“They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky.”

For the second year in a row, Saturday, October 22, Gilpin County Parks and Recreation staged the Spooky Monster Stroll at 250 Norton Drive. Beginning at 5 p.m., scores of costumed children and their parents descended upon the barn for an evening of fun, games, and trick-or-treating. Building on 2021’s popular inaugural event, in no small part, Friends of the Gilpin Community Center and its many volunteers made it possible once again.

Kids could jump around until their hearts’ delight in the bounce house. Flinging hula hoops at traffic cones, a beanbag toss, fishing for rubber duckies at the Fishin’ Hole, and the always challenging, highly entertaining, and delicious suspended donut bobbing kept children merrily engaged. Face painting was available and hayrides departed outside the premises every half hour.

Alongside the Rec Center, the infamous Spooky Monster Stroll haunted trail beckoned those brave enough to take it. “Was that a scream or a coyote? I’m not sure – you go first.”

Lined with gravestones, skeletons, giant spiders, and decapitated heads wrapped in barbed wire, it wasn’t for the fainthearted. You felt like you were in a scene from Apocalypse Now; traveling upriver into the heart of darkness with gruesome sights around every bend. “The horror! The horror!”

Scary enough during the day, beginning at 7 p.m., the nighttime added another dimension of fright. Walking slowly, unsure of what lies ahead on the dimly lighted path, out of nowhere, a vampire flashes his fangs merely feet away from your neck! Safely past him, the only sound heard is that of your quickened breath. A demented clown suddenly appears brandishing a bloody butcher knife, scaring you half to death! He disappears into the woods as you continue along. Feeling your heart pounding in your chest and wishing the nightmare would end, a hog-masked zombie lunges at you with his chainsaw! Running away screaming in terror, you exit the Spooky Monster Stroll alive.

Look for Gilpin Community Center’s upcoming events in The Mountain-Ear or go to www.gilpincommunitycenter.org.