Sure, you can spend Halloween going on ghost tours and entering haunted houses.
But did you know that Arizona also has haunted mines, Halloween stargazing, and a spooky party bike?
These are stops along the Arizona Tourism Office's 2024. Scary Arizona passport, a guide to historic haunted attractions and special spooky events and festivals during the Halloween season.
Visitors can check-in to destinations using the free passport and enter to win prizes by checking out the locations on the passport. People have more chances to win the more places they visit.
The Arizona Tourism Office said the passport “encourages visitors and Arizonians to explore the strange, spooky and supernatural side of the state.” Although many of the special events listed on the passport are seasonal, the passport highlights destinations that indicate “spooky season lasts all year round.”
How the Spooktacular Arizona Passport Works
The 2024 passport includes 45 stops − the one from last year had 39 – which range from family fun to historical haunts and spooky haunted houses.
Go to visitarizona.com/spooktacular-arizona to register. The guide does not require downloading a mobile application.
When you check in using Mobile Passport and upload photos using the hashtag #SpooktacularAZ, you'll be entered into a drawing to win prizes including a State Forty Eight Visit Arizona shirt, a Grand Canyon poster and a gift card for one of the passports. stops, Haunted Hamburger in Jerome.
Get inside (if you dare) by visiting some of these haunted highlights.
Less spooky fall fun:Yes, Arizona has apple orchards. This is the story of a family hidden gem
Haunted Attractions in Phoenix, Tucson, Clarkdale
Three metro Phoenix haunted houses and attractions are Passport Stops: Fear Farm in Glendale, Sanctum of Horror in Mesa, and 13th Floor Haunted House in north Phoenix. All three are on the Arizona Republic's list of names. The Scariest Haunted Houses in Arizona in 2024.
Outside of Phoenix, Western theme park Old Tucson scares with its Nightfall at Old Tucson event that features haunted mazes, traveling scares and magic shows. (It also made the list of scariest haunted houses.) And the Verde Canyon Railroad offers visitors a glimpse into a haunted train car with its Fright Nights on the Haunted Phantom Train, although it is a stationary experience and not a train ride.
These attractions, running until or just after Halloween, are immersive experiences that use horror movie production values to create scares, including mutants in a post-apocalyptic world and chainsaw-wielding skeletons .
Historic mining towns of Yuma, Jerome and Wickenburg
At least three ghost towns located in former mining communities are passport stopping points.
Yuma is home to the Castle Dome Mining Museum, which restores an old mining town called Castle Dome City. Now a ghost town, it was once the longest active mining area in Arizona. It includes 60 buildings, as well as objects extracted from the mines and a cemetery.
The ghost town of Vulture City in Wickenburg, also a former mining town, was once home to Arizona's most successful gold mine. Closed during World War II and partially restored in the 2010s, it is now a destination for those seeking its haunted history. The ghosts said to be present there include those of miners hanged for stealing gold.
Jerome, perhaps the most haunted of Arizona's historic mining communities, is where the Gold King Mine and Ghost Town is preserved. Visitors can tour abandoned buildings and see rusty cars and mining tools of the old mine.
Queen Copper Mine in Bisbee
While visiting a ghost mining town can lead visitors to paranormal encounters, a town allows you to enter the mine.
Copper Queen Mine in Bisbee – the frequently named former mining town in southeastern Arizona one of the best places to travel in the United States and the world − was operated by the Phelps Dodge Corporation from 1877 to 1975, where miners descended to constant temperatures of 47 degrees to find precious metals beneath the Earth's surface. The mine has 143 miles of abandoned passages.
During visits to the mine, told by retired miners; visitors wear hard hats and headlamps and take the train to the mine, just as miners did to get to work.
The Copper Queen Hotel, a hotel designed by the company that operated the mine to host industry dignitaries, is not listed on the Spooktacular Passport but is also a Bisbee landmark with a haunted history.
Arizona Star Walk on Halloween Night
REI, the cooperative that sells outdoor equipment and experiences, is hosting Arizona Star Walks Friday evening that begin at the Apache Wash Trailhead in the Sonoran Reservation in Phoenix. But during Halloween week, the stargazing event will take place on Thursday, October 31.
Stargazing may not be scary in itself, but the passport suggests it can take place “during the scariest time of day – at night!” » People can see the stars in the night sky and what the Sonoran Desert looks like after dark.
Registration is required and space is limited. Admission costs $59.
Haunted Party Bike Tours of Scottsdale and Mesa Rydables
Arizona Party Bike in Scottsdale offers the Haunted Pedaler in October, where bikes are decorated with a spooky theme and a “ghost host” guides guests on a tour of the haunted history of Old Town Scottsdale, sharing ghost stories and murder mysteries.
The two-hour Haunted Pedaler tour costs $69 per person or $799 for a private group party.
Haunted Tour on Wheels of Downtown Mesa involves guests touring the city on board Rydableswhich are scooters with festive designs like animals and monsters; The Ghost Tour Rydables are designed to look like the sugar skulls from Dia de los Muertos.
During the 90-minute tours, guests wander the streets and alleys of downtown Mesa as a guide shares stories of local hauntings from the 1800s to the present, and also visits some of the oldest buildings in the area. city. The Rydables website lists availability for Mesa ghost tours through May 2025. Tours cost $69 ($39 for ages 5-12).
Hotel Conference in Tucson
This historic hotel built in 1919 is a hub of activity in the heart of the city center. Club Congress hosts concerts and events, and foodies give rave reviews to Maynard's and Cup Cafe restaurants.
A historic location with a lot going on lends itself to the chance of finding ghosts. Spirits known to appear from time to time include a woman who smells of roses and a man who looks out of second story windows.
Apache Death Cave in Winslow
A road trip on Route 66 This includes a stop in Winslow could involve visiting the La Posada Hotel, Meteor Crater or a downtown park that pays homage to the Eagles song that put the town on the map.
Only the bravest travelers might include a stop at Apache Death Cave.
It was at the site, off Interstate 40 exit 230, that 42 Apaches hiding underground in a cave were killed by local Navajos who started a fire near the entrance.
He was once part of a roadside attraction called Two gunswhere an eccentric businessman named Harry Miller sold the skeletal remains of the Apache to tourists. The destination has been plagued by unrest and Two Guns is now considered a ghost town.
Michael Salerno is an award-winning journalist who has covered travel and tourism since 2014. His work as a travel reporter for The Arizona Republic focuses on helping readers overcome travel stress and get the best value for their money for their vacation. He can be reached at Michael.Salerno@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @salerno_phx.
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