Halfway through the fall season, an all-time favorite holiday is approaching, and along with it, a variety of autumn and Halloween activities are perfect for groups of friends and family. Here’s a list ranging from the most simple activities to those involving a bit more planning. 

1. Watching scary movies: Grab your blanket, some popcorn, and some friends to huddle close for a horror movie. Rewatch some older classics like the Conjuring and the Nun series, Annabelle, and some newer ones like Smile 1 and 2, the Terrifier series.
2. Fall Colors: All you need is yourself or even a couple of others for this one. Take a walk in a metro park, I would recommend Highbanks or Sharon Woods, where fall colors have spread to nearly all the trees in their luscious forests. Grab a jacket, bring a camera or your phone, pick a trail inside the woods, and enjoy the serenity and vibrant foliage that a forest gives you in the fall. You can even create a small photoshoot out of this if you like with the colorful leaves as your background scenery. 
3. Haunted Houses: Columbus has a variety of haunted houses to explore this fall, the most popular one being Fear Columbus. Carnage Haunted House and ZOMBIezi Bay are some other great options, especially if you are looking for kid-friendly ones.
4. Pumpkin Carving: You can find pumpkins of all sizes at nearby stores like Kroger, Target, and Walmart, but if you are interested in getting them from a pumpkin patch or farm, I would recommend Leeds Farm or Lehner’s Pumpkin Farm. If you’re not using a carving kit for this, print out a stencil online and trace it onto your pumpkin using a nail, making little holes to create the guidelines for carving. Scoop out your pumpkin seeds and guts, and carve using a knife.
5. Apple Picking: Many farms stay open for apple picking up until early or mid-November. This is the perfect weather to drive out to a farm and get some delicious apples and pictures. I would recommend apples from Branstool Orchards, with 3-5 varieties of apples from sweet to more tangy flavor. They are located in Johnstown, Utica, which is a minute drive from Powell.