Silver Fork Lodge, Brighton: A Haunted Canyon Lodge on an 1850s Mining Camp

Silver Fork Lodge sits beside the road through Big Cottonwood Canyon, about half an hour from Salt Lake City and a few minutes below the Solitude and Brighton ski areas. Most people know it for its restaurant and its sourdough pancakes. Upstairs are seven guest rooms with mountain views, and every stay includes a full breakfast.

The building has a long working past. It stands on the site of a tent camp from the 1850s and once served as the general store for the miners, sawmill workers and herders who lived and worked in the canyon. Guests and visitors have passed on stories of cold spots, whispering voices and lights that will not behave. The lodge itself does not talk about ghosts, so treat this as a cozy canyon stay with a rumor attached. It is one of the stops on our guide to haunted hotels in Utah.

The ghosts of Silver Fork Lodge & Restaurant

Cold spots in warm rooms

The most common report from Silver Fork is a sudden pocket of cold in a room that is otherwise warm. Guests describe walking through it, or feeling it settle next to them, and then it is gone.

Mountain buildings are drafty, and the canyon gets very cold at night, so there may be an ordinary answer. Still, it is the experience people mention most often when they talk about the lodge.

Whispering voices

Some guests say they have heard soft, whispering voices when there was nobody else nearby. OnlyInYourState’s haunted Utah road trip adds footsteps and whispers heard late at night right inside guests’ rooms. The stories do not say what the voices say, or whose they might be.

Given the building’s past as a general store for a busy mining and sawmill camp, people like to imagine the voices belong to the workers who once came through its doors.

Lights and electrics

Lights are said to flicker on their own, and electrical items have a habit of switching on and off for no clear reason. In OnlyInYourState’s telling, it is staff, not just guests, who report this.

An old building at the end of a mountain power line is not the most reliable place for electrics, so take this one lightly.

Things that move

The last part of the story is the classic one: small items that are not where you left them. Staff are said to report objects being moved, and guests describe putting something down and finding it elsewhere a few minutes later.

Nobody has put a name to the ghost, and there is no tragic legend attached to the lodge. That makes Silver Fork one of the gentler haunted stays in the state.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• The upstairs rooms: All seven guest rooms are on the upper floor, where most of the cold spots and whispers are reported. Navajo, Wheat, Green Ice and Kaibab have king beds.
• L'aska and Lanae: Larger rooms with two full beds for up to four guests, a good pick for friends who want to compare notes in the morning.
• The Family Suite: Two connected rooms, SilverStar with a king bed and YellowStar with a twin bunk bed, for up to four guests.
• The dining room: Held up by old wooden beams from the Cardiff Fork Mine. Have a late dinner here and listen for the quiet.

History of Silver Fork Lodge & Restaurant

Big Cottonwood Canyon was a working place long before it was a ski destination. Mining in the canyon began in the 1850s and the last mine did not close until the early 1950s. Several sawmills ran in the Silver Fork area from the 1850s into the 1870s, and timber from the canyon supplied nearly 600,000 shingles for the Salt Lake Tabernacle, according to Utah Outdoor Activities.

The Silver Fork community began as a large tent city for those miners and sawmill workers. The lodge still stands on its original site, and it once served as the general store for the miners, sawmill hands and the sheep and cattle herders who used the canyon. Travel listings date the present lodge building to 1947, which matches our original guide; the lodge’s own website does not give a date.

The building has been renovated many times, with care taken to keep its rustic character. The most striking survivor is in the dining room, where the ceiling rests on original wooden beams taken from the Cardiff Fork Mine, one of the canyon’s old mines.

Today Silver Fork is best known as a restaurant. It serves breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, with house-made specialties such as sourdough pancakes and a patio with mountain views. Upstairs, the seven guest rooms have been updated with remodeled bathrooms, new mattresses, TVs and mini fridges, and the lodge also hosts weddings and small events.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Book directly or through Booking.com and choose by bed type; no room is singled out as the haunted one.
• Breakfast is included with every stay, so plan on the sourdough pancakes.
• In winter, check road conditions in Big Cottonwood Canyon before you set off; traction rules often apply.
• Have dinner late and linger in the dining room under the Cardiff Fork Mine beams.
• Combine your stay with a night at the Peery Hotel in Salt Lake City, about 30 minutes away, for a second haunted stay.
• Bring layers: the canyon cools quickly after dark, which is worth remembering before you blame a ghost for a cold spot.

More haunted hotels nearby

• The Peery Hotel, Salt Lake City: a 1910 hotel with an elevator ghost called Moaning Molly
• Holiday Inn Express, Salt Lake City: the former Shilo Inn downtown
• The Bigelow, Ogden: Utah’s best-known haunted hotel, now apartments
• Haunted places in Salt Lake City: more ghost stories in the valley below
• Haunted hotels in Utah

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

• Silver Fork Lodge (official site)
• Utah Outdoor Activities: Silver Fork Lodge
• OnlyInYourState: Take a haunted road trip to the spookiest places in Utah
• Silver Fork Lodge and Restaurant (Travelocity listing: 1947, rooms, pets)
• Booking.com: Silver Fork Lodge and Restaurant

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