Haunted McEwan Road in Port Costa, California has a reputation as one of the Bay Area’s strangest stretches of road. The winding approach toward the historic waterfront town is connected to a ghost story about a mysterious Lady in Red, late-night sightings and people who claim to lose their sense of time along the route. Some accounts spell the road McEwen Road; both spellings are used in searches for this local legend.
My interest in this place is personal. After a friend told me about a frightening encounter she said she had while driving home from a paranormal investigation we conducted at the nearby Burlington Hotel, I went back and investigated McEwan Road myself. I did that investigation alone, around midnight, with LiveSciFi viewers following along on video. What follows is my original account, the history behind Port Costa and a clearer look at which parts of this story are documented—and which remain unexplained.
Where Is Haunted McEwan Road?
McEwan Road, also shown in some local listings as Mc Ewen Road, winds through the hills near Port Costa, Contra Costa County, California, east of Crockett along the Carquinez Strait. Port Costa feels isolated compared with much of the Bay Area: old buildings, steep hills, winding roads and a waterfront that reflects an earlier era of railroad and shipping activity.
That setting is central to the haunting stories. The road has curves and limited visibility in places; driving at night can make distance, shadows and roadside movement difficult to judge. The geography makes this a fascinating place to research but not somewhere to stop suddenly for a photograph or to conduct an unsafe roadside investigation.
The Lady in Red Ghost Legend of McEwan Road
The best-known legend concerns a woman wearing red who is said to appear near the road late at night. Some versions describe a recognizable woman by the roadside. Other retellings describe a reddish shadow. The original LiveSciFi account referred to encounters between midnight and 4 a.m., while another community-supplied account places claimed sightings later in the early morning. There is no documented reason to believe a ghost operates on a fixed schedule.
Two explanations appear repeatedly in the legend. One says the woman was killed in a traffic accident on the road. The other connects her to the Burlington Hotel and rumors that the hotel once functioned as a brothel. I have not identified a verified death record that names the woman, establishes a fatal crash or proves her connection to the hotel. Those are stories associated with the site—not confirmed biographical facts about a real deceased person.
A public collection of local haunting reports also mentions the supposed Lady in Red along Mc Ewen Road. That supports the existence of the circulating legend, but anonymous reports do not independently prove a sighting.
My Friend’s Encounter: A Woman Walking a Dog with Glowing Green Eyes
There is one story I have never forgotten because it came from someone I knew. About a decade before I first wrote this article in 2017, a close friend of mine said she was driving home after a paranormal investigation we conducted at the Burlington Hotel in Port Costa.
She told me that after leaving town, the twisting road seemed to go on much longer than expected. She thought she had taken a wrong turn and, by her account, drove for more than an hour without finding her way back to the highway. The longer she drove, the more frightened she became. She was starting to panic when she finally noticed a woman in red walking a dog near the roadside.
Thinking the woman could give directions, my friend pulled up alongside her and began lowering the car window. She said hello, but the woman continued walking. My friend called out again. When the woman still did not respond, she called a third time.
That was when things became frightening. According to my friend, the woman stopped and slowly turned her head toward the car. My friend told me that the woman’s eyes appeared to glow green. Whatever she saw scared her badly enough that she accelerated away rather than wait for an answer.
What made the experience even stranger was what happened next. She said that within roughly two minutes of leaving the woman behind, she suddenly found herself back near the highway, although she believed she had been driving on the road for nearly two hours overall. In my original article, I described the approach as only a few miles long and asked: Where did the time go?
I want to preserve that question while being precise about its limits. The time estimates were part of my friend’s account, not measurements independently established by a GPS log, dash camera or continuous recording. Fatigue after a late-night investigation, confusing turns, stress and time perception all deserve consideration. None of those possibilities, however, changes how deeply the incident affected her—or why it prompted me to investigate the road for myself.
My Midnight Ghost Investigation of McEwan Road
After I heard the Lady in Red story, I wanted to see the location for myself instead of repeating the legend without putting boots on the ground. I returned to the road alone at midnight and brought the experience to our LiveSciFi audience on video. Going alone was my choice for that investigation, not something I recommend other people imitate on an active road.
What I remember most is how unsettling the winding route felt after dark. The hills, bends and isolated surroundings gave me very little visual context beyond the section of road illuminated ahead. Knowing what my friend said she had experienced made me pay close attention to every movement and sound.
In the original 2017 post, I wrote that after my investigation I considered it one of the most haunted roads I had encountered. That is my firsthand assessment, not an independent ranking or a conclusion that a ghost has been scientifically proven there. The original video is the best record of what I observed and how the investigation unfolded.
Watch: Haunted McEwan Road and the Lady in Red — LiveSciFi Investigation
Here is the original investigation video embedded in the archived 2017 article. It lets you examine the road, the conditions and my on-location account rather than relying entirely on the written legend.
Watch the original McEwan Road ghost investigation on YouTube → and explore more LiveSciFi ghost hunts and paranormal episodes.
The Real History of Port Costa, California
To understand this legend, you have to understand the town at the bottom of the road. According to the Port Costa Conservation Society’s local history, Port Costa was established in 1879 and became a major railroad ferry and grain-shipping hub on the Carquinez Strait. Train ferries connected Port Costa and Benicia while warehouses and waterfront businesses supported a bustling town.
Its commercial importance eventually declined as transportation routes changed, shipping moved elsewhere and major waterfront fires damaged parts of the old business district. A quieter town remained, including several historic structures that still evoke the earlier waterfront community.
Many ghost legends flourish in places with layered histories and dramatic settings. Port Costa has both. But the age of a building or the tragedies of an earlier century cannot be taken as proof of a haunting without specific evidence.
Is the Lady in Red Connected to the Haunted Burlington Hotel?
The Burlington Hotel is real, and its history is worth separating from rumors. The Port Costa Conservation Society dates the surviving hotel to 1883. It is one of the historic buildings that survived successive changes to the waterfront, and it has long been linked to local ghost stories.
In the version of the McEwan Road legend I heard, the woman in red might once have worked at the Burlington when it supposedly operated as a bordello. However, the brothel story is disputed. In a 2018 KALW report about Port Costa, a Burlington Hotel manager described the building’s brothel claim as a legend rather than an established part of its history. That reporting also addressed the building’s themed room names and the town’s mythology.
More recent KQED reporting from 2024 examined the hotel’s local folklore, including a reported apparition, as well as how visitors sometimes mistake an antique mirror’s unusual reflections for signs of a haunting. Those accounts document what people say and observe, not the identity of the Lady in Red on McEwan Road.
I had investigated the Burlington before hearing my friend’s roadside account, so it is naturally part of my personal history with this location. Still, I cannot responsibly say the Lady in Red was employed there, died there or traveled between the hotel and road without records establishing those details.
Does McEwan Road Cause Missing Time or Ghost Sightings?
What draws me to this case is the combination of a familiar local legend, an eyewitness I personally knew and a location I investigated myself. The strongest point of the story is the firsthand history of those experiences; the weakest point is the absence of independent records that could confirm the reported missing time or identify the supposed apparition.
A more careful investigation would compare a reliable route map with timestamped recordings, document weather and visibility, collect independent witness statements before people share details, and check for lighting or reflective effects. Green-looking eyes, in particular, do not automatically indicate anything supernatural: reflections, distance, headlights and the limitations of nighttime vision all deserve consideration.
The distinction matters because I don’t want LiveSciFi to become a place that treats every story as a proven haunting. I want to investigate these locations, document what happened, preserve the testimony and let viewers see where the evidence ends and the mystery begins.
Visiting McEwan Road and Port Costa Safely
If you want to experience the atmosphere, visit Port Costa during the day, keep your attention on driving and avoid stopping on bends or blocking traffic. Never trespass, enter closed buildings, disturb local residents or attempt an unsafe midnight challenge. The nearby Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline offers designated public areas and paths; check the park district’s current hours and access conditions before visiting. Ordinary public roads and park trails have different access rules.
The point of the investigation is to understand the story, not to create a preventable accident.
Frequently Asked Questions About Haunted McEwan Road
Where is the Lady in Red of Port Costa said to appear?
Local stories place the apparition along McEwan (also spelled McEwen) Road near Port Costa, California, on the approach to the historic waterfront community. No independently documented location or sighting time has been established.
What time is the Lady in Red supposed to appear?
The original LiveSciFi article repeated reports of sightings between midnight and 4 a.m. Other folklore websites give different early-morning hours. These are reported details of the legend, not a verified schedule.
Was the Lady in Red killed in a crash?
That is one explanation within the legend. I have not found an identified victim and supporting documentary evidence proving the story.
Was Port Costa’s Burlington Hotel a brothel?
It is a persistent local rumor, but 2018 reporting quoted a manager who disputed the claim. The hotel’s existence and age are documented; the alleged connection to a particular roadside spirit is not.
Did Tim Wood investigate McEwan Road?
Yes. After a friend’s account of an encounter with a woman in red walking a dog, I investigated the road at midnight and shared the experience in the original LiveSciFi video embedded above.
More Haunted Locations Investigated by LiveSciFi
- The Haunted History of Waterdog Lake — Northern California’s unsettling history and an on-location LiveSciFi investigation.
- Sutro Forest – The Most Haunted Forest — history, folklore and firsthand ghost-hunt footage from San Francisco.
- Fractured History of the Haunted Monroe House — documented history and experiences from the haunted Indiana house.
- Haunted Dybbuk Boxes Real or Hoax — separating documented facts and firsthand object-related encounters.
- LiveSciFi Episodes — browse original filmed and live-streamed ghost hunts.
Sources and Editorial Notes
- Port Costa Conservation Society, Port Costa History — primary local historical overview of the town, waterfront and Burlington Hotel.
- Port Costa Conservation Society Museum & Archives — local historical collections and town background.
- KALW, “From gold rush to ghost town: A trip to Port Costa” (October 2018) — independent account addressing Burlington Hotel folklore.
- KQED, “The Bay Area Wild West Port Town That Reinvented Itself” (2024) — later reporting on Port Costa and the hotel’s ghost legends.
- HauntedPlaces.org, Mc Ewen Road — example of the circulating roadside legend; reports are unverified.
- East Bay Regional Park District, Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline — official access and visitor safety information.
- Tim Wood / LiveSciFi, original McEwan Road investigation video — first-person video accompanying the original article.
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