Linda’s Take

The weather was really nice for a weekend in October in MN. And we haven’t been to a haunted house in a couple of years. I asked Jason to surprise me with a place to go and get scary on a Saturday night.  He ended up picking The Dead End Hayride, north of Forest Lake at the Pinehaven Farm.

I have to say I was quite pleased with his choice!

Parking really sucked there, the main lot was full and we had to follow a long winding dirt road to a Hayfield yo park. And they won’t let you walk to the entrance from that Hayfield you have to take a tractor shuttle to the main parking lot and then walk.

When we finally got in, there are lots of yummy treats you can get to warm up, a little pricey, but not outrageous. I also thought it was kinda neat that they had a mechanical bull that you can pay $5.00 to try and ride and get in a few good laughs.

This isn’t like other haunted attractions I’ve been too where you pick a line at a different scary attraction and wait to go in. There is one line to enter the attractions. It’s the hayride line.
I must say that you  get the fast pass,  the general admission line is about a 3 hour wait,  while we waited about a half an hour.

The hayride takes you through the woods and drops you off. Let me tell you,  there are loud bangs, fire, and actors jumping on the hayride and scaring the crap out of you.
And just an FYI, all the actors can touch you but you can’t touch them!

After you get dropped off,  there are 2 more scary attractions to go through. All of the scenes are done well, and there is just enough light that you can see where you’re going. I hate it when it’s just all black and you can’t see anything,  that’s just lazy.

I had a butcher tell me anything looks good on a hot dog bun while he was stroking my hair for a few minutes, and I think my husband’s favorite thing I said was “He’s following me, he’s following me, he’s following me!”

I won’t give anymore away, you just have to go.

I give it 4 out of 5 frightening the pants off of you.

Jason’s Take

We try to hit a haunted house every year, because we’re Halloween geeks.  This year, I spent a ton of time researching the haunts in our area, looking for a place that was scary, wasn’t cheesy, and wasn’t small.  I picked the Dead End Hayride in Wyoming, MN.  It’s literally across the west-side ditch of I35, 5 minutes north of Forest Lake.

When we got there, parking sucked.  We found out as we were parking in the far lot that the line of cars waiting to get in was 2 miles long.  When we got there, it was only about 50 cars.  Based purely on the parking, get there before 8 or after 9:30.  They had a shuttle running from the far parking lot to the entrance, but the line was long and slow to get on the shuttle, so we decided to walk.  Unfortunately, they turned us back. Apparently, there’s no safe way to walk down a gravel path through unlit woods.

So we waited.

When we got to the entrance, the Fast Pass line was about 3 people long, so we got in quickly.  Once inside, there were some concession booths, a mechanical bull, and a row of biffs.  As we got to the entrance to the attraction itself, we saw the line.  It was easily 3 hours long.  Fast Pass line? 30-35 minutes.  Yay, us!

There are three attractions at Dead End.

You start with the hayride, which is the best haunted hayride I’ve been on.  Actors run out of the woods and climb on to the trailer, and there are actual scenes set up in the woods.  Very well done.

From there, you get dropped off at the entrance to the next attraction.  That’s a more traditional haunted house.  It ends at the entrance to the corn maze.  The attractions are great, and well done.  The actors are good and there are a bunch of little scenes buried in each attraction.

Totally worth going, even if the parking sucks.

I very much recommend getting the Fast Pass.  It adds $10 to each ticket, but it saved us at least 4 hours of waiting in lines for each of the attractions.

I give it 4 out of 5 pants off.

Total Score: 4 out of 5 Pants Off