In
Petaluma, part of the North Coast Region,
revelers navigate the four-acre A-Mazing
Corn Maze off Stony Point Road. The maze is
open daily throughout October and takes 30
minutes to complete. Visitors can also
search the nearby seven-acre Petaluma
Pumpkin Patch or stroll the marketplace for
16 varieties of squash and nine varieties of
gourds. The area also offers BBQs and a
straw mountain for climbing. Also in
Petaluma is a docent-guided cemetery walk on
October 28, as well as a Halloween House
Tour on October 29 complete with skeletons,
spiders and spooky surprises. In Willits,
the Willits Shakespeare Company will host a
Haunted House in October. The 2nd Annual
Occidental Harvest Market Festival in
Occidental is October 27-28 and includes
children’s Halloween parade, scarecrow
contest, face painting and farmers market.
Both Arcata and Eureka offer annual
Halloween Carnivals on October 31 that
include trick or treating, creepy-crawly
events and contests. It’s the season to be
scared and visitors may also want to take a
trip to Willow Creek, a mountain village
known for its many nearby Sasquatch
sightings. If you don’t see Bigfoot,
travelers can explore the local Bigfoot
Museum, which sports a giant sculpture of
the hairy missing link and other artifacts.
PETALUMA - Halloween Historic
House Tour - Petaluma, California. This fun & spooky tour is
held the Sunday before Halloween each year and combines spine
tingling old houses with local history. Costumed docents at each
location share the real (and Surreal) history and lore about the
homes and the past inhabitants. Petaluma is a town that time
forgot since it was saved from destruction during the 1906
earthquake. No one knows why Petaluma was able to come through
the earthquake
unscathed when all the towns surrounding it were hit with major
earthquake damage. Because of this, Petaluma has one of the
largest collections of pre-1906 historic homes. Founded in 1858
Petaluma was known for supplying everything the 49ers needed by
way of the large schooners that would load up the butter, eggs
and other manufactured products and take them by way of the Bay
into San Francisco. Besides supplying the material needs of the
49ers, Petaluma was also known for being one of the safe havens
for vice in the 1800's. Houses of ill repute plied their trade
without any interference from the local
police. Bars lined the streets leading down to the river and
served alcohol to thirsty workmen day and night. Eventually the
sins of their husbands became too much to bear, and the local
Women's Temperance Union forced the closure of the Bawdy houses
and bars, but only temporarily. Even today, there are those who
claim that the old buildings that housed the ladies of the
evening are haunted by ghostly wayward women still
attempting to sell their wares. The Halloween Historic House
Tour takes you back to the early days of Petaluma's past and
lets you experience an old-fashioned Victorian era Halloween.
This tour is perfect for the whole family because it combines
history & chills in equal measure. Location: 200 Prospect St.,
Petaluma, CA Date: Sunday, October 29th, 2006. Time: 6 p.m. to 9
p.m. Cost:$15/ adults or teen; $5/ 12 years and under. (Children
& teens must be accompanied by an adult)
www.heritagepetaluma.com/tours/bi_annual_tours.html
V Marketplace is Haunted. Yountville
has a darker side with a ghoulish line-up of
Halloween displays featuring giant ghosts, ghouls and ghoulish displays
brought back from the dead by Sue Payne of
ART OF ILLUSION add to the wine country
ambience you can't escape this Halloween
season. Ghostly apparitions loom over
Highway 29 by Vintage 1870 daring visitors
to venture into Yountville! The historic
retail complex, V Marketplace is open daily
from 10:00am – 5:30pm. Vintage 1870 is
located on the Vintage Estate at 6525
Washington Street in Yountville – Napa
Valley . Call (707) 944-2451
www.vintage1870.com
Balboa
Park, located in the San Diego County
Region, is the nation’s largest urban
cultural park. This year, the park offers
the Haunted Trail of Balboa Park, which
winds past graveyards and ghosts through October 31. The Reuben H. Fleet
Science Center’s Haunted Planetarium is a
ghostly pre-show that plays before the last
IMAX film of the day throughout October.
Ghost aficionados will enjoy the Hotel del
Coronado in San Diego, where a beautiful
woman checked in November of 1892 and has
never checked out. Witnesses report
flickering lights, dramatic shifts in room
temperatures, unexplained voices and objects
moving of their own accord. San Diego’s
Whaley house in Old Town State Historical
Park is also considered a spooky residence.
According to the “Travel Channel’s America’s
Most Haunted Houses,” it’s the number one
haunted house in the United States. There is
also Ghostly Tours in History, which
provides a frightening three-hour adventure
that takes San Diego guests to some of the
oldest haunts in the city. Wear your best
Halloween costume to the 8th Annual
Brick-or-Treat celebration at LEGOLAND
California in Carlsbad for Halloween-themed
activities taking place the weekends of
October 21-22 and 28-29.
In the
Central Valley Region, the Hillcrest Farms
Pumpkin Patch is open the last three
weekends in October, as well as steam rides,
nature trails, play areas and picnic sites.
Also in Reedley is Satterstrom’s Pumpkin
Festival and Haunt with daytime activities,
such as hayrides, petting zoo and pumpkin
patch, opening October 1. Brave souls can
visit the Haunted Forest, Howling Haunted
House and Spooktacular Hayride evenings
starting October 13.
Pumpkins topping 1,000 pounds are one of the
many highlights at the Half Moon Bay Art and
Pumpkin Festival in the San Francisco Bay
Area Region. The event is considered the
world’s largest pumpkin festival and will
celebrate its 25th season October 14-15. The
wicked lineup includes a Great Pumpkin
Parade, a weigh-off of gargantuan pumpkins,
haunted house, carving and costume contests,
fun runs, scarecrow contest, crafts and
food. In Santa Cruz, the Santa Cruz Beach
Boardwalk features a Fright Walk with
rotating tunnel exit, as well as Halloween
Laser Tag. Tales of local shipwrecks, whale
ghost stories, nighttime tours, costumes and
scavenger hunts make up an evening of family
fun as the Seymour Center at Long Marine Lab
in Santa Cruz is transformed into Shipwreck
Island on October 27. In Santa Clara,
visitors celebrate the family-friendly
spirit of Halloween during Nick-or-Treat, a
six-day extravaganza at Paramount’s Great
America, where children can trick or treat
alongside the characters from Nickelodeon.
Pier 39 in San Francisco offers ghoulish
behavior as kids in costume trick or treat
at Pumpkin Pandemonium on October 29. In
Berkeley, the Claremont Resort & Spa offers
the Spirits, Spooks and Sweethearts package
from October 9 to November 5, which includes
accommodations, ghostly historical tour and
dinner. A Trick or Treat Costume Parade is
scheduled for October 28 in downtown Napa.
Six Flags
Marine World in Vallejo transforms itself
from a theme park to a scream park for the
annual Fright Fest, which includes a haunted
house and other spooky activities. Fright
Fest is open Fridays through Sundays
September 29 to October 29. An estimated
250,000 celebrants will flock to San
Francisco for Halloween in the Castro, one
of the world's largest costume parties,
scheduled for October 31. The event starts
at dusk at Market and Octavia streets with
the March of Light parade.
In San Jose, the Winchester Mystery House is
one of the oldest and most noted of haunted
houses in California, dating back to 1884.
The 160-room Victorian mansion was built by
the heiress of the Winchester Rifle fortune
after a psychic told her that she could only
escape the wrath of the ghosts, those killed
by Winchester rifles, by building a house
that would never be completed. Visitors and
staff have reported hearing organ music and
whispering sounds, as well as lights going
on and off. Special activities are scheduled
for Halloween, including rare evening
flashlight tours. Visitors can also relive
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” October 27-28
in Felton on the Roaring Camp Railroad Ghost
Train.
After
dark, things get lively at Wild Things
animal facility in Monterey, part of the
Central Coast Region, especially during the
annual Halloween Flashlight Tour (weekends
in October). A costumed tour guide leads
visitors through the grounds, relating myths
and facts about exotic wild animals.
Refreshments follow, plus a photo
opportunity with a “scary” Halloween animal.
Also in Monterey is the Ghost Walk of Old
Monterey, scheduled for October, where
visitors take a nighttime walking tour of
the area’s most haunted cemeteries and
spine-tingling sites. In Oxnard, the 3rd
Annual Ghost Stories at the Square takes
place select weekends in October at the
historic Heritage Square. The resident Elite
Theatre Company leads visitors through a
haunting walk back in time presented by
ghosts representing famous and infamous
characters from history.
In
Anaheim, part of the Orange County Region,
the witching hour of midnight September 29
will mark the beginning of Disney’s
HalloweenTime, an all-new seasonal event at
Disneyland Resort with whimsical décor,
costumed Disney characters and interactive
Halloween activities for the whole family.
The event runs through October 31. San Juan
Capistrano is said to be one of the most
haunted cities in the state. Ghosts,
including the White Lady of San Juan
Capistrano, La Llorona and Phantom of Del
Obispo, have haunted the city’s streets for
the last 100 years. Ghost hunters will also
enjoy a Haunted Walking Tour in downtown
Fullerton in September and October where
they’ll visit historic haunted landmarks
such as the Plummer Auditorium. In
Huntington Beach, the Halloween Celebration
on Main Street takes place October 31 and
includes a moon bounce, air slides, pony and
hayrides, petting zoo and Halloween costume
contest. Knott’s Scary Farm’s Halloween
Haunt in Buena Park brings the dead to life
during selected dates throughout October.
Special events include chilling mazes,
hair-raising shows, scare zones and roving
monsters.
In the
High Sierra Region, many settlers quickly
vacated small towns throughout California
leaving behind more than 50 ghost towns,
including Bodie in Mono County located about
six miles south of Bridgeport. Gold was
discovered here in 1859 and the town’s
population soon peaked to 10,000. Bodie’s
last mine closed in 1941, but the school,
jail, bank, and several churches still
remain. The “White Lady,” a distraught woman
who hanged herself after her finance was
killed during the Gold Rush, haunts the
Bridgeport Inn. In Lake Tahoe, the Village
at Squaw Valley celebrates the spooky season
with the Great Pumpkin Festival October
21-31 with a haunted house, candle making,
trick or treating and doggy costume contest.
Big Bear Lake hosts Halloween in the Village
October 31 when businesses shut down Main
Street, transforming the area into a
gigantic gathering of goblins, witches,
fairies and ghouls for trick or treating.
Thousands of children attend with their
parents each year. In the Yosemite Valley,
ghost hunters will want to lodge at the
Wawona Hotel, where sightings of a pilot –
who crashed nearby in the 1920s – have been
reported. The nearby Ahwahnee Hotel is
considered haunted and includes ghosts and a
moving rocking chair once used by President
Kennedy during his stay in 1962, despite the
fact the chair was removed after the
President’s departure.
The Annual West Hollywood Halloween Costume Carnaval, part of the Los Angeles County
Region, is the largest Halloween street
party in the world. The event is set for
October 31 and will draw 450,000 people to
the streets of Santa Monica Boulevard to
enjoy the craziest, most eccentric costume
creations ever. There’s also live
entertainment, “drag” races, pumpkin carving
contests and children’s activities. The
Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach
celebrates Halloween the weekend of October
28-29 with hair-raising activities,
including creepy crafts, freaky face
painting and spine chilling storytelling.
Kids are invited to come dressed as an
underwater creature or in traditionally
ghoulish attire. It’s no trick; Pacific Park
on the Santa Monica Pier will treat all
guests dressed in pirate gear to a free
round of miniature golf at the Pirates’ Pier
Mini Golf from October 28 through October
31. Located at Seaside Park (Ventura County
Fairgrounds), Seaside Haunt in Ventura is
Ventura County’s largest haunted house
attraction for 2006. Built by professional
Hollywood set designers, the walk-through
attraction is an elaborate maze of a swamp,
caves, as well as a 3D section. It’s open
September 29-30, and October 6-8, 13-15,
20-22, and 24-31.
