# what to do in a 4 acre woods?



## momof2ds (Oct 4, 2007)

hi! This is our 1st ever Halloween party and I am trying to make it so much fun that we will do it year after year. 

I have food and games planned as well as bonfire and hayride.

BUT we do have a 4 acre wooded area - what can I do with that?

LOW COST, please- so much $$ already!

HELP!


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## medusa (Jun 20, 2004)

If you are going to have a hayride,why not make it a haunted hayride? Create a spooky story that can be told as the rides goes along.The story could be about a haunted graveyard that you pass by or about a werewolf legend or about the evil clown that escaped from the circus.You could then have someone jump out as the werewolf or clown or as a zombie.Hope this helps.I do a haunted trail every year so if you need more ideas,just let me know.


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## childofthenight (Aug 24, 2007)

ooooo what I would do for that kinda land! haunted hay ride (I'd just use my lawn tractor and a cart) haunted trail or
just drop them off in the middle of nowhere and scare them back home!


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## halloweenking (Aug 6, 2007)

You could do a maze. You could get sooky tape/ crime scene tape and just really cheap yard sticks/poles. It could be cool. 

You could do a pumpkin smashing contest where each guest sees how far they can throw a pumpkin.


Scavenger Hunt: Set out hard to find things like little black spiders, candy ect.


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## momof2ds (Oct 4, 2007)

Thanks everyone! We do have a trail through the woods that my boys ride all the time- we may use that as part of the hayride or we may do a scavenger hunt with clues and things to gather along the way- we may "plant" people to scare as they go...?


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## barefootcountrygirl (Oct 1, 2003)

We do a Haunted Hayride or walk through the woods every year, here is one of the scavenger hunts I made clues for:

As people walked through our Haunted Forest this year, they did a scavenger hunt. Thought maybe you could get some ideas from this, here are the poems I wrote as clues to what they had to find as they walked through in the dark.

SAY GOODBYE TO ALL MANKIND, AS YOU LEAVE THE MORTAL WORLD BEHIND,
AS YOU PASS THROUGH THE FOREST GATES, PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THE WORST OF FATES,
A NECKLACE OF GARLIC AND A SILVER STAKE, ARE TWO THINGS YOU SHOULD SURELY TAKE. 
(I hung garlic necklaces on the gate (a clove of garlic strung on a piece of ribbon) and a wooden box of silver stakes (used big silver nails to simulate stakes) on the gate.

UNAFRAID OF THE WARNINGS OF DANGERS THAT LOOM, THEY ENTERED THE FOREST AND MET WITH THEIR DOOM, 
THEY'RE FOOD FOR THE WORMS NOW, AND IF YOU ARE BRAVE, YOU'LL STEAL ONE FROM THE GHOSTLY GRAVE
(One tombstone in the graveyard had a ghost by it, and underneath the tombstone was a pile of dirt with rubber worms in it)

BLOOD AND BONES AND GUTS AND GORE, THEY'VE BEEN HERE SINCE 1864,
WOUNDED AND BLEEDING AND STALKING THE LAND, IF YOU NEED PROTECTION THEY'LL GIVE YOU A HAND.
(There is a campsite with reproduction Civil War tents on it, so I had two guys dressed in Civil War uniforms and bleeding skeleton masks handing out little rubber skeleton hands I found at Walmart, the scare at this site was that they had muzzle loaders that they fired (no ball, of course, just powder and patch) as people came around the corner in the dark).

AROUND THE CAMPFIRE BURNING BRIGHT, DANCE THE SPIRITS OF THE NIGHT,
ONE GUARDS HIS TREASURE, DRESSED NOT IN WHITE, CHECK UNDER HIS SKIRTS, AND BRING US A BITE.
(This site had a bunch of white ghosts holding hands around a campfire, one ghost was black instead of white, and under him was a bucket of those cheap plastic vampire teeth, thus the Bite) 

WHEN YOU'RE FACE TO FACE WITH A DEADLY FATE, OF FANGS AND LEGS THAT NUMBER EIGHT,
PREPARE FOR THE WORST AND DRAW YOUR LAST BREATH, AS YOU PLUCK A BABY FROM THE WEB OF DEATH.
(This site had the giant spider with lots of web and a dummy wrapped up in it, but also had little plastic spiders all over the web mixed in with little plastic human babies (Walmart in their cake decorating stuff), the trick here was they had to pay attention and bring a human baby, not a baby spider)

SHE'S CENTURIES OLD, A TERRIBLE SIGHT, SHE STALKS THESE WOODS ON THE DARKEST NIGHT, 
SHE'S WICKED AND GREEN AND ROTTEN WITHIN, BRING BACK A WHISKER SHE'S PLUCKED FROM HER CHIN.
(At the witch's lair, there were jars of brew ingredients, with one marked Witch's Whiskers, which were straws from one of those little craft store brooms)

IF YOU SURVIVE THE DEADLY FLAME, AND THE FEARLESS BEAST FROM WHICH IT CAME,
YOU'RE A BRAVE-HEARTED SOUL, NOW DO YOUR PART, AND BRING US BACK HIS COLD, RED HEART.
(At the fire-breathing dragon, which is actually a huge boat that looks like like a dragon that we hook up propane and a torch to so he blows fire, we hung a big red bag shaped like a heart around his neck and filled it with little red glass hearts I found in the candle aisle at Walmart)

WHEN THE VOLTAGE GOES UP AND THE SPARKS START FLYIN', AND FLESH AND BLOOD AND BONES ARE FRYIN',
YOU MUST SET ASIDE YOUR FEAR, AND BRING US BACK A SOUVENIR,
THE ASH OF A MORTAL, IF YOU DARE, LOOK AROUND, THERE'S PLENTY TO SPARE.
(At the electric chair I roped off an area with caution tape and filled it with the ashes from a mess of the campfire pits)

THOUGH THE WARNING SAYS BEWARE, REACH INTO THE DEVIL'S LAIR,
HE'S WAITING THERE INSIDE THE HOLE, TO SNATCH A BODY'S WAYWARD SOUL,
HERE'S YOUR CHANCE TO PLAY WITH FATE, RETRIEVE THE KEY TO HEAVEN'S GATE. 
(There were four big old stumps here, so I put a hollow log beneath one so people could stick their hand in. We put a red light behind the hole shining out, so they could see it, and a big sign that said Beware, and when they would reach in, the Devil would grab their hand and come up over the top of the stumps to scare them, then gave them a key, which was one of those big plastic keys off baby rattles I found at the dollar store)

MORTALS IN THE FOREST TEND TO LOSE THEIR HEAD, BUT YOU MUST OVERCOME YOUR DREAD, 
FIND A ROTTING SKULL LEFT LAYING THERE, AND BRING US BACK A LOCK OF HAIR.
(At the guillotine, I left a rotten looking skull that I'd glued a wig on, and a pair of scissors, so they had to cut off a lock of hair and bring it to us.)

This was a lot of fun, we gave them a bag containing the rules and the list of clues, that way they had a bag to collect everything in. Thought maybe someone might want to try something like this, it added a new twist to the Haunted Forest.


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## AngelEye (Oct 10, 2007)

That is the most awesome idea ever!! Man I want land!! I don't know how that would work with the space I have.. but that is truely excellent!


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## Hallowtheme (Jul 31, 2006)

Have the hayride go by a scene of a staged hayride accident. Wagon flipped on it's side, hay strewn everywhere, fake corpses that are pale because their blood was drained by vampires. Among the debris is an old lantern, crosses, stakes.


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## Hallowtheme (Jul 31, 2006)

Tombstones surrounded by weeds and a wrought iron fence.


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## Hallowtheme (Jul 31, 2006)

Makes some spooky stick sculptures like in the Blair Witch Project.


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## Hallowtheme (Jul 31, 2006)

Have a giant spider lower down from a branch as they pass under.

Get a bunch of stuffed crows/ravens and put them in a tree along the trail. Have a cropse on the ground with the eyes pecked out.

Dig a grave.


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## Lady of Chamberwell Manor (Oct 16, 2006)

That is awesome barefoot! I'm going to have to incorporate that idea somehow. Thanks for sharing it!!


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## deadlypeanutboy (Oct 9, 2007)

Sorry about the late reply to this post, but I just had to put in my 2 cents. I have done several haunted trails and really like them; I like them better than haunted houses. The woods at night in the fall are the perfect atmosphere for haunting. When you create a haunt in a yard or a building you have to spend a lot of time and energy isolating the "victims" from the familiar and not so scary surroundings. With a haunted trail you've automatically got ambience that can really spook a person. 

All the ideas posted so far are great; I just wanted to add a couple more about lighting. I always found it difficult to create/control lighting when haunting the woods. We always ended up using DC powered lights and car batteries. Used auto/boat/motorcycle/lawnmower batteries will be your new best friend. We also created smudge posts using lard, cardboard, and a #10 (coffee size) tin can. Make an X shaped wick from the cardboard, set it in the can, melt about 2 lbs of lard and pour it in. The flame from these pots is real dark and smokey and they make great lighting to mark a trail or light a scene.


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