Photo by Deb Gau Liam Anderson pointed out a clue in the Halloween Trail scavenger hunt at Garvin Park on Saturday – although Parker Anderson and Jayce Popowski were just as interested in the head in a jar hanging right beneath the clue.

GARVIN PARK — It was a beautiful day for a walk in the woods — if you didn’t mind some scares.

Screams and laughs could be heard around Garvin Park’s river trail on Saturday evening, as area kids went on a Halloween-themed scavenger hunt, and found plenty of spooky decorations and scenes set up along the way. Deacon Pieske stopped in his tracks when he saw a pile of fake bones waiting around one corner of the trail.

“Oh! That’s weird,” he said. But then he started looking closer, searching for the next scavenger hunt clue.

Garvin Park held its second Halloween Trail event over the weekend. Families came out to play the scavenger hunt game and enjoy a sweet treat as a reward.

“We were trying to think of cool events outside of trick-or-treating,” said Brooke Kor, Lyon County parks programming coordinator and one of the organizers of the Halloween Trail. The scavenger hunt was an idea that would give people a chance to enjoy county parks at the same time, she said.

Kor said the turnout for the trail event had been good on Friday and Saturday, although the weather on Friday was a little uncertain. The sleet that blew through the area Friday afternoon made setup a challenge.

“I was like, ‘You’ve gotta be kidding me,'” Kor said. But the sleet stopped in time for the event, and there were still carloads of people who arrived to see the trail.

Besides searching for clues and interacting with some of the scenes, scavenger hunt participants were also startled to meet some creepy characters played by volunteers.

“We have a couple of people who are going to dress up,” Kor said.

County parks maintenance supervisor Spencer Kor said a campsite along the trail worked out as a spot for he and other costumed volunteers to wait for unsuspecting scavenger hunt participants.

“It kind of depends on how old they are, how much we scare them,” he said. While a lot of the kids coming down the trail Saturday were hesitant to get too close to Kor in his costume, some reached out for high-fives.

Brooke Kor said it was good to see people having fun on the Halloween Trail, and sticking around to enjoy Garvin Park in the autumn.

“It’s an excuse to bring more people to the park, with the fall colors,” she said.

The Halloween Trail event will be coming back to Garvin Park on Oct. 21-22, from 5-9 p.m. Flashlights are recommended after dark.