Vegas: Bonnie Screams Halloween haunt

Bonnie Springs has no shortage of entertaining ways to while away the daylight hours throughout the entire year, but come sun down in October things shift gears quite a bit. After their normal operating schedule, the springs close down to the public for a couple hours as the ghouls start to crawl from their crypts and the venue itself changes it's name from the unassuming "Bonnie Springs" to "Bonnie Screams"! It's a fitting change in moniker as the shadows spread and spookiness prevails you might find yourself hard-pressed to silence a scream. Not only is the location famously haunted (as explored in an episode of Ghost Adventures) year round, anyway, but when the barrier between this world and the next one over thins during Halloween it's bound to get a bit spectral. Even during the supposedly safe daylight hours I found myself screeching in shock and horror in the wax museum when one of the wax "figures" sprung to life and damn near scared the shit out of me, literally... Luckily for us, it was just one of the gunmen from the afternoon shoot-out messing with us, but with the thick and ominous atmosphere of the wax museum I really wouldn't have been surprised if that had not been the case. There's a lot of history at Bonnie Springs as it was an important stop in the Spanish trail for some time and helped in the exploration ever Westward that led European settlers to build up the Americas as we know them today...  but prior to that Paiute tribes and indigenous people called this place their home for much, much longer. If all the tales of misfortune attributed towards building upon ancient Indian burial grounds holds any water, the entirety of Las Vegas and especially Bonnie Springs would be rife with curses and foreboding. 

With multiple haunted houses to explore, the cost of the tickets themselves is quickly absolved. We had a lot of fun and thoroughly enjoyed our exploration of the grounds. One especially fun thing about your tickets is that you can do the haunts as many times as time permits in the evening, there's no limit- so if you need several rounds through to get your satisfaction you absolutely can! On top of the haunted houses there were live performances from fire dancers and magicians, tapping into the otherworldly powers provided by the Hallowed eve. Between our explorations of the petting zoo and daytime grounds, we did have an hour or two to pass before they reopened to the public...we opted to hang out in our van after moving to the Screams specified parking. We watched the sun go down and took a few more photos of the van, and ourselves, before we were able to strike out for the spooky fun. You have a couple of options from there- we opted out of the zombie paintball this year as it wasn't in our budget and instead took the creepy walking trail up to the haunt. Though the darkness made it difficult to snap much, I'm not terribly bothered by this as I wouldn't want to ruin the fun for anyone else! Suffice to say, winding our solitary way along a desert path in the dark with creepy sounds echoing among the terrain and the occasional hung man, clown or other otherworldy spook greeting us around various turns had our hackles well and raised before we even entered the grounds proper...

More photos after the cut...

Vegas: Bonnie Springs Petting Zoo

Once you've made the drive out to Bonnie Springs, you may as well stay and partake of all the activities available! Of course there's a restaurant, lodging and horseback rides available for those of you who have the time and the funds, but for us we were more or less limited to what we could partake of in the same day the petting zoo and shows are plenty of fun. We had wandered around old town a bit but as animal lovers we were, of course, far more excited to partake in the petting zoo and mingle with the animals. There are all sorts of animals wandering around in the open, including fainting goats, but out of respect for the animals PLEASE do NOT spook them! Even the adorable fainting goats, for as novel as their quirk may be, are actually fainting out of fear against their will and it is not good for them.  Most of the people working the grounds are volunteers and are there out of their love for the animals, so please respect them and the animals. If a volunteer tells you to cut your shit, whatever it is you're doing, then listen to them. Don't be a turd. Animals deserve respect too, and though I myself am not a vegan or especially religious, I understand that we share a special communion with our fellow sentient beings on this planet. 

That all being said, have fun! Just be respectful. Human, animal, two-legged, four-legged (or  less/more), we're all here for a short ride so let's be kind to eachother. 

More photos after the cut...

Vegas: Journey to Bonnie Springs

Bonnie Springs is a small ranch outside of Las Vegas, a short drive from the city itself and even closer to Red Rock canyon. It's entirely possible to drive to Bonnie Springs for a pleasant day trip from the Strip if you're a visitor who seeks external enjoyment beyond the plinkity-plink-plinking of slot machines trying to bribe your last nickel and dime from your pocket. For the locals, Bonnie Springs is a great way to escape and get some much needed bonding time with this thing called "the great outdoors". There's a plethora of fuzzy things to interact with and introduce your small humans to if you'd like them to view their fellow beings with some measure of respect.  The drive itself was pretty straightforward and quite enjoyable in Antho's big comfy van named Vanticore. We grabbed some food on the drive out and made a day of it. There's a restaurant at Bonnie Springs with a fully equipped bar, so if you're wanting to make a full day of it there's no reason not to, we're just broke and don't get to partake of the fullest of their offerings available due to our lack of funds. Such is life. Gotta live within your means, so we make do!

Vegas: Bonnie Springs

Bonnie Springs is a ranch resort only a short drive outside of Las Vegas heading towards Red Rock Canyon and offers a wide assortment of ways to stay entertained in the great outdoors! On this trip we did the petting zoo and Bonnie Screams, both of which we can highly recommend as we had a lot of fun but if you want to spend even more time at the ranch you can stay overnight in their motel and even take a horseback ride the following day if the stunning vistas bring out your inner cowperson. It's been ages since I've ridden a horse as it was typically the sort of thing I'd only get to do when visiting my family out in Ohio or Arizona back as a munchkin, but I'd love to check out their riding program sometime! Horses used to intimidate me when I was younger but now that I can literally look them in the eyes (being a taller version of myself these days) they're not so scary. Of course, there's a lot more available here to see and do than just the horses, like check out that great big ass up there! I've interacted with a lot more burros than horses and I'm quite fond of the critters. 

Every animal I've ever interacted with has had it's own personality- from tiniest of squeakers to the biggest of moos- one burro I knew growing up had a peculiar habit of trying to trick humans into climbing atop her back only to gleefully buck them off once they'd been lulled into a false sense of security. She'd come rushing to the gate to greet you and nuzzle your hand, then gesture to her back by flicking her head towards her shoulders with a mischief-addled grin until you either climbed aboard or grew wise to her ways. Another girl was shy, prone towards standing to the back and tentatively watching you interact with the others before she might graciously allow you a few pats upon her nose.  Food in the form of carrots, apples or hay were always greatly appreciated and their affection easily bribed for short periods with such gifts. There were a few years during my childhood where any approach to the house would be greeted with a chorus of breying burros from the back. It warms my heart. Maybe this is part of why I've always dreamed of having my own little cabin and animals someday, but who knows. The heart and what it dreams of are dictated by things beyond my ken. 

Wandering the grounds you'll find deer, doves, goats, peacocks and many more beautiful beasts. It's a fairly small zoo and some of the exhibits might be on the smaller side, which is unfortunate... but if more visitors and volunteers offer their services or donations it might make it easier for the zoo to expand their space and provide better environments for those animals. Many of the animals roam freely throughout the zoo and will approach you at their discretion- please be respectful of the animals and don't go charging after them! A lot of the animals walking around are going to be herbivores, creatures who are preyed upon in the wild and will have the instincts to react to any perceived threat by fleeing. It's really not nice to stress the poor things out! Just as you wouldn't necessarily want someone coming in to your home and chasing your dog or cat around upsetting and terrorizing it, these animals are effectively in the same situation. Be kind and conscious of the fact you are a guest here and enjoy your stay! Antho and I had a blast interacting with the critters and the volunteers, who would tell us back stories or personality information on some of the animals. The affection with which they interact with and speak about the critters says a lot.

There are also live shows, gift shops and all sorts of things to idle away the hours! Like I said, we had a lot of fun while we were here and after partaking of the day-time entertainments we opted to stay and see what Bonnie Screams had to offer... the post on that will come soon! For now, photos below...