Maryland
Scary season: Haunted houses and ghost tours for frightful fun in the DC area
The nights are getting longer, and Halloween decor is jumping out of the bushes. It’s time to search high and low for thrills and chills!
Whether that means a horrifying haunted house or a creepy ghost tour, you have plenty of options in D.C., Maryland and Virginia… if you dare!
Haunted houses and Halloween trails in Maryland
Field of Screams
📅 Weekends and select other days through Nov. 2
📍 4501 Olney Laytonsville Road, Olney, Maryland
💲 $30+ (varies by date)
🔗 Details
Voted the best haunted attraction by USA Today, Field of Screams is for those seeking a real scare across 55 horrifying stations.
Tickets are sold online only starting at $54 and grant you admission to the SUPER Screams Haunted Trail and the Slaughter Factory Haunted House (if you dare).
Field of Screams is not recommended for children under 12.
Carnival games, bonfires, s’mores and a concession stand will be available if you can stomach it before or after the scares.
Field of Screams says it’s set to open Friday, Oct. 4. It pushed back its opening date amid bad weather and reports of permitting delays.
Laurel’s House of Horrors
📅 Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Nov. 2, plus extra days in the last weeks of October
📍 935 Fairlawn Ave., Laurel, Maryland
💲 $34.95+
🔗 Details
Get ready to be spooked in the area’s biggest indoor haunt. Built inside an abandoned movie theater, this season’s haunted house offers new chilling experiences in an eerie 28,000-square-foot space.
Explore the building’s paranormal activity and encounter terrifying creatures throughout the theater. Want more scares? Try out their “Escape the Movies” escape rooms based on some classic scary films (for an extra fee).
Along with general admission tickets, guests can buy additional packages with options to skip the line.
Six Flags Fright Fest in Bowie
📅 Select nights through Oct. 27
📍 13710 Central Ave., Upper Marlboro, Maryland
💲 $70 for a single-day park ticket and haunted attractions pass
🔗 Details
Six Flags has even more reasons to scream during October. Scare zones and rides for all are included with standard admission tickets. Get the Haunted Attractions Pass to experience more scares, including Haunting of Hall Manor, Sideshow: Haze House, Twisted Fairytales and more.
The scares ramp up after 6 p.m., and this experience may be too scary for kids 13 and younger. No costumes are allowed for visitors over 12.
Markoff’s Haunted Forest
📅 Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in October, plus Halloween
📍 19120 Martinsburg Road, Dickerson, Maryland
💲 About $40 for the trail (varies by night and attraction)
🔗 Details
Venture off into the woods to experience three haunted attractions. While waiting in Markoff’s Midway, soothe your fears at the bonfires or dance with “creepy weirdos.” Then, you can then venture off into The Town where you get up close and personal with the strange residents. The mile-long Haunted Trail has twisting turns and terrifying scenes.
Live entertainment is available some nights such as dance groups, live bands and fire spinners.
AVFD Station 7 Terror Trail
📅 Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 26
📍 2380 Davidsonville Road, Gambrills, Maryland
💲 $25 (Terror Trail) or $10 (Boo Loop maze)
🔗 Details
Looking for a family-friendly haunt? Visit the Arundel Volunteer Fire Department to wind through the scary Terror Trial aimed at kids aged 8 and up. If the kids want to have a less spooky adventure, get lost in their new Boo Loop Maze for $10. It’s geared toward kids under 8.
Kids are welcome to come in costume, uncover the mysteries of the Boo Loop filled with fairies, dancing skeletons and cackling witches.
You can purchase tickets at the firehouse or online. Proceeds go toward supporting the volunteer fire department.
Haunted houses and Halloween trails in Virginia
Fields of Fear at Cox Farms
📅 Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 2, plus Sunday, Oct. 13
📍 15621 Braddock Road, Centreville, Virginia
💲 $30-$40
🔗 Details
Fields of Fear turns this fall festival destination into one of your nightmares starting on Fridays and Saturdays.
Fear Deluxe admission includes one entry to four haunted attractions over 20 acres: the Firegrounds, Dark Side Hayride, Cornightmare and the Forest: Back 40.
Be warned: “You may be touched by Fields of Fear actors, but you will not be forcefully struck or grabbed by any Cox Farms staff member or actor at any time,” Cox Farms says.
Fields of Fear is not recommended for children under 12 years old. Children under 14 years old must have a chaperone. If Fields of Fear sounds too scary, check out Cox Farms’ Fall Festival.
The Workhouse Arts Center
📅 Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays through Nov. 2, plus Halloween
📍 9518 Workhouse Way, Lorton, Virginia
💲 $30 in advance, or $35 day-of
🔗 Details
Operating on the grounds of a notorious former prison, Workhouse Arts Center has real-life scary stories to back up its haunted trail.
“Haunt: Twisted Tales of Terror” immerses guests in an outdoor walk-through trail where classic fairy tales take a very dark turn. Grab your loved ones close: The haunted house promises “gruesome characters and nightmarish surprises around every corner.”
Before and after the haunt, check your adrenaline in a festive atmosphere with a DJ, a bar and food trucks. Local artists will be selling their wares at the Haunt Pop-up Shop.
On Oct. 20, the Center is set to offer designated sensory-friendly time slots. On the trail, sound levels will be less intense and strobe lights won’t be turned on, the center says.
For a more lighthearted twist on Halloween scares, check out their production of “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors.”
Spooky tours in the D.C. area
Congressional Cemetery
📅 Various dates
📍 1801 E St. SE
💲 Suggested donation ($5+)
🔗 Details
While the Congressional Cemetery’s Soul Strolls is sold out, you can still enjoy a variety of other tours of the permanent resting place of 65,000 people.
Congressional Cemetery offers Sunday Strolls and Only at Congressional Tours regularly. They’re in the daytime, so it’s a good option if you’re looking for slightly spooky vibes.
Halloween Ghosts and History Tour
📅 Various dates
💲 About $22
🔗 Details
Author Edward Moser offers three ghost tours highlighting the spooky side of landmark neighborhoods. Here’s info on Georgetown and Old Town, Alexandria.
Screams & Disease Tour
📅 Oct. 18, 26 and 26
📍 Lee-Fendall House Museum (614 Oronoco St., Alexandria, Virginia)
💲 $15
🔗 Details
Explore the dark and bloody history of the Civil War hospital at the Lee-Fendall House.
Tickets must be purchased in advance.
Want to know what’s up for your weekend? Sign up for The Weekend Scene, our newsletter about events, experiences and adventures for you and for your family around the DMV.
Maryland schools made nation-leading strides in their recovery from students’ learning loss in the pandemic, data show.
Maryland schools made nation-leading strides in their recovery from students’ learning loss in the pandemic, according to new data.
They ranked third in the nation in their students’ reading recovery rates, and were fifth in math recovery, according to the 2025 Education Scorecard from Harvard and Stanford Universities and Dartmouth College.
D.C. led the U.S. in math and reading recovery.
The data was presented at the Maryland State Board of Education meeting Thursday.
Trish Brennan-Gac, executive director of literacy nonprofit Maryland READS, said the state board is correct to celebrate gains in reading, but proficiency is “nowhere near where we need to be.”
“It is not that we are No. 3-ranked in reading proficiency,” she told WTOP. “It’s a rate of change, and we are making a faster rate of change,” than most school districts nationally.
Brennan-Gac was at the meeting to ask that the state board consider ways to reduce the use of technology in classroom instruction and support a return to print and textbooks in schools.
“This is no longer a fringe concern. It is a growing movement, and it’s not about social media and phones,” she told the board.
Brennan-Gac said the board and Maryland schools superintendent Carey Wright can take a “visible meaningful leadership role.”
“You can develop transition guidance and funding pathways for districts that are ready to move now, and send a clear signal to the field that Maryland prioritizes developmentally appropriate instruction aligned to brain research that shows how books, not tech-based platforms, are effective in wiring kids’ brains for reading,” she said.
The Maryland State Department of Education has issued guidance to school districts on the use of cellphones in schools, and this year issued guidance on the use of artificial intelligence. In both instances, the state has made clear that it leaves implementation of policies to individual school districts.
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Gov. Wes Moore has requested a federal disaster declaration to help farmers recover from their losses after temperatures dipped into the 20s in April, devastating some of Maryland’s agriculture industry.
Temperatures dipped into the low to mid 20s for several hours, causing widespread damage to crops, wine grapes, berries, peaches and apples in some parts of the state.
“We had 6, 7 hours I believe here under 32 and that’s just a lot of stress on those small fruits and buds,” said Ben Butler, the farm manager of Butler’s Orchard in Germantown back in April.
Moore asked for the U.S. agriculture secretary to declare a federal disaster using Maryland Farm Service Agency data to back up the request. According to the agency, there were historic losses, including 94% of the apple crop, 99% of the peach crop and 98% of the barley in several jurisdictions.
The Maryland Wineries Association says 36% of grape acreage sustained total losses, with a $24.4 million projected deficit in wine sales for the 2026 vintage.
“For the majority of the varieties, the yield, the 2026 crop yield, will essentially be zero,” said Robert Butz, the owner of Windridge Vineyards.
The hours-long deep freeze in April left grapes at Windridge Vineyards in Germantown dead on the vine.
News4 visited Windridge Vineyards just a few days after the disaster. Butz said not only were there grape losses, some of the vines were damaged as well. He called the devastation “catastrophic.”
It’s challenging, but he said he’s pleased with the support being given to local farmers and the disaster declaration request.
“This announcement by the governor is further evidence of that, right,” Butz said. “Marylanders care about their farmers. That’s great.It’s incredibly gratifying for those who do this work.”
Moore is asking the agriculture secretary for a quick decision so emergency loans and relief programs are made available right away so farmers can prepare for the next growing season.
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