Pumpkin Days Is Just the First of Pahrump's Two Halloween Weekends This Year

"We've kept prices super low," David Boruchowitz, president of the Pahrump Disability Outreach Program, told the Pahrump Valley Times ahead of this year's Pumpkin Days. "We are aware of the financial constraints in our community."

The prices back him up. A day at the 17th annual Pumpkin Days costs $7 a person. The two Halloween trick-or-treat events in town a week later are free. Between Pumpkin Days opening and the Stovepipe Wells centennial on November 1, money isn't the thing most likely to keep you from something. The clock is. Each extra has its own start time, check-in cutoff, or ticket deadline, and a few of those cutoffs come before the event itself. Here are both weekends, laid out so you don't miss any of them.

Both weekends at a glance

What the $7 covers, and what runs on its own schedule

Pumpkin Days opens Thursday afternoon at Ian Deutch Memorial Park and runs through Sunday. Hours are 3 to 9 p.m. Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The weekend wristband costs $10, just $3 more than a single day, so it pays for itself if you come back even once. PDOP members get in free.

Most of the festival comes with admission. That includes the haunted house, hay maze, hay pyramid, hay ride, straw jump, petting zoo, plastic axe throwing, photo ops, the costume parade, and recreational rides on the mechanical bull. Pumpkins are sold separately while supplies last: $4 small, $7 medium, $10 large, and $12 extra-large.

The extras are where timing comes in. Each one has its own rules:

• Spaghetti Eating Contest. Friday at 6 p.m., $10 per contestant. You need a Pumpkin Days wristband, and registration and check-in close at 5 p.m. Friday, an hour before the contest starts.
• Mechanical Bull Riding Contest. $10 to enter. It runs all four days, and you can register online or in person with a valid wristband. Winners are named Sunday after 5 p.m., after the gates close.
• Car Smash. Thursday through Sunday, $2 for five hits or $5 for 20.
• Monster Dash 5K. Saturday morning. Details below, since it sets the pace for the whole day.

All of this money goes back into PDOP's work. The Pahrump Valley Times reported that the nonprofit puts every dollar raised at Pumpkin Days toward educational advocacy, trainings, and resource support. Boruchowitz told the paper the goal was to give families "everything you want in an event without it breaking your pocketbook and while still benefiting the special needs kids here in our community."

Saturday the 24th has two fixed times, eight hours apart

If you can only go one day, Saturday has the most going on. It also asks you to be there at two specific times.

The Monster Dash 5K starts at 8 a.m., and check-in opens at 7. Entry is $15 for students, $25 for one runner, $40 for two, and $80 for a household of up to six. Registration collects each runner's details and an electronic waiver before you pay. Groups larger than ten need to call PDOP. If you were counting on a race shirt, the guarantee deadline was October 10, so late registrants may not get one.

The costume parade steps off at 4 p.m. the same day, with no extra fee. A family doing both has a long gap between the finish line and the parade. That gap is a good fit for the weekend wristband: run in the morning, go home, and come back for the parade without paying twice.

Halloween falls on a Saturday, and the two free events overlap

One week after Pumpkin Days, the calendar gets tighter. Both of Pahrump's free trick-or-treat events are scheduled for the evening of Saturday, October 31.

The Town of Pahrump's 13th Annual Halloween Spooktacular offers free community trick-or-treating at Petrack Park, Field A, from 4 to 7 p.m.

The Pahrump Trunk or Treat runs from 5 to 8 p.m. at the north end of the Smith's Food & Drug lot, 601 S. Hwy. 160. It's free with no ticket needed, and kids go car to car through a lit parking lot instead of door to door.

That leaves a two-hour overlap, from 5 to 7 p.m. A family that wants both can start at Petrack Park at 4, while the Spooktacular has the evening to itself, and then head to the Smith's lot for the last stretch of the Trunk or Treat, which runs an hour past the town event. Younger kids who are done by dinnertime may only need the Spooktacular. Older kids who want to stay out later have until 8 at Smith's.

The Trunk or Treat is also looking for hosts. Its site shows 30 trunk spots on the row, with sign-ups still open through its Host a Trunk page. If you'd rather hand out candy than walk a route, decorating a trunk is one way to spend Halloween night that has its own sign-up step, so do it before the day.

The out-of-town option has a ticket deadline three days before Halloween

The second weekend has a third choice, and it takes the most planning. The Death Valley '49ers hold their annual encampment Thursday, October 29, through Sunday, November 1, at Stovepipe Wells Village in Death Valley National Park. This year it lines up with Stovepipe Wells' 100th anniversary. According to the resort's own history page, it opened in November 1926.

"So we get together once a year and do an encampment where we try and offer presentations of the history of Death Valley," '49ers Chairman Alan Chenworth told the Pahrump Valley Times.

The 2026 encampment schedule is marked tentative and subject to change. Here's what it lists for Halloween weekend:

1. Friday, October 30: optional trick-or-treating for kids at 6 p.m. The Coyote Howl, hosted by cowboy poet Tony Argento, follows at 7 or 7:30 p.m., and costumes are encouraged. Stargazing and a campfire start at 9.
2. Saturday, October 31: the Hootenanny Breakfast in the morning, then the Veterans Celebration with Scott Tonelson at noon, emceed by Argento. Later come a talk on Death Valley ghost towns by author Stan Paher at 1 p.m., a 5 p.m. dinner, a 7:15 p.m. concert by International Western Music Association artists, and stargazing with photographer James Jensen at Zabriskie Point from 8 to 10.
3. Sunday, November 1: the Stovepipe Wells 100th anniversary program at the SPW Auditorium. Welcome speakers run from 10 to 11 a.m., presentations from 11 to noon, an anniversary-themed lunch from noon to 1, and a property tour from 1 to 1:30.

The breakfast is where the date matters. The '49ers ticket page lists the Hootenanny Breakfast at $25 and requires purchase by October 28, three days before the meal. The two listings disagree on the time: the ticket page says 7 to 9 a.m., and the tentative schedule says 7 to 10. If you're going, aim for 7 so either version works. The Sunday heading on the schedule page also reads "2025," but the centennial program right below it is dated November 1, 2026.

A membership doubles as the event pass. Prices are $100 single, $125 family, and $300 corporate. You don't need one to take part. Chenworth's group says activities in the Stovepipe Wells Village parking lot are open to everyone, with memberships and donations kindly requested. Those parking-lot activities include gold panning, a blacksmith booth, cornhole, a rock and gem booth, and the Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue with its donkeys.

That gives families a real choice for Halloween weekend. One option is Friday night in Death Valley for trick-or-treating and the Coyote Howl, followed by Saturday evening back in Pahrump for the Spooktacular or the Trunk or Treat. That schedule works only if you're on the road before the encampment's evening program starts Saturday. A family that wants Saturday's dinner and concert at Stovepipe Wells will be giving up trick-or-treating in town that night.

If your house fills up with visiting family for Halloween weekend, or if a fall festival has you wondering what a different corner of the valley would look like day to day, I'm glad to talk it through. Reach out to Emma Lee Samaniego. Let's Connect, and I'll see you at the pumpkin patch.