Good old-fashioned homemade scares
Little Bear Bottoms’ haunted river trail, a homemade haunted attraction, does quite well at achieving a surprising and scare-filled experience.
But don’t be deceived — just because it’s not commercially operated doesn’t mean you won’t get a quality experience. The scares along the trail are varied and often amusing, but still very effective.
The venue itself is easy to find (right off of Highway 89 on the east side in Wellsville) and the parking is generally easy to navigate. But during very busy hours, such as Monday and Friday evenings, you may have to park out on the road.
Like grandma’s cookies or your neighbor’s tool shed, the trail doesn’t bother to hide its handmade-ness. It sports old mattresses, hay bales, a home theater projector and air compressors among other things to create some of its more surprising effects. The creativity of the trail adds to the experience and will surprise and impress trail-goers.
Much of the trail derives its creepiness from the location itself. Riddled with dilapidated farm equipment and enough odds and ends to give it a washed up junkyard feel — like a small Smith and Edwards scrap yard — it takes the attendee on an up-and-down, in-and-out kind of journey.
The trail is short on scare actors, who only pop out intermittently during the experience. However what the trail lacks in its low amount of scare actors, it makes up for with its extensive and inventive props. The length of the trail is also longer than in years past, taking around 15 to 20 minutes to compete
The haunted river trail is family friendly, though young children may find some of the moments very frightening (e.g. clowns, dark spaces, sudden loud noises).
Overall, not only is the homemade and casual nature of Little Bear Bottoms’ haunted river trail nothing to worry about, but it is what gives this venue its competitive advantage. You get quality scares, fun props and all the excitement that comes along with a haunted house for a low price and a unique experience.
Little Bear Bottoms primarily offers its large corn maze, with the haunted river trail as an additional event to add to the fun. There are also other activities on the property, including a straw fort complete with tunnels and foam pits to jump into, fires to keep warm during the evening chill, a concessions truck and Disney’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” on a projector with hay bales and couches to sit on while you watch.
The haunted trail opens at dark, but if you want to do the corn maze, show up earlier while there is still daylight to help you through the maze. Once it’s dark the temperature drops significantly, especially in the corn maze itself (for some reason…), so come prepared with a good jacket and a couple extra bucks to buy some hot chocolate.
— mikeburnham3@gmail.com
@mikeburnham31