We’ve been in the tradition of planning our last camping trip of the season over Columbus Day Weekend for years now and this year was no exception. The pool areas and splash pads are closed for the season at most campgrounds but Halloween weekends are big at family campgrounds during the month of October. We always bring some of our scary decorations away with us to decorate our site.
This year we went to Jellystone Maryland in Williamsport. I have to say this camping resort takes first place when it comes to Halloween! Site decorating contests, spooky activities and crafts, a Halloween Parade and costume contest and trick-or-treating are some of the things going on over the weekend but what sets Jellystone Maryland apart from the others is it’s Halloween Carnival and Spooky Trail.
They reach out to campground workers and volunteers to participate in the experience of scaring the heck out of you. There is a trail set up with different structures and creepy animatronics as well as real actors and many times you can’t tell which is which. The campground suggests no one under ten years old enter but our kids aren’t typical so we thought we were all up for it. We signed up early as the event is wildly popular and were one of the first groups to go in after sundown. The kids were all confident at the start but that quickly changed once we were inside. Ryan had to bail out halfway which was not terrible because the staff thought of this ahead of time and had a bailout point. Unfortunately Linda had to go with him so now our numbers were down to three. I had to carry Sarah the rest of the way because her legs became too frightened and would not walk any more. My Ava was a brave trooper remaining by my side and holding on to me during the pitch black moments. She was unshaken even when the ghouls called her by name. The rest of us made it out but so far they’re not talking of going back yet. We’ve also had children back in our bed at night again.
Even on normal weekends Jellystone Maryland is a great campground. They have a water park, bounce pillows, multiple playgrounds and activities and even laser tag and an indoor ninja warrior obstacle course. Some of these can be seen in our video below.
The staff was very helpful and when we arrived there Wednesday night and it seemed like an apocalyptic ghost town but as Friday and Saturday came the campground filled up to capacity. I’ve never seen a transformation like that but after staying here I know why they’re booked solid every weekend in October.
A visit to Maryland would not be complete without blue claw crab even though we took a short trip to Mother Shucker’s Crab Shack which is indeed in Martinsburg, WV. The food at the restaurant was great and our waitress even gave us a lesson on cracking crabs. The kids had a great time helping me with my meal, pounding crab legs and scooping the meat out. They all agreed they liked crab but Ava said she prefers lobster.
Please check out our video below to see some of the things we’ve mentioned but did not include in the photos above. The sad process of RV winterization is about to begin but we’re already starting to talk about where we’re heading in 2020. Bye for now and thanks for stopping by.
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