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Arizona ghost hunter travels: The hike to Doc Holliday's grave
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The girls of the MVD Ghostchasers paranormal team were off to another one of our fabulous Ghost Road Trips. This time we were visiting several haunted locations in the Colorado area. One of the stops on this adventure was to pay a visit to the grave of Doc Holliday in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. 
As I have mentioned in previous stories, sometimes I tend to leave out minor details when I announce the agenda of the day to the girls. Especially when it involves a hike—or death march—as they like to call them. It is a known fact that when you take a road trip with me, you come home at least five pounds thinner from all the hiking, walking on tours, and lack of meals due to do minimal stopping between haunted attractions. The girls finally started packing their left over’s from dinner in the car for road trip snacks!
Anyway, I assured the girls this was only a half mile hike up a small mountain—an easy to moderate trail. We are not the most athletic women, but I was sure the gradual incline would be something we could all handle.
“Do we need water?” Maddie asked as we hopped out of the car.
“Not for a half mile hike,” I told her, “It looks pretty shady. We’ll be just fine.” 
That is where I made my first mistake. As soon as we rounded the first bend of the hike, the shady coverage was gone. Now we were slowly starting the gradual incline—with the afternoon sun beating down on all four of us.
I looked back to see Liz struggling up the dirt trail. Denise, Maddie, and I sat down on the trail bench to wait for her. Her face was flushed red from the heat. I was hoping she wasn’t going to fall over from heat stroke.
“So why are you making us walk up this mountain?” Denise fanned herself with her hat.
“It’s another part of the whole Earp Saga,” I tried to explain, “We have to see where Doc is buried.”
I explained how Doc Holliday spent the final days of his life in Colorado. In 1887, Holliday made his way to the Glenwood Hotel (where we girls were staying) to be near the hot springs. He had hoped to take advantage of the reputed healing powers of the waters, but the fumes of the sulfurous spring may have been harmful to the ailing man.
Holliday died on November 8, 1887. His grave stone stands in Linwood Cemetery which overlooks Glenwood Springs. There have been many speculations that Doc is not even buried in the cemetery at all. There are rumors his body was transported back to his Georgia home. Some say the ground was frozen in the mountain graveyard that November. They say he was probably buried in a temporary grave and might not ever been transported to Linwood. Others say the road up to the mountain was so icy that they stopped and buried him in one of the current residential lots below the trail. 
“I could use some ice right now!” Liz said catching her breath, “How much further is it?”
“Just around the next bend,” This is always my standard answer when I really don’t know—and I don’t want my friends to back out on me.
We all stood up. Slowly, but surely, we made it to the top of the trail and entered the forest like pioneer cemetery. Once you reach the top, there are signs with arrows pointing you in the direction of the Doc Holliday Memorial. We followed the trail markers to a fenced area under a tree.
“Here it is!” I shouted. Five years ago, when we made our journey to the Linwood Cemetery mountaintop, the grave marker was still the modern looking stone. They have since replaced it with an old fashion obelisk style marker reflecting the Holliday era.
“Wait a minute,” Maddie said reading a marker within the iron fence, ‘It says “This memorial is dedicated to Doc Holliday who is buried someplace in this cemetery’. You mean we hiked all the way up to the top of this mountain and you don’t really know where his actual grave site is?”
“It’s the principal of the thing,” I grinned, “We can say we’ve been here. Doc is probably sitting under one of these trees laughing at us right now.”
That was my second mistake. I could see by my friend’s faces, this was no laughing matter. They were hot and ready to hike back down the trail and grab a cold bottle of water out of the ice chest. We took a few more pictures and scrambled back down the sun baked trail. 
The marked trailhead to Doc’s gravesite can be found at the corner of 12th and Bennett Avenue near downtown Glenwood Springs. It's a half mile uphill climb on an unkempt trail. Once you reach the cemetery there are plenty of signs directing you to Doc's grave. Oh, and a tip from the girls… bring a bottle of cold water.
For more info: www.mvdghostchasers.com
Debe Branning nazanaza@aol.com
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