A Petrified Forest

A Petrified Forest

Select Nights in October

Just outside the city of Orlando is a spooky haunt that you won’t want to miss. Located in Altamonte Springs, A Petrified Forest is a little known Halloween gem that will have you scared out of your wits! At $17 for admission ($16 if you check in on Facebook!) this haunted forest is well worth the price.

Upon arriving at the ticket booth you will have the option of selecting a tour through the forest, a fun game of laser tag, or the back stage tour (or perhaps a combination of the three which will save you money!). My party opted for the tour only, as I have done the backstage tour in the past [Side note: the backstage tour is WELL worth the money if you’ve never done it; A Petrified Forest lets YOU get in on the action with this package deal]. Once you enter the gates with your ticket you will be handed a colored piece of paper; this is new this year. Instead of waiting in a long line like in the past, you are free to roam around the grounds while you wait. You’ll find a yummya food truck, a kettle corn stand (with free samples!), and a local band on the stage. Be sure to keep your eyes on the color wheel, and when your color is spun, queue up… Your trip into the forest is only a few minutes away. We listened to a local cover band called ‘The Exit’ while we waited, and immensely enjoyed the lizard lady, the janitor, and the chainsaw wielding clown who scared the living daylights out of unsuspecting guests (and you thought you were safe until you went into the forest?).

Once the color wheel spun red my guest and I quickly hopped in line, where we were joined up with a party of 4 others. One thing I really like about A Petrified Forest is that you move through the forest in small groups, so you are ensured a good amount of scares! Once you get to the museum entrance (this year’s theme is the ‘Museum of Mayhem’) you are given the typical instructions on how to behave in the forest (NO CELL PHONES!). The curator allows you to enter, and it is here where you are warned NOT to wake the guard. Try as we did to stay quiet, the guard quickly awoke sending us into a room by firing ‘gunshots’ as a ghostly looking girl took our picture pre-fear. The museum starts with a brief walk through the jewelry cases, and from there on out the screams don’t stop!

I was lucky enough to be chosen by my group of 6 to go first, but I was not the only one receiving the scares! Creatures would follow our group, or jump out in the middle of our team, so that every person was assured their own amount of shocks and screams. Although there were some repeats on props and costumes from years past, A Petrified Forest made sure to change things up enough so that it seemed as if it were a completely new experience. If you go, make sure that you watch out for the swamp people, and remember, just when you think you’re ‘out of the woods’ (so to say) you’re really not. Once again, A Petrified Forest made for a fun fall night full of fear and fright! Before going home you can purchase the picture that the ghost took at the beginning of your tour for just $5; a spooky memento that will help your remember your haunted tour for a long time to come. A Petrified Forest will stay open on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights through Halloween—it’s a Halloween event you won’t want to pass up!

Facebook Link: A Petrified Forest

Article by Terror-ific Tawny