Good Sam Parks go beyond trick-or-treating
For some Good Sam Parks, Halloween involves more than hanging up cardboard skeletons and setting out jack-o’-lanterns. Scary trails, tours of ghostly sites and costume contests are just a few of the activities that inventive park operators have cooked up for the spookiest night of the year.
Marval Resort, a Good Sam Park in Gore, Oklahoma, puts on a Halloween extravaganza for guests of all ages. Adventurous revelers can walk the Trail of Terror through a wooded area filled with frightful sights. Folks looking for milder fun can hop aboard the pumpkin patch hayride and dress up for the costume contest—you don’t have to be a kid to enter.
“People make reservations just for this event,” says manager Lynda Burch. “Our staff, work-campers, local volunteers and people from the high school’s drama club participate. It’s a small town celebration.”
At Poche Plantation Camping RV Park, a Good Sam Park in Convent, Louisiana, guests can take a ghostly tour of the property. “The tour starts at the Judge Felix mansion and goes all the way to the graveyard,” says manager Mark Anderson. “Half a dozen actors and actresses portray names buried there.”
Fittingly, the money raised from the tour, held each autumn Saturday, goes toward restoration of the site, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Halloween also haunts Arizona’s Tombstone Territories RV Resort in Huachuca City, but don’t be fooled by the Good Sam Park’s name. Guests here are more likely to encounter smiling faces than scowling goblins.
“We reverse trick-or-treat,” says manager Sylvia Thorp. “We go to guests’ rigs and give them candy. We also invite them into the clubhouse for hot cider.” Thorp says that the event is a great way to bring the campground together as evening temperatures drop.
