"Get ready to look at your garden in a whole new, and much creepier, light!" That is the Los Angeles County Arboretum's promise for its Ghoulish Garden night hikes, which run Saturday, October 3. NBC Los Angeles quoted the line ahead of the event. The same Saturday, L.A. Taco's Birriamania fills Santa Anita Park from noon, and the Arboretum has goat yoga on its morning schedule.
After that Saturday, the Arboretum's fall programming settles into a month-long self-guided walk. Santa Anita Park's calendar covers every weekend through Halloween, and The Shops at Santa Anita adds Friday-evening events. October 3 and October 10 are the two Saturdays with the most going on.
October 3, in the order it fits together
The listings for that Saturday line up without overlapping, as long as you take them in this order.
- 9:30 a.m., goat yoga at the Arboretum. Event listings show a 9:30 a.m. session on the third at 301 N. Baldwin Ave.
- Noon, Birriamania at Santa Anita Park. L.A. Taco and Santa Anita bring birria vendors from around Los Angeles to 285 W. Huntington Dr. for an afternoon of eating. LAist lists Teddy's Red Tacos, Goat Mafia, The Birria Spot, La Cosina De Yesi, Birria Don Cuco, Birria El Jaliciense, Birrieria San Marcos and El Barrio Cantina. The event description promises consomé for dunking, plus craft beer and micheladas.
- 5:30 to 7 p.m., the family Ghoulish Garden hike. The Arboretum describes a night walk to find the spookiest plants, from carnivorous species to thorny and poisonous ones. NBC Los Angeles reports tickets at $15 for members and $20 for non-members.
- 7:30 to 9 p.m., the adult hike. This session covers the darker side of plants, including flowers tied to rituals of death and remembrance and botanical poisons. Tickets run $20 for members and $25 for non-members.
The one true conflict comes after dark. Astronaut City, the comedy club and karaoke bar in Arcadia, lists Rebecca Kaplan's show for 7 p.m. that night. The show starts half an hour before the adult hike, so the evening is a choice between the two. Astronaut City's one-year anniversary party follows on Sunday, October 4, at 5 p.m.
The Arboretum's clock is what makes the day work
The Arboretum's regular day runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with last entry at 4:30 p.m. The family hike starts at 5:30 p.m., half an hour after the gates close for the day. That gap explains why the Saturday works as a sequence. A morning class and a midday trip to the track both finish before the night programming begins, and nothing on the Arboretum side asks anyone to be in two places at once.
The pricing follows the same split. Regular admission is $18 for adults, $14 for students with ID and seniors 62 and older, and $8 for children ages 3 to 12. Children 2 and under and members are free. A non-member adult ticket for the night hike costs $25, which is $7 above a daytime visit. Members get in free during the day, and the adult hike costs them $20.
Then there is Freaky Flora. It is a self-guided walk that runs October 1 through October 31 and is included with regular admission. Visitors need a phone or the downloaded guide, because the route and plant notes come through a QR code. It covers the same theme as the night hikes, and a daytime ticket already includes it. The night hike is a separate ticketed evening, and the Arboretum asks visitors to buy admission online before they arrive.
After the third, Santa Anita Park keeps the calendar
Listings for the rest of the month put something at Santa Anita Park on every Saturday, including the last one on October 31.
- October 4: Pinktober, a benefit for the American Cancer Society, is listed at noon.
- October 10 and 11, then October 17 and 18: Oktoberfest Trackside. The Arcadia Chamber of Commerce promoted a general admission package with an early-bird price of $28.09 that ended September 18. The regular price listed alongside it is $40.69.
- October 24: Hallowienerfest and the Pumpkin Path & Fall Fun Fest are both listed.
- October 25: Japan Family Day.
- October 31: A Breeders' Cup Day event in the FrontRunner dining room is listed for 12:30 p.m.
Oktoberfest Trackside takes two full weekends, so it accounts for four of the month's Saturday and Sunday slots. That leaves a gap for the events that surround it, like the second heavy Saturday below.
October 10 is the second crowded Saturday
The tenth stacks three things across the afternoon. Oktoberfest Trackside opens at Santa Anita Park. At 2 p.m., The Shops at Santa Anita, at 400 S. Baldwin Ave., holds a Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration. At 3 p.m., Kim Wilson of The Fabulous Thunderbirds plays Matt Denny's Ale House Restaurant. The Shops' own numbers give a sense of scale. The center lists 132 stores, 59 places to eat and 18 movie screens next to the 210 and the racetrack.
The Shops is also where the Friday-night events land. A Halloween Spooky Night movie on The Promenade is listed for Friday, October 23, at 5 p.m. An earlier Promenade edition asked guests to bring a blanket or chair, and it opened with spooky trivia and games before the film. A Halloween Spooktacular follows on Friday, October 30, at 4 p.m. The 2025 version was built around trick-or-treating at participating shops and a costume contest for children ages 10 and under.
Mt. Lowe Brewing Company adds a Saturday option on October 17. Its "Guys and Ghouls Night Out" outdoor night market is listed for that date. It sits in the same weekend as the second Oktoberfest Trackside.
Two dates to confirm before you plan around them
The Arboretum and Santa Anita Park both publish their own calendars, and those are the sources to check first. The Shops at Santa Anita dates for October 10, 23 and 30 come from event listings, and last year's movie night ran on a different date from the one listed now. The 7:30 to 9 p.m. adult hike appears on the Arboretum's event page, and the family hike's 5:30 p.m. start comes from NBC Los Angeles. Calling the Arboretum at 626.821.3222 settles any doubt about start times before October 3.
Something we missed or a listing that changed after this went up? Tell Dina Gonzalez and the Arcadia dates will get updated.
