In McHenry, the Kids' Halloween Comes Early
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
What time is trick-or-treat in McHenry this year? Searching for an answer gets you a list of towns that doesn't include McHenry. Oakland has an hour, and so do Grantsville and Loch Lynn Heights. McHenry doesn't, and it isn't missing from the list by mistake.
McHenry has no town government to set one. The family side of Halloween here runs on a few community and business events, and most of them fall a week early. If you only plan around Saturday, October 31, your kids could miss the best of it.
The U.S. Geological Survey's place-name database lists McHenry as a populated place with the feature code "Unincorporated Place" in Garrett County. Garrett County's municipalities directory names eight towns, among them Oakland, Grantsville and the Town of Loch Lynn. McHenry isn't one of them.
That matters on Halloween because trick-or-treat times come from the towns. The Deep Creek Times Halloween page keeps a running list and says each town sets its time in October. The 2026 list has entries for Oakland, Loch Lynn Heights, Grantsville, Kitzmiller and others. There's no McHenry entry because there's no McHenry town office to send one in.
So every Halloween in McHenry is a little homemade. The calendar that does exist is made up of events that a resort, a lakeside bar, a fast-food restaurant and the county fairgrounds chose to host. The kid-focused ones land on October 24 and October 27, well before Halloween itself.
Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, but the busiest family Saturday around McHenry is the one before it. Three separate events run on October 24, and their start times are spread out enough that one family can get to more than one.
| Time | Event | Where | Good to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2:00 to 4:00 pm | Trunk or Treat at Deep Creek McDonald's | Deep Creek McDonald's, listed with an Oakland address | An afternoon option for younger kids |
| 5:00 to 8:00 pm | Wisp Resort Family Halloween Party and Monster Mash | Wisp Resort | Wisp's page lists 5:30 pm at the top and 5:00 pm in the description |
| 6:00 pm | Harborween at Dutch's Harbor Bar | Dutch's At Silver Tree, 567 Glendale Road, Oakland | All ages; dinner reservations recommended |
The afternoon trunk or treat at Deep Creek McDonald's ends at 4:00 pm. That leaves time to get home, fix whatever happened to the costume, and get to Wisp for the evening.
Wisp's own page sets the scene for its party: "All ages are welcome for a night filled with dancing, kids crafts, Trick or Treating, costume contests, games, a live DJ, and more!" Wisp's event listing runs the Monster Mash from 5:00 to 8:00 pm in its description, but the header at the top of the page says 5:30 pm. It also still says "More information to come," with no ticket price posted. If your evening depends on that first half hour, check the page again Saturday morning or call the resort before you leave.
Harborween starts at 6:00 pm at Dutch's At Silver Tree on Glendale Road. The Deep Creek Times listing calls it an all-ages night with music, themed drinks and costume contests with prizes. It's an annual event, and the listing recommends booking dinner ahead at 301-387-0525. That's the step most likely to get skipped by a family coming straight from somewhere else.
Put together, October 24 gives you an afternoon candy stop, an evening party with trick-or-treating built in, and a costume dinner by the water. That's more family Halloween than McHenry's own calendar offers on October 31.
The one family event with a McHenry address falls on a weeknight. The Community Trunk or Treat at the Garrett County Fairgrounds runs Tuesday, October 27, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm in the fairgrounds parking lot at 270 Mosser Road. The listing calls it annual and invites the whole family out for candy and Halloween fun.
For McHenry families, this is the closest thing the community has to its own trick-or-treat hour. It has a set two-hour window and a fixed spot, and it's a short drive from most homes around the lake. It also lands a few days after the October 24 events, so kids who wore their costumes on Saturday get another chance midweek.
The Fairgrounds will be back on the calendar after Halloween, too. The Festival of Trees is listed at 270 Mosser Road for November 27 and 28, so the same parking lot shows up again over Thanksgiving weekend.
On Halloween night itself, the one McHenry event on the 2026 list is a late-evening party at a bar and restaurant. The Greene Turtle's Halloween party runs Saturday, October 31, from 8:00 pm to 11:59 pm at 75 Visitors Center Drive, with Everline DJing & Entertainment and costumes encouraged. It starts after every nearby town trick-or-treat hour has ended, so McHenry's own Halloween night picks up where the kids' evening leaves off.
For trick-or-treating on October 31, McHenry families who want an official hour have to drive to one. These are the 2026 times on the Deep Creek Times list for the closest options:
Oakland's town hour and Appalachian Crossroads run at exactly the same time, so it's one or the other unless you're willing to cut each short. The Loch Lynn Heights window is the shortest at one hour. Grantsville has the same 5:30 to 7:30 pm window as Oakland and sits at the other end of the county, so it's realistic mostly if you already have family or plans up that way.
If older kids want something besides candy, Friday, October 30 has the Margraff After Dark Halloween Bike Ride at 8:00 pm at the Margraff Plantation Trails in Accident. The same Friday also has a Trunk or Treat Small Town Gathering at Brodak's Banquet Hall in Oakland at 6:30 pm, for families who'd rather keep things close to home.
Here's how the full stretch looks if you live in McHenry and want to catch the most with the fewest late nights:
Times are set by each host and can change, especially for events still marked "more information to come." The Deep Creek Times Halloween page keeps adding times as towns send them in, and it's the quickest place to check the morning of.
If you're hosting family at the lake for Halloween week, or you're thinking about what a Halloween in McHenry would look like as a full-time resident, I'm happy to share what I know about how the seasons play out around Deep Creek. Chef's Edge Real Estate is here when you want to talk it through. Let's Connect.
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