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New to Grand Junction, Nightmare on Old 6 & 50 occupies the former Herberger’s location in the Mesa Mall. They boast of being the largest haunted house attraction in Colorado, leading individuals to imagine they will get the most scare for their money.
That anticipation can lead to an hour-or-more wait in line on a cold night in October. Paying $15 per individual to stand in the cold for a long time is the only thing that lends accuracy to the ‘nightmare’ mentioned in the title.
While Nightmare on Old 6 & 50 does have a lot of floor space, it doesn’t do much to fill that space. Being led through the indoor maze they’ve set up, a patron never loses sight of the fact they’re wandering through an empty department store.
Nightmare on Old 6 & 50 mostly relies upon jump-scares, which are only as effective as their ability to be surprising. The large open spaces make it easy to see role players in advance, so the only way to be scared when they jump out is to pay absolutely no attention whatsoever.
The lack of ability to properly jump-scare does the role-players a disservice because they are genuinely dedicated to their art and do their best to elicit screams. In this case, Nightmare on Old 6 & 50 would do well to fill up their space better and mix in creepy scenes between jumps.
Barring that, they could benefit from following the old rule that less is more. Instead of giving patrons a long walk, they could condense everything to try and keep the pulse-pounding sensation.
As it stands now, however, there are better places to spend money this Halloween season.
Probably one of the most famous haunted attractions of Colorado, The Stanley Hotel began in 1903. Freelan Oscar Stanley arrived in Estes Valley in poor condition, and after spending a season he felt better than before and continued to return each summer for the rest of his life.
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Stanley and his wife built the Stanley Hotel in 1909 and by 1917 aided the development of the locality to include water, a power plant and other organizations.
In the 1970s the hotel lacked the necessary care and investment. But one night, the famous horror author, Stephen King visited and was inspired to write The Shining.
Since then, the hotel has been a staple on haunted bucket-lists everywhere.
The hotel has seven major haunted “hot spots”: Room 217, the vortex – the staircase in the hotel’s main guesthouse, the concert hall, Room 401, Room 428, the Grand Staircase and the Underground Caves.
If you are not originally from Colorado, you should see about making a trip to see the Hotel while you are here. If you are from Colorado, how can you call yourself a true Coloradan for not ever having been there?
Blue Moon Haunted History Tours
In 2002, Stephanie Waters, the owner and writer, set up shop and since then has hosted a variety of haunted history tours. Blue Moon History Tour offers walking tours, carriage rides, ghost hunts, cemetery visits, as well as a several other options to get your scare on.
Most of the walking tours are hosted in Manitou Springs, Colorado due to the locations notoriety as a spiritual location for Native American Indians. On Friday and Saturday tours begin at 9 pm. You get to hear ghost stories about local lore including Manitou’s own Dr Frankenstein and Emma Crawford, the town’s most famous paranormal visitor.
They take reservations up to two weeks in advance. Their walking tours are more limited in October because of their increased number of Halloween themed events such as their “cemetery crawls.”
Located at 644 North Ave., the Trail of Terror isn’t particularly well marked. It’s the old REI building and it still has a sign hanging higher up that says that the space is available.
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This haunted house costs $15 and was overall pretty enjoyable. At the start, everyone is handcuffed with ropes and warned to watch their language “because there are kids working in there.” Indeed, most of the spook staff were kids, with a few older people.
The kids’ hearts were really in putting on a good performance, so that made all the difference. There were adults in there, too, doing the tasks of higher end sophistication (like the electric chair in the execution room).
Despite the young audience running it, the Trail of Terror haunted house was not by any means “babied” down. Gruesome characters jumped out of strange places, corpses hung on the walls, spilling blood on the floor. They really went the nine yards. The whole thing lasted about twenty minutes and by the end, I’d felt like I’d gotten my money’s worth.
Warning: The Trail of Terror contains strobe lights. It may cause discomfort and/or trigger seizures in people with photosensitivity. Be safe.