2023 MoCo Haunted Trail & Forest Guide

Spooky season is in full effect and there’s still plenty of time to check out some of the scariest haunted forests and attractions in and around Montgomery County.
1. Markoff’s Haunted Forest – 19120 Martinsburg Rd, Dickerson

As the fall nights grow longer and a cool crisp in the air blows with the breeze, the silence at Calleva Farm is broken by blood curling screams echoing through the woods.  In its 31st year, Maryland’s original and most terrifying haunted attraction, Markoff’s Haunted Forest, is open weekends in late September and October. The MHF experience has built a national reputation for its unique, multi-sensory haunt experience. Music, lighting effects, scents & creepy human interaction set the tone for a fully immersive experience in each of 3 attractions.

The haunt is a benefit performance for Calleva, a 501c3 organization dedicated to building young leaders through positive outdoor experiences. “We spend all year empowering people through outdoor experiences that foster teamwork & individual achievement,” says Nick Markoff, one of the three brothers who founded Calleva. “Then we bring them out to Markoff’s Haunted Forest to knock their confidence back a bit.”  The haunt began as a small scale event, but has grown into one of the nation’s top-ranked performances. Markoff’s Haunted Forest still helps fund Calleva’s summer camp scholarships, community partnerships, and outdoor education programming. It’s a partnership that delivers seasonal fun AND year-round benefits to our Montgomery County neighborhood. Tickets are on sale now at www.markoffshauntedforest.com.

“Since 1992, when the Markoff brothers started with a Haunted School Bus driven to events and festivals around DC, our haunt has provided fright fest lovers with a creative, dramatic, and – YES — terrifying haunt experience. Our creative team combines music, lights, scents, actors, make-up & prosthetics, and artistic brilliance in a series of high-tech, detailed scenes that consistently place MHF among the top haunts in the country.”

2.  Leech Woods – 11201 Bethesda Church Rd, Damascus

Leech Woods first opened in 2022 and is described as “a thirty minute immersive haunted trail experience of dark terror” that promises a night of chain saws, clowns and dark corners.  Leech Woods also offers food and drink, four bonfires, axe throwing, a DJ booth, fortune telling, and other forms of entertainment each night.

Per Leech Woods: According to Montgomery County historical land records, the present site of Leech Woods was originally settled by Warwick and Jeanne Leech and their six children sometime in early 1790.  Having immigrated from Hungary, the family chose Damascus, Maryland based on its temperate climate and heavily wooded region which reminded them of their homeland.  The Leech family store thrived as the leading local merchant of hides, furs and hunting supplies.  During the disastrous Winter of 1804, the Leech family store was robbed and vandalized by unknown attackers and the body of John Leech, the youngest son, was found nailed to the back wall of the store.  The remaining bodies of the family members were later found bludgeoned and bound inside of the root cellar of their homestead.  No further information about the attackers or motives for the killings are known. Remnants of the Leech family homestead still stands deep in the woods where the present Leech Woods experience is built.  The Leech Woods immersive experience follows the original walking path from the site of the Leech family hunting supply store to the remnants of the original family homestead.  As the property was classified as a historical site in 1972, no artifacts may be removed and we ask that you respect the privacy of the grave sites. Tickets are available here.