Halloween Lands on a Saturday, and Sonora Celebrates the One Before It: A Two-Weekend Plan for Springfield Estates

Halloween falls on a Saturday this year. But the Sonora Chamber of Commerce has set downtown Sonora's Trick or Treat Street & Spookytown at Courthouse Park for Saturday, October 24, a full week early. Several other events are on the same day. Columbia, Railtown 1897, Indigeny Reserve and the Sonora Family Moose Lodge all have events that Saturday, and most of their hours overlap. That leaves Halloween itself with fewer events, and its east-side centerpiece is the costume parade at the Junction Shopping Center.

So for Springfield Estates households with kids or grandkids, this Saturday is the crowded one and Halloween is the lighter one. You'll have to choose between events this weekend, while next Saturday has room to spread out.

This Saturday, October 24, hour by hour

The Chamber's 2026 calendar puts Trick or Treat Street on Saturday the 24th, from 4:00 to 5:30 p.m., with the venue listed as Downtown Sonora, 1 Washington St. Participating downtown businesses hand out treats, and Spookytown at Courthouse Park adds face painting and a kids' game. That 90-minute window sets the plan for everything else that day.

Here's how the day stacks up across the area:

• 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Indigeny Reserve Harvest & Pumpkin Festival runs at 14679 Summers Ln. in Sonora, with live music from noon to 3, kids' activities, craft and food vendors, and cider. Parking is $5. The festival continues Sunday the 25th with the same hours.
• 10:30 a.m., noon, 1:30 and 3 p.m. Railtown 1897's Harvest Haunt Excursion Train Rides leave from the park in Jamestown at each of these times on both the 24th and 25th, with a suggested Princesses & Pirates costume theme. The same departures run again on October 31.
• 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Women of the Moose hold their annual Kids Halloween party at the Sonora Family Moose Lodge, with hot dogs, games and prizes. It's free and open to the public.
• 2 to 6 p.m. Boo Boulevard fills Main Street in Columbia State Historic Park with trick-or-treating, crafts and games. A parade starts at 4:30 and a costume contest runs from 5 to 6. It's free.
• 4 to 5:30 p.m. Trick or Treat Street and Spookytown run downtown. Sonora United Methodist Church at 90 Yaney Ave. runs a free hot dog supper, Trunk-or-Treat and Haunted Hallway in the same window.
• 6 p.m. The free Spooky Street Dance Party, produced by the Columbia Chamber of Commerce, takes over Main Street in Columbia after Boo Boulevard. Railtown's Skeleton Starlight evening trains also run on the 24th, leaving at 6:00 and 7:30.

The hardest choice comes late in the afternoon. Downtown Sonora's treat window and Columbia's Boo Boulevard parade both fall between 4:00 and 5:30. You'd have to pick one town for that stretch. A morning plan has fewer conflicts. The Moose Lodge party and the Indigeny festival both start before lunch and can be finished well before 4 p.m.

Picking the downtown stop

The Methodist church notes two things that help with planning. Decorated cars park alongside the church to hand out treats, and parking is behind the church on Upper Sunset Avenue. The church also says the Haunted Hallway, which leads into the dinner area, is slightly scary for younger children. If your trick-or-treaters are small, the face painting at Spookytown in Courthouse Park may be the gentler choice.

If you'd like to see how Indigeny's calendar fits the rest of the fall around the Phoenix Lake neighborhoods, the Apple Valley fall calendar post covers the cidery in more detail.

The weeknights in between

There are only two dated events between the two Saturdays. Each one suits a different crowd.

On Wednesday, October 28, at 4:30 p.m., the Tuolumne Park & Recreation District holds its Halloween Parade-Trick or Treat at the Park at 18603 Pine St. in Tuolumne. Activity tickets cost 50 cents each. It gives kids a costume outing in the middle of the week, between the two weekends.

On Friday, October 30, from 7 to 8 p.m., Mountain Wellness leads the Whispers Beneath The Gold Historic Walking Tour. It meets on the Courthouse lawn at North Washington Street and Yaney Avenue in downtown Sonora, and admission is $22. It's the one adult-paced event of the week, and it starts in the same block the kids filled with costumes six days earlier.

Halloween morning, from the market to the Junction

Saturday, October 31, opens with the farmers market downtown and builds to the parade at the Junction. Railtown's 10:30 a.m. and noon Harvest Haunt trains also run that morning, with no set costume theme for Halloween.

The first is the last Sonora Certified Farmers' Market of the season. The City lists the market on Saturdays from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. at Theall and Stewart streets, running from May 16 through October 31. So Halloween morning is also the last chance this year to shop the downtown market.

The second is the Junction Halloween Costume Contest and parade. Registration opens at 10:30 a.m. and the parade starts at 11. Everyone meets under the clock at the Junction Shopping Center. Prizes go to first, second and third place in four categories:

1. Up to 4 years old
2. 5 to 8 years old
3. 9 to 12 years old
4. Group costumes

The listing runs the event from 11 a.m. to noon. The farmers market closes at 11:30. If you want both, shop early, then go to the clock for registration. The shopping center itself has changed a fair amount over the past year, and our post on the Mono Way shuffle covers what's moved along that corridor.

Group costumes get their own prize category at the Junction. That's worth knowing if siblings, cousins or a group of neighbors have been planning matching costumes since September.

Halloween afternoon and evening

After the parade, the only midday option on the listings is Railtown's 1:30 and 3 p.m. Harvest Haunt trains. Everything else starts at 4 p.m. or later.

Jamestown Halloween Town runs from 4 to 6 p.m. on Main Street in Jamestown. It's free, with a 4 p.m. parade, a 5:30 costume contest, games, carriage rides and free food. Railtown 1897 runs Track-or-Treat from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. and Skeleton Starlight train rides at 6 and 7:30.

Most of the costs across both Saturdays are Railtown tickets, so here they are side by side with the paid events from this weekend:

The Skeleton Starlight ticket includes Track-or-Treat admission, so a household going to both pays for one ticket, not two. Jamestown Halloween Town ends at 6, the same time as the first Skeleton Starlight departure. If you want both, book the 7:30 train.

One way to run the 31st is the market by 10:30, the Junction parade at 11, Halloween Town from 4 to 6, and the 7:30 Skeleton Starlight train with Track-or-Treat after it.

Everyone at Tuolumne Homes keeps a close eye on the local calendar because our clients ask us what's happening in their part of town. If you're near the Junction on Halloween morning or downtown this Saturday afternoon, we'll be out there too. Whenever you're curious what your Springfield Estates home is worth, our free home valuation is ready when you are.