A home near Comet Lodge Cemetery in South Beacon Hill has been transformed into a haunted trail, drawing families looking for free Halloween thrills near a burial ground that dates back more than a century. The walk-through attraction, known as the Comet Lodge Haunted Trail, is billed as “100% FREE, children friendly,” according to a listing on parentmap.com.
Organizers describe the setup as sitting on South Beacon Hill near the Comet Lodge Cemetery itself, per the same listing. Visitors can expect to navigate a corn maze while dodging man-eating plants and animated scarecrows, and this year's headline feature is a tribute to Michael Jackson's “Thriller” music video, the event description notes. As KOMO News reported, the trail also includes a witches' lair and a haunted pumpkin patch among its features.
Hours for the trail are set at 6 to 9 p.m. on operating nights, stretching to 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Halloween itself, the parentmap.com listing states. That later closing time gives trick-or-treaters and families extra room to squeeze in a visit after a night of door-knocking.
A Backyard Haunt With Neighborhood Roots
The haunt isn't new to the area. A listing from the same organizers' past event, cited on seattleschild.com, placed the attraction at 5923 21st Ave. S. in Seattle and described it as entering its third year in 2025, pointing to a recurring, community-built tradition rather than a one-off pop-up. That same account noted the haunt had previously run across multiple October weekends plus Nov. 1, on top of a separate Halloween-night schedule.
Earlier organizers have also said plans could shift with the weather. A past listing on westseattle.macaronikid.com quoted them saying, “We also plan to be open next Friday and Saturday and Halloween day as well, but may adjust the schedule due to rain.” That same listing described the trail as starting in a haunted pumpkin patch before leading guests deeper into the scares.
The Cemetery Next Door
Part of what gives the trail its eerie backdrop is its literal neighbor. Comet Lodge Cemetery holds nearly 500 recorded burials dating between 1880 and 1936, according to mynorthwest.com. The burial ground's long history gives the haunted trail a setting that needs little embellishment to feel unsettling after dark.
Beacon Hill isn't the only Seattle-area neighborhood leaning into elaborate Halloween displays this season. Another household's Halloween setup, described in a Seattle Times feature, used holographic projections, fog machines and scene-matched music to build atmosphere during its own evening hours in years past, showing a broader regional appetite for home-grown haunted experiences beyond the Comet Lodge trail.
What's Still Unconfirmed
Not every detail about this year's Comet Lodge Haunted Trail has been independently verified. The ParentMap listing gives the 2026 operating dates as October 16, 17, 23, 24 and 30, plus Halloween on October 31. It remains unclear whether every feature from past years, including the witches' lair, will be present in this year's walk-through. Whether donations are being accepted this season also has not been confirmed, as that detail traces back to a previous year's listing rather than the current one.
