Douglas County, Colorado
Halloween in Douglas County
Spooktacular, Fangtastic, the Haunted Forest, haunted hayrides, trunk-or-treats, murder mysteries in a castle — every Halloween event across the county, dated and priced.
By Connor Tien, DougCo Social · Updated October 2026
The 2026 Halloween calendar at a glance
The Tentpoles
- Spooktacular — Sat Oct 17, 1–4 p.m., Miller Park (Castle Rock): Free — Castle Rock's big family Halloween afternoon.
- Fangtastic Festival — Fri Oct 30, 11 a.m.–2 p.m., Festival Park (downtown Castle Rock): Free — the downtown tentpole the day before Halloween.
- The Great Pumpkin: A Storybook Holiday — Sat Oct 24, 6–9 p.m., Douglas County Libraries (Parker): $28.52–$33.85 — the library's ticketed family storybook night.
- Last Stop — Halloween Night at the Mansion — Sat Oct 31, 6:30–9 p.m., Highlands Ranch Mansion: Free — DJ, a trick-or-treat stop, and a cash bar at the historic mansion on Halloween night itself.
Haunted & Scary
- HRCA Haunted Forest — Fri Oct 23, 6:30–9:30 p.m. & Sat Oct 24, 7–10 p.m., Backcountry Wilderness Area: $15 general / $25 fast pass — a three-quarter-mile creep through the woods, recommended for ages 10+. Note there are flashing lights.
- Fright Lite — Sat Oct 24, 5–7 p.m.: $10 — the same lights, music and themed scenes with no scare actors performing. The pick if jump scares are a hard no.
- Haunted Forest Fall Fest — Sat Oct 24, 1–4 p.m.: $10 per kid, $5 per adult — the daytime family version with a bounce house, crafts and food trucks.
- Getting to all three: park at Rocky Heights Middle School, 11033 Monarch Blvd, Lone Tree, then walk south on the trail to the Community Area. The Backcountry Wilderness Area has no separate event parking.
- Haunted Hayrides at Stockton's Plum Creek Stables — Fri Oct 23 & Sat Oct 24, Roxborough: $16 (2 and under free) — an HRCA 4-H fundraiser hayride.
- Ghostly Stories & Tragic Tales Walking Tours — Oct 7, 8, 14, 21, 22, 28 & 29 at 7 p.m., plus Oct 17 & 31 at 1 p.m., Castle Rock Museum: Free downtown ghost-story walks (donations encouraged) — The Rock, the Old Stone Church, the B&B Café. Reservations required: 303-814-3164.
- Spirits with the Spirits Mansion Tours — Wed Oct 7, 14 & 21, 6:30 p.m., Highlands Ranch Mansion: $44.52 — evening tours of the mansion's darker history.
- Haunted Histories: Ghosts of Colorado (Thu Oct 29, 6–7:30 p.m., Douglas County Libraries Castle Pines): Ghost stories tied to the Denver area's historic buildings, for teens and adults. Registration required.
Trunk-or-Treats & Family
Trunk-or-treats in Parker
- Trunk or Treat on Mainstreet — Sat Oct 24, Parker Station rear lot (Downtown Parker): Up to 60 decorated business trunks. Sensory-friendly hour 1–2 p.m., general admission 2–5 p.m. Free — every child needs a free timed-entry ticket; parents don't.
- Free Family Trunk-or-Treat at Kiddie Academy — Sat Oct 24 (Parker): Free.
- Fieldhouse Fright Night (Sat Oct 10, 5:30–8 p.m., Parker Fieldhouse): Parker Parks and Recreation's indoor Halloween night with a Trick-or-Treat Street, goblin games, a haunted house for the bigger kids, a Story Adventure Walk for the little ones and a costume contest. $17–$19 per child pre-registered, and pre-registration closes Oct 9 at 3 p.m.
- A Storybook Holiday: Peanuts Halloween (Sun Oct 18, 6–9 p.m., Douglas County Libraries Parker): A Peanuts-themed night with trick-or-treating, crafts and food. Ticketed on Eventbrite, separate from The Great Pumpkin night on Oct 24.
Castle Rock
- Dads of Castle Rock Trunk or Treat — Sat Oct 24, 5–8 p.m., Douglas County High School (2842 Front St): Decorated trunks, food trucks, bounce houses and a petting zoo, new this year. The first hour, 5–6 p.m., is a quieter, less-scary hour for kids with special needs. Free; Dads of Castle Rock Community Outreach supplies the candy.
- Fall Festival featuring Creepy Crawlies Around the Rock — Sun Oct 18, 10 a.m.–3 p.m., Festival Park (Castle Rock): The Town's fall festival with its up-close animal program downtown.
- Boo Bash at the Outlets at Castle Rock (Sat Oct 24, 11 a.m.–2 p.m., 4th St East Courtyard): Free. Petting zoo, face painting, stilt walkers, a 360 photo booth and a costume contest from noon to 1:30 p.m. with pet, kid, teen and group categories.
- Big Jack is up now: the Outlets at Castle Rock's giant jack-o'-lantern is back in the courtyard (we saw him Sept. 30). Donate a coat to his Coats for Colorado drive at Customer Service through Oct. 24 for a chance at a $1,000 Outlets gift card, and through Oct. 31 pick up a hunt map at Customer Service and find the 12 hidden Hobbit friends in store windows for a prize.
Castle Pines & Sterling Ranch
- Castle Pines Fall Festival, Trick-or-Treat Street & Pumpkin Race (Sat Oct 24, 10 a.m.–2 p.m., Village Square, 7437 Village Square Dr): Free. The City's Trick-or-Treat Street, a petting zoo, a farmers market, the first Chili Cookoff and the Pumpkin Race at 1 p.m. (race kits $25, bought by Oct 22 at 5 p.m.).
- Sterling Ranch Trunk or Treat (Fri Oct 30, 4:30–6:30 p.m., Overlook Clubhouse): Decorated trunks in the clubhouse parking lot, run by the Sterling Ranch Community Authority Board.
Hunting pumpkins instead? The patches, corn mazes and PumpkinFest all live on our Pumpkin Patches guide, and here's our visit to Gilly's in Castle Rock.
Trick-or-Treat & Decoration Maps
The official maps of decorated houses for 2026, checked at each organizer's page on Oct. 4. We link to the maps and never republish home addresses.
- Parker: Halloween Home Decoration Map (Town of Parker). Residents in the 80134 and 80138 ZIP codes pin their address and a photo of their decorations at ParkerCO.gov/HalloweenMap through Oct. 31. It replaces the old judged contest, so no winners, and the Town will post a gallery of the homes on Facebook on Halloween.
- Highlands Ranch: Halloween House Decorating Map (Highlands Ranch Community Association). Send HRCA a photo of your house through the form on its Halloween House Decorating page. The map goes up Oct. 8 and adds homes through Oct. 30.
- Castle Rock: Castle Rock Families' Halloween Lights Map. Not a Town map. The local family blog Castle Rock Families made its first one last year, posted Oct. 24, 2025, built from houses readers passed along. The 2026 edition wasn't up as of Oct. 4.
- Everywhere else: the Town of Castle Rock, Castle Pines, Lone Tree and Larkspur had not posted a 2026 decoration or trick-or-treat map when we checked on Oct. 4. If your town or HOA puts one out, send it to [email protected] and we'll add it.
Parties & Shows
- Midnight at the Masquerade — Murder Mystery at the Castle — Sat Oct 17, 6–9:30 p.m., Cherokee Ranch & Castle (Sedalia): $84.95 — a masquerade murder-mystery dinner in an actual castle.
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show with Shadow Cast — Sat Oct 24, 8 p.m., PACE Center (Parker): $32 — the screening with a live shadow cast.
- Midnight at the Masquerade — Dinner Theater — Sat Oct 24, Pikes Peak Event Center (Parker): Doors 5:30 p.m., Italian buffet dinner at 6 — ticket price direct from the venue (720-675-7932).
- Club 21 Halloween Dance Party — Fri Oct 16, 7–9 p.m., Wellspring Community (Castle Rock): $15.
- Halloween Dance at the Highlands Ranch Senior Center — Thu Oct 29: $19 members / $22 non-members.
- Halloween Party at Sinners & Saints (Sat Oct 31, 8 p.m.–midnight, inside Ecclesia Market, Castle Rock): Free. A late-night Halloween party with DJs Max and Marvin.
- Halloween Party & Cereal Killer Competition — Fri Oct 30, 105 West Brewing (Castle Rock): Free — a costume competition and contest at the taproom; no time posted yet.
- Giant Zero Halloween Show — Fri Oct 30, 6:30 p.m., 105 West Brewing (Castle Rock): Free — likely the live-music portion of the same night; costume up and catch the taproom show.
Coming up next
Live from our events calendar — the next Halloween events, updating automatically as dates are posted.
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The two free tentpoles are Spooktacular at Miller Park in Castle Rock (Sat Oct 17, 1–4 p.m.) and the Fangtastic Festival at Festival Park downtown (Fri Oct 30, 11 a.m.–2 p.m.). Parker's big family day is Saturday Oct 24: Trunk or Treat on Mainstreet behind Parker Station (sensory-friendly hour 1–2 p.m., general admission 2–5 p.m., free with a timed-entry ticket per child) plus The Great Pumpkin: A Storybook Holiday at the Douglas County Libraries that evening. Castle Rock adds the Fall Festival featuring Creepy Crawlies Around the Rock at Festival Park (Sun Oct 18), and the free Last Stop — Halloween Night at the Highlands Ranch Mansion closes the month on Oct 31, 6:30–9 p.m.
HRCA runs the Haunted Forest in the Backcountry Wilderness Area — a three-quarter-mile trail walk recommended for ages 10+, Fri Oct 23 (6:30–9:30 p.m.) and Sat Oct 24 (7–10 p.m.), $15 general / $25 fast pass, with Fright Lite (Oct 24, 5–7 p.m., $10, same trail without the scare actors) and a daytime Fall Fest (Oct 24, 1–4 p.m.) — park at Rocky Heights Middle School in Lone Tree. Stockton's Plum Creek Stables in Roxborough runs Haunted Hayrides Oct 23–24 ($16, 2 and under free) as an HRCA 4-H fundraiser. In downtown Castle Rock, the Castle Rock Museum's free Ghostly Stories & Tragic Tales walking tours run nine dates across October (reservations: 303-814-3164), and the Highlands Ranch Mansion's Spirits with the Spirits evening tours run Sep 30 and Oct 7, 14 and 21 ($44.52).
Yes — Cherokee Ranch & Castle hosts Midnight at the Masquerade, a murder-mystery dinner in a real castle (Sat Oct 17, 6–9:30 p.m., $84.95); the PACE Center in Parker screens The Rocky Horror Picture Show with a live shadow cast (Sat Oct 24, 8 p.m., $32); the Pikes Peak Event Center runs its own Midnight at the Masquerade dinner theater the same night (doors 5:30 p.m.); and 105 West Brewing in Castle Rock books Giant Zero for a Halloween show on Fri Oct 30 (free). The Highlands Ranch Senior Center's Halloween Dance is Thu Oct 29 ($19 members / $22 non-members).
Halloween falls on a Saturday in 2026, and neighborhood trick-or-treating is not centrally scheduled, so most families go out the evening of Oct 31. Saturday Oct 24 is the big organized day: the Dads of Castle Rock Trunk or Treat at Douglas County High School (5–8 p.m., free), Trunk or Treat on Mainstreet in Parker (free, timed-entry tickets for kids), Trick-or-Treat Street at the Castle Pines Fall Festival (10 a.m.–2 p.m., free), Boo Bash at the Outlets at Castle Rock (11 a.m.–2 p.m., free) and a free family trunk-or-treat at Kiddie Academy of Parker. Sterling Ranch holds its Trunk or Treat at the Overlook Clubhouse on Fri Oct 30 (4:30–6:30 p.m.), and the Last Stop at the Highlands Ranch Mansion (Oct 31, 6:30–9 p.m., free) includes a trick-or-treat stop.
Two official ones for 2026. The Town of Parker's Halloween Home Decoration Map (ParkerCO.gov/HalloweenMap) takes pins and photos from the 80134 and 80138 ZIP codes through Oct 31 and replaced the old judged contest. The Highlands Ranch Community Association's Halloween House Decorating Map goes up Oct 8 and adds homes submitted through HRCA's form through Oct 30. As of Oct 4, Castle Rock, Castle Pines, Lone Tree and Larkspur had not posted a town decoration map.