfriend and discovered that there was no one around her. Sunny says she experienced the ghostly hands of a spirit. Sunny was so freaked out, she got up, put on her shirt and went straight over to her boyfriend who was exploring the lighthouse.

Let’s look at the lighthouse popular ghost named Emily Fish. She was a prominent keeper known as the “Socialite Keeper” who lived and worked at the lighthouse from 1893 to 1914. Visitors and staff report seeing her apparition in her former living quarters, smelling the scent of her perfume, and hearing her footsteps. Another ghost is The Teenage Girl. Lore says the spirit of a young girl who died of tuberculosis in the early 1900s also haunts the historic building. What is interesting is that the same Teenage Girl Ghost has also been seen at Asilomar State Beach, walking along the beach with her head down. Donna Lightfeather from Anaheim, encountered the Teenage Ghost Girl and ran up to her to see if there was something wrong, it was getting dark, the sun was going down. As Donna approached the young lady, she simply just vanished. This tells me that the hauntings at the lighthouse bleed over to Asilomar State Beach. The lighthouse has some history, as it was built in 1855. It is the oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the U.S. West Coast.

There are not that many news items on tragedies that happened on this beach, but there have been drownings and people have seen ghostly figures walking along the beach. Witnesses feel they are drowning victims. There have been recent tragedies. A recent tragedy occurred on October 25, 2014. A surfing accident happened in which one brother was saved and the other brother, 18-year-old Bryan, an Orinda resident drowned. Heroes Chenoa Firpo and another surfer, Tommy Pennington, were able to successfully rescue his 16-year-old brother from the rip current, Bryan was unfortunately pulled away before he could be saved.

Three Monterey County men died in a tragic plane crash just offshore from Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove on July 26, 2025. The victims were James Vincent: 36 years old, from Monterey. He was a licensed pilot and the owner of the local Aquarius Dive Shop in Monterey. Jamie Lee Tabscott, 44 years old, from Monterey. Steve Eugene Clatterbuck, 60 years old, from Salinas. These are recent tragedies, there have been past tragedies that have sort of faded away in history. It would almost seem like the ghosts of past tragedies remind us of those past tragedies by their ghostly appearances.

During our meeting and while brainstorming some ideas for our Branch, one of the manager’s donuts dropped to the floor. We jokingly told the manager not to be so clumsy, and he swore up and down, he never touched the donut, that it fell to the floor by itself. An analyst claimed that while she was in her room, she heard pounding on the wall and there was no one in the next room. The room next to her room was empty, but yet, she could hear pounding on the wall. A few employees claim that they saw two “Dark Watchers” on the hillside and as they watched these Dark Watchers, they faded away.

The Dark Watchers are tall, shadowy phantom figures reported for centuries standing motionless along the ridges and peaks of the Santa Lucia Mountains in California. They are described as 7 to 10 feet tall, featureless dark silhouettes often wearing wide-brimmed hats and long cloaks, sometimes carrying a walking stick. They silently and motionlessly observe travelers from a distance, typically during twilight or dawn. According to folklore, if a person approaches or directly acknowledges them, they instantly vanish or melt into the shadows. Early Spanish settlers called them Los Vigilantes Oscuros (the dark vigilantes), and local Native American Chumash traditions also included tales of shadowy mountain spirits. The legend was famously woven into Californian literature, appearing in John Steinbeck’s 1938 short story Flight and the poetry of Robinson Jeffers. The California Department of Health Services employees that saw the Dark Watchers said that both entities looked like they were wearing black-rimmed hats, black trenchcoats and their flesh was shadowy looking. One Dark Watcher turned his head to look at the employees and then faded away.