The mysteries of Questhaven: discover the rumors of hauntings in San Diego’s Elfin Forest!

In a concentration of urban legend and fantastic tales, this quaint forest is located in the unlikely demographic of sunny San Diego, California.
Today the area is dotted with new shops the condos thanks to the mushrooming community of the San Elijio Hills, but once upone a time, this land was called Questhaven and said to be spiritual, haunted place.
Surely many San Diego residents have unknowingly driven through it, as it’s a good shortcut to Escondido that spits travelers out from Rancho Santa Fe Road to Auto Parkway in less than four minutes.
The area is rumored to have once been inhabited by gypsies at the turn of the 19th century and, according to a local legend, residents from neighboring communities came in and drove them off, slaughtering those who stood their ground.
In turn, the surviving gypsies cursed the Elfin Forest and its surrounding lands.
It seems it was this curse that has caused many of the urban legends and paranormal activity that has been reported throughout the years, even if there are also accounts of native Northern Diegueno Indians, who once inhabited this land.
Mortars, metates, pictographs, and petroglyphs discovered there also help shed light on the Yuman language, and contribute to a clearer understanding of their way of life which began more than 9,000 years ago!

In any case, with its curving roads, twisting trees growing over pathways, eerie sights and sounds, and a total lack of cell phone reception, the Elfin Forest—thought to be haunted by superstitious locals —is the subject of dozens of interesting urban legends.
Many revolve around its abandoned, gated insane asylum, the entrance to which is marked by an old wooden fence and a sign with sleeping elves painted on it reading, not by chance, “Elfin Forest”, and the legendary cult house.
Behind the torn fence lie acres of land and decaying building foundations.
A popolar story tells of a giant ghostly white owl that roams the midnight moonlit sky, preying on people who enter the forest.
If the visitors are in their car, the owl lands atop of the car, murdering them. If they are on foot, it swoops down to capture them and sacrifices them, even if many do not speak of the owl in fear of repercussion.
Another myth tells of a witch that haunts the Elfin Forest, here since the persecution of the gypsies. She rides the roads of the forest on a ghostly black stallion, with a black cloak the covers her face and body.
She has omnipotent vision and senses when a stranger or intruder has entered the forest, and It is said that once someone enters her ground she marks that person, leaving a spiritual mark.
Once marked by the witch, that person faces death if he or she ever enters the forest again. Those who claim to have seen the witch say they did not hear her galloping stallion, and that instead, they float along in the shadows. It is also rumored that by chance if victims do see her eyes, as they pierce a ray of green light, that they are immediately killed.
Other tales of haunted spirits and paranormal activity attached to this area include trees that bleed, a ghost lady dressed in white that follows hikers throughout the trails, Native American bodies hanging from trees, shadowed figures that hide in the shrubbery, and other strange apparitions taking place over the rumored Native American burial grounds….

Images from web – Google Research