There are two camping trips we do every year that I think our children live for. The first is our Annual Family Camping Trip. The second is the Annual Halloween Camping Trip.
We have been fortunate to have a two local state park who organized a Halloween camping trip for years. Unfortunately, this past year one of them ended this tradition. Fortunately for us, a few other local campgrounds have stepped up to host Halloween camping events. Each of the campgrounds we have visited host a Scariest Campsite Contest. We are competitive enough that we want like participating in that contest.
2019 was our sixth year celebrating and competing in a Halloween at the campground. We have evolved, what started out with two families and a few visitors has grown to a dozen families camping and celebrating Halloween together.
Each year we pick a theme and coordinate our costumes with the site decorations. Part of the fun for us is the prep work and getting ready for the camping weekend. We share text messages, photos, costume finds, and then get together to create whatever props we need. The excitement for the camping trip builds with each passing day. That excitement is felt not only by the kids but also the adults.
Let’s review our Halloween trips over the years. Our first year we used our leftover Halloween costumes from Disney and we were crayons. That year we were told we were “creative” but not scary.
The next year, we got it together and created a mad science lab. We had science experiments as well plenty of gruesome sights (it’s amazing what a black light, neon water, and some grow in water animals can do!).
The third year we dressed up as Zombies and decorated our site as a Zombie Prom. We danced the night away and had a lot of fun dancing with random strangers.
In 2017 we turned our campers into giant pirate ships and we dressed up like Pirates! We created games and had everyone walk the plank if they wanted a Halloween treasure. Right after trick or treating ended, the sky opened up and we got drenched!
2018, we created a haunted house and each family took a different room. The result is we had a six room haunted house with a GhostBuster room, a western bar with dead outlaws, a science lab, a haunted surgical room, a haunted dollhouse, and clowns. We even created a chicken exit!
2019, we decided to make a ghost town. We decided our costumes could have anything to do with cowboys, cowgirls, western outlaws, dead or alive. We each purchased a sheet of plywood so we ended up with 7-9 sheets. We built a fake ghost town out of plywood. It was pretty epic.
Unfortunately, as we were setting up the town at the new campground, the campground host came by and told us we needed a million dollar liability insurance policy. They were worried our plywood city would fall on someone. (UGH!) They were nice enough to let us keep it up, but we were instructed that no one could walk on the site. We had envisioned visitors could walk through our town and interact with us. So much for creating selfie stations!
In addition to the campsite contest, the park also had Halloween games, pumpkin carving contest, and site to site trick or treating. The weather was a real challenge, it was cold and damp. However, it did not stop those kids from hitting up every loop in the park for trick or treating.
There are so many aspects to our Halloween camping trip that make this special. Some of those I have already touched upon. We love creating the concept together. We love the pre-trip. I also think we love the competition of it all. But most importantly, I think we overall just really like each others company and this event speaks to how much fun we have while camping and outside of camping. I think our children love seeing their parents let their hair down and play (or dress up in silly costumes in this case).
Do you have access to a Halloween camping trip? If so, do you decorate your site or just participate in the trick or treating? If you are looking for a campground in the Kansas City area that celebrates Halloween, I suggest you check out:
Maybe I should pause here and explain who all is involved in this haunted camping trip. The Taylor’s and The Todd’s have been at every single Halloween Camp-Out at Watkins Mill. Last year we extended an invitation to The Merriman’s because they are fun and love Halloween as much as we do. This year, the Todd’s had to cancel due to a conflict with Z’s sports schedule. So, I invited my friend Meg and her family. (Do you remember Meg? She wrote a blog post for us called Growing Up Camping.) Then we have my dear Mother who comes to help and participate the day of the Halloween party. We also have other friends who attend the same camp-out so it is nice to spend time with so many great camping friends!
We settled on our theme for the year: Zombie Prom. We decided a prom had three main elements we needed to create in our campsite. First we needed a DJ. You can’t have a school dance without someone playing music. Second we needed a photo attraction. I am sure all of you out there have a “memorable prom photo” from back in the day. And finally, we needed a refreshment table with cake and punch.
We used two easy up tents as our frame. We covered the tents with inexpensive black dollar store plastic table cloths to create walls. Not only did the walls give us an area to transform, it also kept us hidden from the watchful eye sight of other campers. I think this helped create an excitement around our campsite as everyone’s anticipation kept building about what was inside that tent. On top of the black walls, we hung up some red plastic table cloths that we unevenly cut into strips. I remember back to my high school days and we used rolls of crepe paper to create the walls of our dances. Hours were spent hanging the crepe paper and twisting it in the same direction and taping it to the floor. We wanted our Zombie Prom to look like it had been pretty at one point but had been discarded and forgotten until this one night.
Our original plan was to have red and white plastic tablecloths cut to look like crepe paper streamers but when we got to the campground I realized I had picked up round tablecloths and not rectangle ones. Meg was quick on her feet and suggested using the rounds as valances on top of the red and it worked out well!
For our photo attraction, The Merriman’s and I made a giant 6 foot 3 inch coffin out of cardboard. We were gifted the shipping box of a whiteboard and set about measuring and cutting. Once cut, we painted it black and duck taped it all together. Our original thought was to have someone “pop” out of the coffin and provide a timely and funny photobomb but in the end, we left the coffin closed because it felt stronger. We added chains and a “beware of zombie’s” styrofoam sign to the coffin. Around the coffin we had a candelabra with zombie candle’s, skulls, and a flower arrangement of dead flowers. The Merriman’s and I also made a sign to sit in front of the photo attraction that said “Zombie Prom “#3rdAnnualHalloweenCampout #WatkinsMillStatePark.
The DJ was the easiest and maybe the funniest part to set up. We have access to a life-size medical skeleton that we like to call Bob. Bob was always going to be the DJ for the prom. We were going to call him “Bob Bones” and use bone lettering to make him a DJ sign for his booth. However, the presidential debates happened and Ken Bone made himself an internet sensation. So, we changed Bob’s name to Ken, gave him a mustache, put a red sweater on him, and called him Ken Bone, DJ 4 Hire. We put Beat headphones on him, rested his hands on a turntable and a laptop. I even found a brand new mirrored disco ball on Craigslist and hung it from the roof of the tent. We used our red/green garden lasers to caste light onto the disco ball so the entire prom spun with light.
We always knew we wanted cake and punch at the refreshment table but really debated over fake cake vs real cake. A month or so ago, I stumbled onto a tutorial from another RV blogger, Gretchen about a 
Outside the tent we created a grave yard with styrofoam headstones and compost dirt. We put strobe lights and warning tape up. We also lit the pathway from the road to the tent with solar lights and we ran floral wire between three trees and taped red glow sticks to the wire to give the effect of floating red candles.
Reflections from the night:
We ended up taking first place again! It was a shared victory with all the kids and all the adults who helped plan. We all went to bed with big smiles and maybe some sore muscles from all the dancing we did. People greeted us with their hopes of seeing us next year and looking forward to our site. It seems we have a reputation to uphold.
A trio of witches brewing up some special potion just for Halloween. They had motion sensors and startled me when I got close enough to activate them.
This camper has been pickin his banjo a long ole time.
This group skeletons look like they are enjoying camp life.
Roam With Friends 