Neither experienced from your car nor bent on scaring the gourd out of you, Descanso Gardens’ new monthlong event is bringing some fresh air and family-friendly fun to Halloween.
Throughout October, you can take a socially-distanced stroll through the La Cañada Flintridge gardens and its seasonal displays: a hay maze, a pumpkin arch, wooden jack-o’-lantern boxes, a scarecrow trail through a forest and a house made entirely out of pumpkins. And over at the Oak Grove, you’ll find mandalas of orange, white and green pumpkins swirling around the trunks of trees.
Halloween is included in regular admission ($15, kids $5), and reservations (and masks, of course) are required. Tickets are currently sold out for weekend dates, but if you can visit on a weekday, that’ll probably make for a more peaceful and leisurely experience anyway; we swung by on a Saturday and found most of the pumpkin photo ops near the entrance area bustling with families, though the farther reaches of the gardens were still uncrowded.
You’ll be able to visit Descanso daily from 9am to 5pm, with extended 5 to 8pm hours the final week of October (Halloween night is reserved for Family Plus members).
