Visitors to Lake Wateree State Park show off their costumes during Saturday’s Creepy Campout.
More than 260,000 people visit Wateree State Park each year. Campers come from as far away as Canada and California and even countries in Europe to picnic, fish, play on the play equipment and hike the nature trails. But on Saturday, this lovely area became a “Creepy Campout.”
“The campers have dressed in costumes and decorated their golf carts and campsites for the past seven years,” Park Superintendent Adin Fell said, “but this is only the second year that the park sponsored the event.”
The activities began at noon with a scavenger hunt that ended at the tackle shop at 5 p.m. During this same time, a pumpkin roll and pumpkin toss was also being held. From noon to 4 p.m. there was a children’s pumpkin painting and a pumpkin seed-spitting contest. At 3 the costume contest began and for scariest costume, ages 1 to 9, the first, second and third place winners were: Will Rape, Ethan Barr and Rylan Deaton. For cutest costume: Olevia Clary, Noah Strawn and Skylar Collins. Most original category: Aubree Rape, Nicholas Jackson and Gracie Lance. For ages 1 to 15, winners were: Kent Barnett (scariest) Hannah Baker (cutest) and Dalton Putnam (most original). Winners for the age 16 and over were: scariest, Linda Strawn, Karen Strawn and Darrell Blackwell. Cutest: Brianna Deller, Jessica Legrand and Dawn Blackwell. Most original: David Legrand, Kevin Blackwell and Brady and Beverly Krimminger. Costume group winners were the Krimminger family. In the category of pumpkin carving, winners were: Mike Edmonds (scariest), Katy Maltese (cutest) and Madison Edmonds (most original). Best overall carving award went to Renee Bourdeau.
Following the costume contest, a golf cart decorating contest was judged and the winners were Kathy Laney, first place and Scott Barrett, second place. The campsites were unbelievable. Some of the folks spent days getting ready, spreading spiders and webs from tree to tree, as well as displaying coffins, pumpkins, scary monsters, witches and all the things that go with Halloween. One yard was set up like a small cemetery with a lot of small headstones. The prizes for campsite decorations went to: Linda and Karen Strawn (first place), David, Linda and Jessica Legrand (second place) and Charles Walden and Brianna Dell (third place). The judges for the contests were Rebecca Beer from Richburg and Jan and Heather Kuhn. The children closed out the day’s fun with their trick-or-treating from 6 to 9 p.m. All the prizes were articles from the park’s gift shop.
Thanks to Park Superintendent Adin Fell, Karla Brown, the judges and all who helped make this such a nice family event. If you missed it this year, mark your calendar for next year. It is worth the trip to see the decorated campsites and the elaborate costumes.
