Haunted Trail 2024 – The Dark Woods

Halfway through the daunting task of getting through the Haunted Trail of Fears recap for 2024. Admittedly, a bit late in the year getting to this as the next one is only 2 months away. All good things take time I guess – or more accurately push the tedious stuff of as much as possible ha. My fingers are finally recovered from part one of this series. If you want to check out the behind the scenes build process and see some of the trail in daylight, pop back to the previous post (link here). Need to mention that we were light on our picture taking after the sun went down for the 2024 event. I think part of the problem was absolute exhaustion from the late hour issues that were covered in part one. We did get some and I’ll share those now.

Here’s my partner in haunt Paul posing at the start of the trail. The 12′ Inferno Skelly was added the previous year, but we did pick up a few of his minions to assist in its quest to terrify our guests – I am sure the fact that Paul is smiling is not helping his cause ha.

Hit the jump to see more of the after dark sights on the 2024 Haunted Trail of Fears.

We didn’t notice this until we saw this picture after the fact. I left the installation support line on the pumpkin arch (see line running through middle of the arch). This isn’t a problem for our guests as it is too high to clip any heads and you only notice it when the flash goes off on the camera – just don’t like missing details ugh (add to the project plan for next year).

Now into the switchbacks. Even with the well lit air blown props, this new part of the trail was pretty dark. We picked up some extra strings of lights at atHome (going out of business sale) this year to hang in the trees to take some of the darkness away – don’t want to scare the younger guests too soon.

Paul’s pumpkin scarecrow arches looked really nice on the trail. As the night went on, they did tend to shift a little downhill which had a side effect of restricting the path at that point. Will watch that this year as I don’t want any of the guests injuring an ankle on the un-flattened part of the slope. No injuries were report!

More of the switchbacks. We only heard positive things about this new way down into and up from the valley. Makes all that work that went into cutting those trails worth it.

The air blown props were taking a beating from the 20+ mph winds that would gust through the valley that first night. Thought we had everything tied down well, but I now see we lost a ghosts on the left.

More switchback shots. I did put in “outlets” to the original trail as that was the way we were still hauling everything down. Had to make sure none of our guests took that path. The best way is to use tightly grouped flame flickering solar lights (see back row) or Halloween pathway decor. The little lit foam pumpkins are another aid to help show our guests the proper path to take (see tree on right side of path)

Coming out of the switchbacks now which drops you into the Witch’s Haven. Our custom created witch circle was moved to this new location – always a guest favorite. This year I am working on sprucing up that cauldron with boiling over soup and mister fog. I am sure we will do a haunt tutorial on that when we start work on it.

Another haven resident. This witch from Home Depot experienced a malfunction the year before preventing it from lunging forward. Still a nicely detailed prop and she still has a scary voice pack – just missing the jump scare. I definitely get annoyed when I see plastic gearing as it is inevitable it will fail …just not sure when.

I promised you a shot of Paul’s air blown dragon and here it is. That this is huge and also has the benefit of shedding a lot of light onto the trail.

Another of Paul’s giant air blown props. This pumpkin head stands 12′ tall and stands as a warning to our guests they are about to enter the Dragon’s Lair.

At this point you have officially made it all the way down into the valley. The rest of the trail is all flat until the end when you have to make your way back up the switchbacks. It is here where you will find our resident dragons. Our new dragon looked really nice on the trail – imagine smoke coming out of this one’s mouth. In the first post it was mentioned we forgot to hook up the smoke machine – so many things to do, so little time ha.

We are at the Emerald Forest now which is a large open area past a small bridge. It is really hard to get a shot that shows why we named this area that – imagine small green lights everywhere you look. Here is a shot from 2023 that kinda shows it.

Hanging all those little tiny lights took days and day (no other secrets will be revealed hehehe).

For 2024, I was able to get the eyes in the Wolfie. This 4×8′ monstrosity debuted the year before, but ran of time to get the eyes on and a few other changes. Hoping this year I can get the fur textured plaster coating applied and a more detailed paint job to increase the overall look.

Now into the lead in to the newly overhauled cemetery. Paul has had a few issues over the years with the spinning ghost, but all those gremlins are out of the mechanics now and it worked great for this event.

Oops, this is actually a bit earlier on the trail. Paul has a project that puts moving spiders on the ground. I am absolutely shocked by the number of adults this terrifies. If you walk in this area (and we practically force you to by design), the projection will make it look like the spiders are crawling all over you. Hey, we offer the ability to turn back whenever the fears get to you!

Are newly heightened Reaper stands outside the cemetery, its lantern showing the way to the underworld – note, the lantern has projects of kids hands on the inside and a sound pack of kids screaming and begging to be saved. We are NOT responsible for nightmares.

Here is the new cemetery entrance. Ron and I built this like a week before the event. The two columns were made of cement forums with custom faux caps for the candelabras. The fencing was also new (actually built before we decided to add the columns). Not only did it look really nice, it helped direct the guests to start the outer loop that takes them around the cemetery.

Here is one of the new stones for 2024. Probably one of my favorites with the extra gore motif at the top. If you want to learn how we make these illuminated stones, check out our tutorial (link here).

Apologies again to our first night guests as I didn’t get the coffin opener working until the second day. The skeleton pulls open the coffin lid and the skeleton pops out from the inside and greets the guests before the large skeleton closes the lid back up. This takes large LiPo batteries and I didn’t have time to get that one charged up and connected into the controllers. The good news is the new heavy duty servos in the large skeleton worked flawlessly when we did get it hooked up.

Now into the Zombie Containment area. We through extra light on the trail to get this shot as it is very dark here. The rope lights shed just enough light to get you through, but not enough to warn you of the zombies ready to eat you from the sides.

This is more like the actual feeling you get in this part. The camera still captured extra light here. I am in the process of building a whole set of sound controllers for this area to add a touch more “surprise” for our guests.

The new scarecrow prop from Spirit doing its thing out on the trail. Really happy we picked him up for half price the year before at Spirits half off sale post Halloween.

Ugh, this Stranger Things demon ended up looking okay on the trail. Was it worth the hours and hours needed to put it together…maybe not.

…and now to the most terrifying section of all (at least for me), the clown infestation. We have a lot of clowns…and by that I mean a LOT of clowns on our trail – it is called the Haunted Trail of Fears for a reason ha! No Halloween clown display would be complete without the king of all evil clowns – Pennywise. This is one of the few props from Paul we use outside his specific area. There are speakers in his chest that play various creepy lines from the movie while the head randomly turns left and right. If your kids made it this far, you might think about getting them some therapy (I am the example when the haunt sinks too far into your blood).

The “Prop of the Year” came from Paul’s collection for 2024. He actually modified a prop to enhance its scare quotient. There is a dog in that dog house and any guest that gets too close is going to feel it its bite as it rapidly jumps out of the house. Everyone was talking about this prop Paul had in his Hellscape area. Check out his video from the night which has the best reaction from a small child (link here).

Apologies to Paul I didn’t get many pictures of his area. The video gives you a lot better look at Hellscape and the spooky experience he sets up every year. There is a reason this entire area is bathed in red.

One of the last things our guests get to enjoy is the new Gargoyle. It took a lot to get it to this point, but I need to do a LOT more work on it before I’m happy with it. Hoping to put new hands on it, a larger head that rotates back and forth, a moving tail and then a complete overhaul on the wings. They did not come out anything like I had planned. Everything looked good enough in the dark, just wanted it to be better to reflect the year long effort I put into it.

We are now at the end and once out of the valley we have one last experience for our guests, the Flaming Pumpkin Headless Horseman. We used always have flaming pumpkin somewhere on the trail thanks to Paul learning how to do this early into our haunted trail days. Over the years we have built it into this more complete scene adding the zombie horse from Home Depot and a custom posey to sit atop. Guest really look forward to this part of the party. We now have two lightings each night. We are a bit frightened by the evil green spirit that showed up in this shot – we are not alone in these here woods!

Just a few more interesting shots from the trail. First off, we found the true horror in the woods.

I am not joking, that hell spawn give us big nightmares – they have a very bad habit of chewing on our extension cords. Then there was this absolute surprise the second night of the trail. I was taking a group of guests down through the switchbacks when I noticed an odd extension cord across the path. We take great pains to not have any tripping hazards on our trail and this was right there where someone could easily trip over it. Wait, that doesn’t look right, we don’t have multi-colored extension cords.

Then I realized what it was and pointed it out to those around me. They figured it was one of our props…then a few became horrified when it slithered off. A Western Rat Snake had decided our trail needed some extra spook. Fingers crossed it found that damn mouse!!

After all the guests had gone home and we had the best sleep for weeks, we embarked on the final phase of the haunt – the tear down and haul back out of the valley. We were a bit short handed this year (I wasn’t the only one getting injured that year). Need to give a huge shout out to Linda for stepping in and helping Paul and I get everything packed out.

In essence it is an easier process than the build as I do not have to be as careful with the props – we do not have time to fix things while in the build phase, so extra care has to be taken to get everything down there unharmed – more trips for sure. Afterwards we can pile everything on the trailers and deal with the final storage later.

There is one prime directive in this phase – do NOT get hurt as the ultra race was just two weeks away. It is possible that the labor from the trail weakened the ankle, but I had no idea that race was going to put such a big hurt on me – as I look down at my left ankle in an air cast.

A big ol’ pile of zombies and clowns.

The signature props do need a bit more care – in those cases we have to provide a softer ride up the valley. Translated, they have to sit in Linda’s lap.

I have to admit, I fought Linda a long time about upgrading our ATV to a UTV. As is always the case, she was right. One of the best purchases we have made not only for the trail, but also for general upkeep of the homestead. Now if I can just make it autonomous!

Due to all the dampness during the night in the woods, we have to let all the props sufficiently dry before we can pack them away. This can take a week or two to make sure all the moisture is gone which is not a problem as I don’t want to hurt my back lifting the tubs into the shelving prior to the race.

Everything is out of the woods now, time for Paul and I to take a much needed break…and to start planning next year’s extravaganza – there really are no days off from the haunt hehehe.

So you might be thinking about putting on your own haunted trail. A word of advice, start looking for battery deals early. We really prefer battery over AC power and do a lot of work it the off season to convert plug-in powered props to DC. There are still those that need AC for larger motors etc. and, of course, all the lighting and the piles and piles of extension cords handle that need. The rest, well that requires oodles and oodles of batteries – 9Vs are used for our custom prop controllers, AAs are the main power source for most of the props, however, lately the new ones are requiring AAAs. There are a handful that need Cs and Ds, but very few of those compared to the rest. Oh, and those button batteries that are in some of the store bought props lately – those are immediately rewired with AAs or AAAs. Those are an absolute racket as three of those replacement batteries can cost more than the prop itself. That is an easy wiring change for use.

Hope you enjoyed this look back at the Haunted Trail of Fears 2024. Apologies for being late on this, but it does give you a feel for what is right around the corner for the 2025 event. For those wondering about the ankle and the work this takes, we have moved our traditional end of September date to the third week in October. This will at least give me time to get out of the boot and into a brace. Fingers crossed the PT progresses as fast as I am hoping.

Take care, stay calm, haunt on!!