Fun Cemetery Day Trips for the Halloween Season

By Chris Kullstroem

If you're looking for a fun - and free! - weekend daytrip in September or October, head to one of your local cemeteries for a day of relaxation and exploration!

Pack your backpack with all the essentials: lunch, water, camera, extra batteries, a notebook and a few pens or pencils. Big and small cemeteries of different time periods are great getaways from the rush of everyday life, and they can serve as inspiration for creating your Halloween haunt.

Nineteenth century garden cemeteries are perfect for a day of strolling around the many paths and taking in the sights of foliage. Look for the sections with the oldest stones in the cemetery, and the different style of language used. Compare the symbolic carvings of skulls, faces and other images that were predominating symbols of the afterlife in centuries past. Check out the large and decorative mausoleums from different cultural influences.

Older colonial graveyards are also great spots to have a picnic and check out the sites. These graveyards are usually smaller than garden cemeteries, but the stones are much older and you can read epitaphs that tell a lot about what life was like during the 17th and 18th centuries, and how it was incorporated into the burial grounds.

If you like photography, the cemetery is the place to be. Unique pictures of stones, pathways and trees in cemeteries are beautiful in the fall and can serve loads of uses, especially for the Halloween season. You can use them to make Halloween cards or invitations on your computer, inviting friends to your Halloween party or your haunted graveyard attraction on Halloween night.

If you're planning on making a Halloween attraction that involves creating a graveyard or just designing a few stones, cemeteries can be the perfect place for inspiration. Take notes on language used and interesting or strange inscriptions. Make sketches of the layout of the land and take pictures of the shapes and styles of some of your favorite gravestones.

Most cemeteries close at sundown to prevent vandalism, but if you hang out in that last hour when the sun sets, you're in for a big treat! Red, orange and purple skies light up the trees and stones, making for great pictures and a perfect autumn evening.

Most graveyards, both public and private, are listed on town road maps. Check out your area or just drive the countryside and search for some interesting cemeteries for fun day trips this Halloween season.