The Haunted Trail of Balboa Park 2026

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The oaks at Marston Point have been standing for over a hundred years, and for twenty-seven of those years, something has moved through them after dark. Not a projection. Not a screen. Real people, in real fog, on a mile-long trail you walk alone — well, alone with whoever you grabbed by the arm when the first scare actor stepped out from behind a tree trunk you swore was empty.

The Haunted Trail of Balboa Park is San Diego's longest-running outdoor haunt, and there is a reason it outlasts every pop-up scare maze that opens and closes in a season. The setting is irreplaceable: gnarled coastal oaks, uneven dirt paths, actual darkness. Not a warehouse with black curtains. The trail winds through Marston Point and feeds into the 3,500-square-foot Experiment Maze, where the ceiling drops and the walls move. Veterans know to go on a weeknight in early October before the lines triple by Halloween week. First-timers never believe the trail is actually a full mile until they're deep enough that turning back sounds worse than going forward.

Select nights from September 25 through November 1, 2026. Marston Point, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101. Tickets at hauntedtrail.net.