A good fire makes everyone tell the truth, or at least makes them want to tell a story. This page collects our best scary campfire stories: legends from summer camps, stories from deep in the woods, and short ones with a twist for when the fire burns low. They are all original, so even the person who “knows every campfire story” has not heard these.
Campfire Stories With a Twist
Short enough to tell in three minutes, with a last line built to land in the dark.
Every Morning There Was a New Roasting Stick Carved With One of Our Initials
6 min read
A Stranger Sat in Our Spare Chair and Told a Story About Us
6 min read
Stories From Deep in the Woods
Longer stories for the second hour, after the marshmallows are gone. Trails, cabins, campgrounds, and the things that live just past the treeline.
- Every Morning There Was a New Roasting Stick Carved With One of Our Initials
6 min read 
Someone Marked My Trail With Orange Ribbons While I Walked It
5 min read
An Empty Tent Moved Closer to My Ranger Cabin Every Night
5 min read
A Tree Stand Moved Closer to Mine Every Weekend
6 min read
Something in the Trees Learned My Dad’s Knock
5 min read- A Stranger Sat in Our Spare Chair and Told a Story About Us
6 min read 
My Trail Cam Caught a Man Wearing My Dad’s Jacket
7 min read
The Geocache Log Was Signed in One Handwriting
5 min read
Campfire Stories for Adults
For after the kids are in the tent. Cryptids, the old legends, and stories that are less about jump scares and more about the long walk back to the car.
Every Morning on Our Trail Crew, Someone Had Built a New Rock Stack Pointing Up the Valley
4 min read
Tips for Telling Ghost Stories Around the Campfire
Sit where the fire lights your face from below. Point into the dark when the story mentions the woods, but never look where you are pointing. Use the sounds around you: if an owl calls or a branch cracks during the story, stop and let it sit. And pick one person to “know something” about the story, so at the end you can turn to them and ask, very seriously, “Should I tell them the rest?”
More ideas for the night: scary stories to tell anywhere, our ghost stories, and the full deep woods category.