Spoiler alert: Erin Taylor is alive and well.

After spending the night in 16 allegedly haunted locations in Colorado and across the U.S., the Colorado Springs paranormal investigator and author is intact, and maybe even more of a believer in things that go bump in the night.

She documented those ghostly sleepovers in her 2022 book, “Sleeping Among Spirits,” and released a new version this summer with an extra haunted location. Both versions, along with her four other paranormal books, including “Strange Colorado,” in which she explores the state’s urban legends, and “Unfinished Business,” a deep dive into haunted bathrooms around the country, are available online at erintaylorauthor.com and Amazon.com. Her sixth book, “Haunted Leadville,” is due out Sept. 16.

“I run into the fire, metaphorically speaking,” said Taylor, a Springs native who graduated from Liberty High School. “Some people might run away from ghosts but I run to them.”

Taylor also will be a featured guest at the Oddity & Fear Fest on Sept. 20-21 at Colorado Springs Event Center, and she’ll host a ghost hunt Oct. 18 at the Outlaws and Lawmen Museum (the old Teller County Jail) in Cripple Creek. Details are online at rjpromotions.com/colorado-shows/colorado-springs-oddity-fear-fest and bumpinthenight.net/night-at-the-old-teller-county-jail.

How the woman who named the Ouija board is connected to Colorado

She was a tiny ghost hunter before ghost hunting even became a pop culture fixation. As a little kid she loved reading scary books, like R.L. Stine’s “Goosebumps” series.

“I wanted that to be my real life even though I thought it was scary,” Taylor said. “I grew up and still loved ghost stories and became more aware of our own legends in Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek and bigger places like The Stanley Hotel, and then the ghost shows started coming out.”

Around 2013 she realized she didn’t have to sit back and watch other people explore the supernatural realm, she could do it, too. So she joined a local paranormal investigation group and then branched out into her own group, Cheyenne Mountain Paranormal.

“There are a lot of times things can be explained, but I love the times they can’t,” she said. “That’s the driving force behind why I and so many other paranormal investigators do this. It’s the thrill of it.”

The idea to sleep in haunted spots was born out of doing 10 nights of paranormal investigations in 10 locations from Indiana to Gettysburg, Pa., with Richard Estep, another Colorado-based paranormal investigator and author. They spent their final night at the Sallie House in Atchison, Kan., a notoriously haunted house and tourist attraction.

“A family lived there and went on the show ‘Sightings,’ and said they were being haunted by a little girl who was a demon,” said Taylor, who’s been a mental health therapist for almost two decades. “The whole reputation of this house is being evil. For being such a demonic ghost I fell asleep in the living room. I joked that I slept great in this super-haunted house, and someone should write a book, a scared Airbnb sort of book. I took it and started running with it.”

Places she laid her head and hoped for the best: Croke-Patterson Mansion (now Patterson Inn) and The Lumber Baron Inn & Gardens in Denver, Victor Hotel & Restaurant, Hotel St. Nicholas in Cripple Creek, as well as Cripple Creek Hospitality House & RV Park. Her least comfortable night came in Squirrel Cage Jail Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where she spent the night in a cell.

Many of the spots have been featured on hit paranormal TV shows, such as “Ghost Adventures,” “Portals to Hell” and “Ghost Hunters.”

Discovering gruesome history of Colorado Springs neighborhood

“Sometimes there’s possibly an initial apprehension, especially if I’m coming into a location knowing there’s been a lot of negative comments,” Taylor said. “As I’ve done this more and more, I don’t get as worked up or nervous as I did in the beginning, but it’s more being aware and mindful of what’s going on.”

And yes, unexplainable things happen during her adventures. Among her favorite go-to places are Cripple Creek and Victor, where she likes to say “you can’t walk a block without having some sort of paranormal activity.”

OK, that’s greatly exaggerated, she admits, but she’s investigated the Outlaws & Lawmen Jail Museum and never had the same thing happen twice. It’s where she first heard footsteps in her ghost hunting career and saw a semi-apparition she could tell was male.

Colorado Springs couple stars in numerous paranormal reality TV shows

Two memorable Springs experiences also come to mind. The evening she spent at Evergreen Cemetery, where she was walking with two other investigators and minus any recording equipment, and saw a black mass cross the path in front of her.

“It was darker than the night,” she said. “That one I couldn’t really explain.”

And an investigation at the now defunct Cowboys nightclub on Palmer Park Boulevard elicited an interesting anecdote in the women’s bathroom when she heard a woman’s voice. Cave of the Winds was also rich with unexplained activity, including hearing footsteps and seeing a lit candle fall out of a bucket lantern.

“Yes, I’m a believer, but I also want to see what might be the reasons,” Taylor said. “I do like explanations. I take a scientific approach to it, but when there are experiences we cannot explain then that’s what’s so exciting.”