Elk Ridge Park in North Logan is once again glowing with nearly 600 carved and lit pumpkins this week, as the city's free Pumpkin Walk marks its 43rd year with a five-night run built around the theme All American Pumpkins. The event opened Thursday and continues through Tuesday, drawing families, school groups and out-of-town visitors to wander a park path lined with more than three dozen handcrafted scenes built by volunteers, artists and local businesses.
The tradition traces back to 1983, when Ida Beutler decided Halloween had grown, in her words, too dark for young families and set out to build something gentler, according to KSL. Beutler wanted a fun event for children, families and the community, and she and her husband, Wallace Beutler, built the first scenes on their farm near the mouth of Green Canyon, serving visitors cookies and apple cider as they walked through. North Logan began sponsoring the event in 1989, and by 1992 it had outgrown the farm and moved to its current home at Elk Ridge Park, per the North Logan Pumpkin Walk history page.
What started as a backyard display has since grown dramatically. Roughly 10,000 people showed up that first year, and by the fourth year attendance had climbed to about 20,000, the Pumpkin Walk's own history notes. Figures for how many people attend today vary across sources: the event's website states more than 30,000 visitors now come from throughout the Intermountain West and beyond on one page, while another page from the same organizers puts the number at more than 25,000 annually from Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and elsewhere. A 2023 estimate from organizers cited by KSL projected 30,000 attendees that year, and a 2006 report from the Deseret News put the expected crowd at 40,000.
A Family Legacy Still Shapes the Displays
Ida Beutler's daughter, Marie Godfrey, now helps coordinate the annual event, and her extended family continues to plan and build Pumpkin Walk scenes decades after the tradition began. This year's Star Wars-themed display was the idea of Godfrey's younger grandchildren, keeping the event's creative direction in family hands across generations. The displays remain ad-free, though businesses that volunteer scenes receive credit on small artist placards along the walk.
Hundreds of volunteers, guided by a core committee, handle the painting, carving, building, lighting and directing that keeps the walk running each night, according to the event's website. The scenes are built by local families, neighborhoods, businesses and volunteer organizations, and the walk continues to draw school classes during the day alongside evening crowds.
Free Admission and a Month of Pumpkin Days
The 2026 walk runs across five nights, Oct. 15-17 and Oct. 19-20, open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day at Elk Ridge Park, as reported by Utah Public Radio. Admission has always been free, a point organizers emphasize as central to the event's family-first mission.
Brittany Bailey, who lives in Smithfield, said her family visits the Pumpkin Walk every year, and relatives from Salt Lake make the trip annually just to see it. “[Her family loves] the creativity and family-centered focus,” Bailey said, describing what keeps them coming back. North Logan, a city of nearly 12,000 people, has leaned into that appeal by expanding the celebration beyond the walk itself into a monthlong Pumpkin Days series, as Cache Valley Daily reports.
Those additional October events include a Pumpkin Palooza pickleball tournament scheduled for Saturday, a parade and carnival set for Oct. 23, and a pumpkin toss planned for Oct. 24. Together with the Pumpkin Walk itself, the lineup reflects how far the celebration has grown from Ida Beutler's original backyard display, according to The Salt Lake Tribune, which first reported on this year's festivities in partnership with Utah Public Radio, a division of Utah State University.
