Holy shit!
There’s no other way to say it.
I think I did it, I caught an apparition in a photograph I took while hiking up to Frankenstein Castle. It looks like the apparition is walking in the woods.
I’ll get back to this photo in a moment (with a cropped/zoomed-in version) and explain what I saw with my eyes vs what’s in the photo, but I want to first explain why I was there and why I took this photo of a seemingly random spot in the woods.
Oh, and it’s not the only paranormal thing I saw up there!
Back to the Beginning
Two weeks ago, I started writing about the second part of my Frankenstein castle trip. You may have read the first part already (it’s here), in it, I discussed my theory that the Frankenstein Castle in the Pfalz area of Germany is the real inspiration for Mary Shelley’s horror novel of the same name.
Well, when I began writing the second part to show and tell you about (spoiler alert!) the dark shadow figure I saw in the castle, I started to browse the pictures from our trip and I came to the horrible discovery that most of the pictures were ruined and useless.
I don’t know what happened to the photos. I ended up only having a few good ones and, unfortunately, none had the shadow figure in them—which really, I don’t believe I had caught on camera anyway. That’s not the point, though. I was heartbroken that I lost most of the castle photos. I hate losing photos of any trip, especially such a great trip. This is a reminder to self to ALWAYS make copies on multiple devices.
They say that in highly haunted areas cameras and other devices often malfunction. I’m not sure that I want to blame the castle being haunted for my camera issues, but it wouldn’t be the first time. Anyway, because I was also now lacking useful photos of the interior of the castle I decided to return and take new shots. And because of the timing, I had to go it alone.
An ODD Arrival in Frankenstein
I knew things were going to be odd as soon as I arrived in the town of Frankenstein because I just got an ‘off’ feeling that I couldn’t explain. The parking area for the castle was also blocked, and I had to park on the other side of town. However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise, kind of.
It was a blessing because it offered an alternate route up the mountain to the castle and it’s while hiking up this alternate route that I spotted something strange in the woods. The downside was that the path eventually led out onto the very edge of the cliff and I wasn’t brave enough to cross it so I had to go all the way back down and walk around town to my original route and hiked back up the other side. (Thankfully, Frankenstein is a very small town!)
It was while hiking up the alternate route that I came to an area of the forest that had several ancient brick walls, which I guess were defenses for the castle. It was very interesting, I hadn’t realized they were there since I had never gone up that way before. They stretched out quite a ways and I stood there for a while just taking in the sight, and I couldn’t help but wonder how much work must have gone into making them back in the 12th century—that is if they were built when the castle was built around 1100AD.
**By the way, the huge rocks you see at the top is where the castle is. The main section of the castle is on the other side and on top of the rocks. The castle itself was built into and on top of the rocks!**
Something Here and Something There!
It’s then, while admiring the ancient brick walls, that something caught my eye in the distance near the ridge of the mountain. It was what looked like a pocket of mist or fog. It was all by itself, there was no other sign of fog or mist on the mountain that I could see. That was until a moment later when I spotted another pocket between two other trees. I aimed my camera and took several photos, but the fog, or whatever it was, didn’t show up in my photos.
I don’t know what those pockets were. They didn’t look like ghosts or apparitions, they literally looked like two feet’s worth of fog caught between trees. I didn’t get any special feeling or sense from them, nothing like that, they were probably just atmospheric anomalies, but they were really cool, and I wish I had gotten them on camera. However, once I had the next experience and did capture something on camera, I had to reevaluate what those pockets of fog may have been.
A few minutes later that something else caught my eye and it damn near caused me to slip down the side of the mountain. It spooked me! As I turned to continue hiking I saw something move in the trees. It was translucent. It was only there for a short while, and it looked almost like a woman in a dress walking. I’m serious. I know it sounds crazy. It was there long enough for me to take a photo, even after I had my little freakout.
In the photo above I cropped it from the original (first photo in post) so that you would have a better view of whatever it is. It’s hard to see and may take a few moments for your eyes to figure it out, but once you see it you won’t be able to unsee it. It’s a woman or thing in what appears to be a dress.
If you look at the slim tree directly in the middle of the circle you should see a distortion or a blur of something walking. Once you see that, give yourself a moment and you should see the bottom part which appears to be a flowing dress. At least, that’s what it looks like to me. Her upper body is even more difficult to make out, but if you give it a few moments you might be able to see it, too. It might be that I can see it so well because I saw it with my own eyes first.
For me, that’s what makes this so compelling is that I saw something there before I snapped the photo.
This is the kind of photo OTHER people get lucky enough to capture. It was more than I could hope for. I just wish it was clearer and more obvious.
The anomaly might not be paranormal and there could be some other explanation for what I saw and for what I see in the picture, but the way it spooked the shit out of me, dangerously actually since I was close to the edge, I think it’s definitely something in the unexplained category.
Regardless of what it was or wasn’t, it was amazing to me.
And I had not even gotten back up to the castle yet!
After snapping another couple dozen or so shots of the general area (there was nothing else in any of them), I started back up the path and eventually came to the part where I could not cross and so I went back down to go up the other, safer way. In the below photo I would have had to walk underneath the left side of the huge rock just along the cliff’s edge! With my fear of heights, there was just no way that was happening.
This ends Part 2 of my trips to Frankenstein Castle and I haven’t even gotten to where I saw the shadow figure yet. That’s still to come in the next installment of Bryan’s Frankenstein Chronicles so stay tuned for Part 3.
This trip was crazy. It sounds wild but I’m used to seeing shadow figures, which I call Wee-Jees, but I rarely see apparitions, and this makes the second one I’ve seen within two years! Just wow.
If you would like to comment and discuss this article, let’s do that on Facebook here.
Travelers tip: If you decide to visit Frankenstein in the Pfalz, bring your own snacks and beverages, ’cause there are no shops to purchase refreshments. Also, since this is not the more well known Frankenstein Castle (which is in Darmstadt, 100km), you may be in luck and have the castle entirely to yourself (unless you count the ghosts)! I recommend visiting with someone.
