On North Wales Drive in Lake Wales there is a painted line across the road and a sign that tells you what to do: stop on the line, put the car in neutral, take your foot off the brake. The car rolls. Backwards. Up the hill.
The legend
The town's version, printed on the sign and repeated since the 1950s, goes like this. A Calusa chief fought a giant alligator here, and the lake beside the road was formed in the battle. Later a pirate, Captain Sasparilla, was buried on the hill, and his ghost pushes cars away. The National Park Service, which added Spook Hill to the National Register of Historic Places in 2019, records the pirate and the alligator with a straight face and notes that the claims "have not been verified." An old brochure for the site reads SEE! THE SPIRITS BATTLE TO THE DEATH!
The explanation
Spook Hill is a gravity hill, one of a few dozen known around the world. The road you stop on is actually sloping gently downhill in the direction you roll; the surrounding land rises steeply enough that it blocks your view of the horizon, and your brain, with no true level to compare against, reads the gentle downslope as an upslope. Researchers who study the illusion have measured it. It works every time, and knowing why does not make it stop working.
Visiting: North Wales Drive between Burns Avenue and Spook Hill Elementary School, Lake Wales. Free, open all the time. Spook Hill Elementary's mascot is Casper the Friendly Ghost, by official arrangement with the cartoon's owners.
Bok Tower, ten minutes away
Lake Wales has a second, less silly claim on your afternoon. Bok Tower Gardens, on the highest point of peninsular Florida, is a 205-foot pink marble and coquina carillon tower set in gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., opened in 1929 by magazine publisher Edward Bok and dedicated by President Coolidge. The bells play daily. It is a National Historic Landmark and one of the most beautiful places in the state that nobody outside Florida has heard of.
Then the coast
Lake Wales is an hour and a quarter east of Tampa. The obvious plan is Spook Hill and Bok Tower in the morning, then west to the water. Tampa Bay sandbar tours and sunset cruises run from downtown and St. Pete; our Tampa guide has the rest. If you are heading south instead, Sarasota is about the same distance.
Questions people ask
Where is Spook Hill?
On North Wales Drive in Lake Wales, Florida, between Burns Avenue and Spook Hill Elementary School. It is free and always open.
Does your car really roll uphill at Spook Hill?
It appears to. The road actually slopes gently downhill in the direction you roll; the surrounding terrain hides the horizon and fools your sense of level. It is a gravity hill optical illusion.
Is Spook Hill on the National Register of Historic Places?
Yes, since 2019, as a mid-century roadside attraction.
What is the Spook Hill legend?
A Calusa chief fought a giant alligator here, and a pirate, Captain Sasparilla, is said to be buried on the hill and to push cars away. None of it has been verified, as the National Park Service politely notes.
What else is near Spook Hill?
Bok Tower Gardens, a 205-foot carillon tower and Olmsted-designed garden from 1929, is about ten minutes away.