Trick-or-treaters arrived en masse at 5 p.m., Saturday, October 23, at “the barn” by the Gilpin County Rec Center dressed as witches, ghouls, pirates, cowboys, princesses, dinosaurs, and every other character imaginable.

Crafts and face-painting were offered as well as an array of fun games for the kids to play. Unlike at a crooked carnival where the wooden pins are sometimes weighted at the bottom, the stacked cans fell easily in the Monster Can Toss to win candy or a prize. In the Poke-A-Pumpkin game, children pushed their hands through a plastic cup draped in orange crepe paper to claim more goodies. Fishing for rubber duckies took a bit more patience but always yielded results. To really test themselves, without using their hands, kids tried to eat powdered doughnuts hanging from strings. Kind of like inverted apple bobbing, it isn’t as simple as it might seem without getting sugar all over your face.

Hayrides ran during the event to the delight of passengers. A trick-or-treat trail ran along the rec center arched with cobwebs and spiders. Firemen and friendly clowns lined the way handing out candy from their buckets.

The clowns across the road at the Spooky Monster Stroll weren’t quite so pleasant. Opening at 7 p.m. when darkness descended on the eerily quiet woods, only older kids, youth, and adults dared enter. A scream sent shivers down the spine while tortured souls reached through the bars of a barred pit with their scraped up bloody arms, trying to escape. Gruesome decapitated heads hung from the aspen branches and bats flew through the air. A miniature clown even scarier than Chucky bared his rotten teeth brandishing a blood-tipped knife.

With attention paid to detail, creators of the Spooky Monster Stroll succeeded in presenting a bone-chilling experience in only its first Halloween.

Gilpin County Parks & Recreation is located at 250 Norton Drive, Black Hawk, Co. 80422. Check out their website at https://www.gilpincounty.org/departments_ offices/parks_ and_ recreation or their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/gilpincounty.org/. Or call (303) 582-1453.

The creepy and kooky Top, left; It was best not to stray from the trail as the reincarnated weren’t clowning around. Top, right; Zombies ache for their freedom. Bottom, right; Gilpin Community Center staffer Gabrielle Chisholm came up with the “purrfect” outfit. Bottom, left; Frightened out of our minds, it was easy to lose one’s head.[/caption]