Gather the family, dress in your favorite costumes and prepare for two nights of fun and fright when Wilderness Road State Park hosts their annual Halloween special event, Pumpkins in the Park, on Friday and Saturday, October 24 – 25.
Highlighted by the wildly popular Haunted Trail Hayride, where folklore comes alive, this year’s event will again feature children’s activities, contests and the community based Trunk-or-Treat. Admission is just $5 per vehicle each night.
Many think a Voodoo Queen placed a curse on Wilderness Road's sacred ground
HAUNTED TRAIL RIDE
The Haunted Trail Hayride is a 30-minute, spine-tingling journey along a wooded trail that features spooky scenes, amazing props, and scares behind just about every tree. This setting is sure to illicit a scream. The Haunted Trail Hayride runs both nights from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m.
Our new theme is bringing local folklore to life. We’ve added new scenes (now about 18-20 in total), new lighting effects to illuminate the scenes better and creepy sounds to bring each scene more to life. Our area is rich in history, and some of that history is on the dark side, with sad and even sometimes scary aspects. We want to tap into this local folklore and better immerse the riders into each scene. There will be much more interaction between the riders and the ‘creatures’ on the trail.Oftentimes, the scenes will extend out onto the trail, and even around the wagon the riders are on.
New scenes added this year
The always popular Wet Willie the Pirate returns to entertain the crowd as they wait to board the hayride. You can bet Wet Willie will have some stories to tell, including one about the haunted land that riders will face along their hayride journey. He’ll find ways to immerse the crowd into his tales and will have giveaways for the kids.
BRING THE KIDS
The children’s portion of the event will run from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday at the Karlan Mansion. Children’s activities include: pumpkin painting, face painting, costume contests, the community based Trunk-or-Treat and more.
TRUNK OR TREAT
To help meet the demand of costume-clad candy seeking children, the we are encouraging area churches, businesses, organizations and families to come out and participate in order to make the trunk-or-treat a community event. It’s the support from the community that truly makes this event a success. It’s the community that helps to assure the children have a fun and safe Halloween experience.
Lots of fun kids' activities on Saturday on the Karlan Mansion grounds
Those participating in the Trunk-or-Treat park on the Karlan Mansion lawn to distribute candy from the trunks of their vehicle. Each trunker is encouraged, but not required, to dress up, decorate their vehicle and create signs recognizing their church, group, business or family. As an added incentive this year, the park will award a prize to the best overall display by a trunker.
COSTUME CONTEST
Those wishing to participate in the costume contests should meet at the stage area at the Karlan Mansion by 6 p.m. Prizes will be awarded for the costume contests in three categories, ages infant-3 years, ages 4-7 and ages 8-12. The winner of each contest will receive a $25 Wal-Mart gift card.
FUN FOOD
Refreshments will be available both nights, with the park’s Friends of Wilderness Road State Parksupport group also offering up popcorn, hotdogs, bottled water, soft drinks, the always popular Pumpkins in the Park t-shirt and more.
This event is sponsored by Friends of Wilderness Road State Park. For more information, or to find out how your church, group, business or family can help make this event a success, please call the park at 276-445-3065, via website.
Admission is just $5 per vehicle each night and runs both evenings on October 24-25 beginning at 5:00 p.m. Haunted Trail Hayride is 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. For directions to here.