Over the weekend of October 19^th on Saturday night I went to the Bear Den Haunted Woods in Waterford, WI.I was accompanied by a group of friends. I hadn’t gone to a haunted house or, more or less, the haunted woods in two years, so I was excited to experience it again.

The crowds were sparse, perhaps because it was only the second weekend after opening, and people had not yet gotten into the “fright” of the season. Nevertheless, I was excited to partake in the adventure of the haunted woods.

It took a little over an hour to get there, which normally would have taken about 15-20 minutes, but because of construction work and bad directions, we had gotten there later than planned.

We first bought our tickets and waited in a reasonably short line. Then we were picked up by a hearse and taken deep into the woods along with another group of people. Once we were in the middle of the woods it dropped us off but not before we were greeted by a buzzing chainsaw maniac in the back which made us scream and jump out of the hearse. This horrifying ordeal jump started our trip through the mile long trail that ran through the haunted woods.

The trail started with a ghost pirate and his crew on a ship, then shifted to a butcher shop, and towards the end the haunted forest added strobe lights and electrifying doors that zapped our hands.

The best part of the whole organization is that it’s not in a building; it’s outside. Because of that, we got to run and scream all we wanted and being in the pitch-black woods adds to the scary effect.

Some down sides were that before entering a certain “trail milestone” almost every time we had to wait a couple minutes to let the group go through the structure, and then we would proceed instead of having the group ahead of us ruin the thrill.

Overall, the Bear Den Haunted Woods was a great kickoff to the Halloween season, and we had lots of fun. If you plan on visiting the Haunted Woods, bring a can of food, and get two dollars off your ticket, which is originally 14 dollars.