Desolate Acres Returns For October; Parking Lot "Scarier Than The Haunted House"

WAUKESHA — Desolate Acres, the 23-acre haunted attraction that sets up every fall behind the Waukesha County Expo Center, 1000 Northview Road, opened its October run last weekend, and early visitors say the scariest part of the night happens before anyone sets foot inside.

The attraction runs Friday and Saturday nights through October 31, 7 to 11 p.m., with actors in six separate scare zones spread across the property. Organizers describe the layout as deliberately disorienting. Several hundred cars circling the Expo Center's outer lot looking for an entrance was not part of that plan.

Four Lots, No Signs

The Expo Center grounds have four separate lot entrances off Northview Road and Expo Center Drive, and according to Desolate Acres operations coordinator Deb Oborski, 44, GPS apps have been routing visitors to whichever entrance is geographically closest to their starting point rather than the one currently open for haunted house traffic.

Oborski said staff counted 67 vehicles misdirected to the wrong lot entrance across the first three operating nights, a number she called "higher than we'd like, lower than we feared." A seventh scare zone, originally planned as a cornfield maze, was scrapped in August after organizers determined visitors would reach the parking lot already sufficiently disoriented.

"I've been to actual mazes that were easier. I circled the fairgrounds twice, missed the entrance both times, and my GPS kept saying I'd arrived while I was clearly still on Northview Road looking at a chain-link fence."

— Mark Shimanek, 34, attendee

A Parking Attendant's Hand Signals

Lot attendant Cody Reinke, 22, said he has developed a set of hand signals over the past two weekends to redirect cars that pull in through the wrong gate, including a specific two-arm wave he described as "the one that means you need to go all the way back around, I'm sorry." Reinke estimated he performs the gesture between 15 and 20 times per shift.

Reinke said the confusion tends to peak around 7:45 p.m., when the first wave of GPS-guided traffic collides with a line of vehicles already idling for the 8 p.m. scare-zone rotation. He said he has started keeping a dry-erase board with an arrow on it, though he conceded the arrow currently points toward a gate that is closed on weeknights.

Oborski said the organization has discussed adding temporary signage but has not finalized a design, in part because last year's laminated signs were repeatedly mistaken for part of the haunted attraction and removed by guests as souvenirs.

A Familiar Feeling For Some Drivers

For some Waukesha residents, the lot's layout has felt less like a novelty than a commute. Diane Vandehey, 61, who chairs the county fair's planning committee and has navigated the same Expo Center grounds for fair setup for over a decade, said she still takes a wrong turn roughly one visit in four. "It's not unlike the East Avenue roundabout," Vandehey said. "You know where you're trying to go. The pavement disagrees."

Oborski said the organization is considering hiring a second flagger for weekend nights and is reviewing whether the posted hours should include a 15-minute parking buffer before the 7 p.m. opening. For now, she recommends arriving early, following the cones rather than the phone, and treating any unexpected dead end as part of the experience.

Desolate Acres' website lists ticket information and a site map, though Oborski acknowledged the map does not currently distinguish between open and closed lot entrances. Tickets remain available for all remaining October dates.