Encinitas Halloween Events 2026: Olivenhain Haunts and More

Encinitas has two haunted houses this October. Both are inside buildings from Olivenhain's settler years. One is the 1895 meeting hall on Rancho Santa Fe Road. The other is an 1885 schoolhouse that has stood on Quail Gardens Drive since 2007. Between them they cover five evenings in the second half of the month, and the second weekend puts them on the same two nights, a few miles apart. Halloween itself falls on a Saturday this year, so the month ends downtown on Coast Highway 101.

The Hall the Colony Built for Its Tenth Anniversary

Olivenhain began as a colony. The Olivenhain Town Council's history of the community says that about 75 people stayed on the original settlement. As they received their land deeds, they left behind the colony's obligations. The colony's last recorded meeting was on November 15, 1897. Two years before that, in 1895, the families who stayed marked the community's tenth anniversary by building a meeting hall.

That hall at 423 Rancho Santa Fe Road is where Scout Troop 2000 holds its Haunted Hotel & Carnival, now in its 26th year. Patch reported on Sept. 29 that this year's hotel has four newly designed rooms named Nightmare, Asylum, Spirits and Witches, along with returning attractions. A new Candy Mystery Trail gives younger visitors a mystery to solve as they move through the hotel. Out at the carnival, a new Monster Hunt joins the classic games, crafts, food, prizes and live entertainment.

Scouts ages 11 to 17 design, build and run the event, and they also play the characters inside. Carnival lead Casey Wright described the process to Patch:

"It's exciting to see the Scouts take their ideas from sketches and plans and turn them into something the whole community can experience."

The hours depend on the night. The hotel runs 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 16 and 23, and 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Oct. 17, 24 and 30. Visitors can choose low- or no-scare versions or high-scare versions. Organizers suggest that families with younger children come early in the evening, while it is still light. The Eventbrite listing shows entry as free, and tickets for activities, carnival games and concessions are sold at the hall. The money pays for the troop's camping and backpacking trips, merit badge activities, summer camp and scholarships. It also supports the troop's community service and its partnership with the Olivenhain Town Council.

The Schoolhouse That Left Olivenhain

The month's second haunted house started out in Olivenhain too. A 2013 Coast News story on the Teten House says it was built in Olivenhain in 1885 and served as a schoolhouse for the settlers' children. In 1892 a blacksmith named Fred Teten bought it, soon after his family moved to Encinitas from Kansas. He grew barley, corn and lima beans on the property. In 2007, volunteers moved the house to the San Dieguito Heritage Museum's grounds at 450 Quail Gardens Drive. The museum itself moved to that site, its permanent home, the same year. A restoration broke ground in 2013, with plans that included a new concrete foundation, roof repairs and work on the house's three porches. At that point the estimated cost was $65,000. The Coast News reported in December 2015 that the restored house was about to be officially dedicated, after being on exhibit at the museum for months.

On Oct. 23 and 24, that farmhouse becomes the haunted house for the Haunted Harvest at Heritage Ranch, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The event page lists a haunted house and a haunted trail, each in scary and un-scary versions. It also lists:

• A costume contest with prizes
• A community pumpkin decorating contest, with entries arranged in advance through the organizers
• Music and dancing with DJ Jordy
• Farm animals for kids
• Art activities for young children
• Carnival games, food and treats
• A beer garden for adults

Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for kids, at the door or in advance. Food, drinks, treats, games and the scares cost a small amount extra, and time with the animals is free. The Haunted Harvest runs on the same Friday and Saturday as the Haunted Hotel's fourth and fifth nights. That makes Oct. 23 and 24 the only two nights of the month when both buildings are haunted at once.

How the Month Lines Up

Laid out like this, the schedule hands off from one night to the next. The Haunted Hotel ends on Friday, Oct. 30, and downtown trick-or-treating starts the next evening. No two events compete for the same night, except at the two historic buildings on Oct. 23 and 24.

Sunday Afternoon Between the Haunted Weekends

The only daytime event on the calendar is on Sunday, Oct. 25. That is the 13th Annual Encinitas Día de los Muertos Festival, from noon to 4 p.m. at the MiraCosta College San Elijo Campus, 3333 Manchester Ave. The festival is free and presented by the Encinitas Friends of the Arts. The city lists a Day of the Dead art exhibit, art-making workshops, artist demonstrations, food vendors, giveaways and the Callejeros de Encinitas Car Club. It falls the day after the Olivenhain buildings' shared Saturday, so the weekend runs from two evening events straight into an afternoon one.

Halloween on a Saturday, on the 101

Halloween this year is on a Saturday, and it moves the evening from Olivenhain's old buildings to downtown. Encinitas Safe Trick-or-Treat runs from 5 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 31, centered at 101 South Coast Highway 101. Encinitas 101 lists these plans for the night:

1. Downtown shops and restaurants stay open late for trick-or-treating.
2. Live music plays in The Lumberyard Courtyard.
3. The 101 Artists Colony sets up kids' games.
4. Pacific View Arts Center hosts free arts activities for families and opens its lot for free parking for the evening.
5. Self-Realization Fellowship puts up a large pumpkin display in front of its bookstore at K Street and 101.

Lazy Acres Market is the presenting sponsor. The free parking at Pacific View deserves a mention because the downtown event takes up three busy hours on a Saturday evening. The Haunted Hotel's last night is Friday the 30th, so the hall is already closed by then.

Taken together, the month moves from the 1895 hall Olivenhain's families built for their anniversary, to the 1885 schoolhouse a Kansas blacksmith later farmed, and ends among the storefronts on the 101. All of these events are run by the groups that host them: a scout troop, a heritage museum, an arts nonprofit and a downtown business association. Dates and details can change, so check each organizer's page before heading out.

A lot of Amy's work is with families who have been in Encinitas for decades, and she follows events like these to stay in touch with the community they belong to. If an older house of your own has history you've wondered about, or you're thinking about what your home could mean to its next owners, Amy Jensen would be glad to talk it through. Schedule a free consultation whenever it suits you, after the Haunted Hotel has closed for the year.