The Haunted Trail at Balboa Park: 2021 Review
Balboa Park, San Diego, CA
As haunt season hits its halfway point, we continue to expand past the main theme park haunts and explore more independent haunted attractions located all across Southern California. In the past, SoCal has really meant the Los Angeles metropolitan area in terms of Westcoaster Halloween coverage, but two years ago, we finally ventured south to San Diego to check out some of their spooky offerings. It was a whirlwind night hitting the three big SD haunts of that year, but the mission ended up being completed. Two years later, with professional haunts back in operation after a year down due to the Coronavirus pandemic, why not try another San Diego trifecta?
And so, on the first weekend of October, I headed down to San Diego on a Saturday evening to visit this year's big three SD haunts!
Welcome. foolish mortals, to the Haunted Mans—wait, wrong haunted place!
The first stop is the subject of today's review: The Haunted Trail at Balboa Park. Celebrating two decades of existence, this attraction is arguably the most popular and most attended haunt in San Diego today. Located in the woodsy outdoors of San Diego's beautiful Balboa Park, the Haunted Trail offers two attractions--a 3500 square foot maze called The eXperiment, and the mile-long haunted trail itself, which winds its way down the Marston Point area, located on the southwest corner of the park.
Having struggled a little bit with parking when I visited two years ago, I made sure to arrive half an hour before opening to give myself plenty of time to look for street parking. Even at that hour, the streets around the Haunted Trail were already full, but I was able to park on Balboa Dr / 8th Ave, just south of Juniper Rd, and make my way over to the entrance in a leisurely manner. I can't stress this enough: arriving early for the Haunted Trail is highly recommended, because as the night progresses, both parking and traffic congestion builds very quickly, making for a more frustrating arrival.
Ladies and gentlemen, the backside of monst—wait, again, wrong place.
The eXperiment Maze
This year, the Haunted Trail is set up the same as in 2019 (and, presumably, the years before). The entrance of the attraction is located effectively off the intersection of Juniper Rd and Balboa Dr, and guests enter the Gothic archway into a queuing area inside that features a large projection screen for video entertainment, snack and trinket vendors, and lurking "street" monsters waiting to sneak up on unsuspecting visitors.
Freddy can’t wait to slide you a new one in the eXperiment Maze.
Everyone enters the eXperiment Maze first, sampling an appetizer of IP-inspired scares before the main course that is the Haunted Trail. Similar to the last time I visited, the eXperiment Maze is a dark, winding maze with occasional pops of strobes and a morose environment that features spaces dedicated to horror icons like Freddy Kreuger, Michael Myers, Jason Vorhees, Samara Morgan from The Ring, Chucky, Valak, the Nun, and Jack Torrance from The Shining.
The theming is rather sparse through this maze, with a few more elaborate sets for the Halloween, Friday the 13th, and The Shining scenes, but the maze is carried by the effort of the scareactors, who pop out from the shadows or utilize misdirection to get jump scares.
What’s more killer than one Jason? How about multiple?
I enjoyed a rather unique scene with multiple Jasons that also creatively used airbags to force guests into proximity. And the opening blacklight-infused scene with invisible puppeteers controlling Chucky dolls was pretty terrific. In addition, the relatively uneven park ground makes for sometimes unexpected slopes along the floor that add a feeling of trepidation to the walkthrough. Overall, the maze is solid though unspectacular, offering a simple taste of the mix of themes and horror inspirations that the trail would offer.
The Haunted Trail
After exiting the eXperiment Maze, guests have a few minutes to catch their breath as they pause in a holding area to wait for the main attraction. Then it's onto the sprawling outdoor maze that takes guests through a host of different additional horror IP's and traditional haunted house themes--all with no way of turning back.
Pennywise’s Fun House once again starts this year’s Haunted Trail.
The school bus is full of nuns this year instead of babies. Which is more terrifying?
The Haunted Trail is one of those attractions that keeps the same general premise but tweaks and updates components each year. This means that there are a lot of familiar sights from year to year but also a few new themes or rooms replacing older and more dated ones. Over time, this means the Haunted Trail is a slowly evolving selection of scenes for returning guests.
That does mean that this year's Haunted Trail shares a lot of similarities with the Trail of 2019, including returning sets featuring Pennywise from It, Eleven from Stranger Things, the house of mirrors from Us, and members of the zombie horde from The Walking Dead--albeit in seemingly less elaborate and more restrained forms. There's also another offering of an eerie, vampire-infest cemetery, a pumpkin patch featuring murderous hillbillies instead of monsters, the return of the Ghoul bus filled with creepy nuns instead of babies this year, creepy carnival clowns causing chaotic carnage, and a voodoo marsh with vibrant, neon-masked chainsaw fiends.
A Gothic crypt is one of several outdoor sets along the Haunted Trail.
There were some changes, though. In addition to the tweaks to returning themes listed above, the Shawshank Redemption set appeared to have been replaced with a scene from The Exorcist, and an abandoned, seemingly haunted mine shaft and an asylum with unstable patients were a couple of a few new scenes. Gone is the giant baby room from two years ago, though, which is a shame, because that was incredibly unnerving.
Stranger Things is not as elaborate as last time, when a full lab was constructed, but it communicates the scene.
The Exorcist joins the fray this year, and though Regan seems a little different here, the scene is still intense.
This year’s Haunted Trail has about the same number (or maybe one or two more) scenes compared to two years ago, packing in a lot of content in the same approximate length as before. For the most part, each scene retains at least one or two scareactors, and only a couple of rooms were empty during my walkthrough on Saturday. In addition, then copious use of prop figures creates uncertainty over which monster is static decoration vs a real live actor—something that the talent takes full advantage of. Regardless, the Haunted Trail itself can still take 20 minutes to walk through, because that's just how sprawling it is!
Clowns continue to rule the Haunted Trail, heading off part of the climactic finale.
For all the difficulties that have come with setting up a haunt this year, the Haunted Trail nonetheless seems to be hitting its stride in its second weekend. Screams echoing above the trees of Balboa Park were a regular part of the Saturday evening soundtrack, and were plenty of guests expressing their apprehension and nervousness as they waited in line or made their way through the haunted attraction. From a production standpoint, the Haunted Trail is arguable the premiere haunt production in San Diego, and it's easy to see how the variety of themes, hand-made construction, and familiar charm have made it a favorite in the community.
The Haunted Trail continues its operation on select nights for the rest of the month, running Wednesdays through Sundays the next two weeks and Tuesdays through Sundays the last two weeks of October. Hours vary from opening as early as 6:30pm to closing as late as 11:00pm. Check the web site for additional details. Tickets start at $25 for general admission, $30 for timed ticket, and $35 for VIP front of the line entry and can be purchased online in advance or on site at the ticket booths. However, we strongly recommend buying online ahead of time to save a wait in a second line. Parking is free on the street, and 6th Street is better for those coming in the middle of the evening instead of battling through Balboa Dr in the actual park.
As the attraction is entirely outdoors, there are no requirements to wear masks. The Haunted Trail did not appear to have any specific COVID policies when I visited, but if you want to be extra safe, be fully vaccinated and wear a mask. Guests are pulsed through the eXperiment Maze and the Haunted Trail, so it's not a constant haunted conga line.
The Haunted Trail can get pretty crowded. Buy tickets in advance and go on off-peak nights if possible!
Although the Haunted Trail is a clear step below the likes of Knott's and Universal, I still had a very fun time. This attraction is the epitome of a passion project full of heart (and blood, sweat, screams, and tears), and it's a well recognized and nicely warranted Halloween tradition for the San Diego haunt scene!
Correction:
This article originally stated that there appeared to be less scenes in this year’s Haunted Trail than previously, but upon further review and inspection, there are the same or actually maybe a couple more than in 2019.
Architect. Photographer. Disney nerd. Haunt enthusiast. Travel bugged. Concert fiend. Asian.
