At 12:30 on Saturday afternoon, the City of Ouray will put pumpkins in the water at Ouray Hot Springs, and kids will swim out to get them. The first group in is ages 0 to 6. Ages 7 to 16 go next. Anyone 17 or older can join the big kids' group once the younger ones have had their turn. The float keeps going until the pumpkins run out or it hits 2 p.m., whichever comes first.
Ouray's Halloween runs as a relay. Each stop hands something to the next, so where a family is at 12:30 shapes where it ends up at 7.
The pumpkin you fish out at 12:30 is the one you decorate at 1
The pool event and the park event share one pumpkin. The City's listing for the float says participants can take their pumpkins over to Fellin Park to decorate them. Pumpkin decorating at Fellin Park, 1001 US-550, opens at 1 p.m., half an hour after the float starts, and the City provides the supplies. If you'd rather carve, the listing invites you to bring your own carving tools.
The float is free with pool entry, and the pool is at 1220 Main St. Ouray Hot Springs currently lists public hours of 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., with a members-only hour from 10 to 11 a.m. for 12-month pass holders. No reservations are needed. The float ends when the pumpkins do, so a family that shows up at 1:45 may find the water empty. The 12:30 start is the time to plan around.
Here's the whole afternoon in Mountain Time:
| Time | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 12:30 to 2 p.m. | Pumpkin Float and fall photo backdrop | Ouray Hot Springs, 1220 Main St. |
| 1 to 4:30 p.m. | Pumpkin decorating | Fellin Park, 1001 US-550 |
| 3:30 to 4 p.m. | Costume contest | Fellin Park |
| 4 to 6 p.m. | Trick-or-Treat Street | Main Street |
| 4 to 7 p.m. | Trick or Treat: Witches @ the Wright | Wright Opera House, 472 Main St. |
If you check these on the Ouray Ridgway Events Calendar, the header at the top of each listing shows Eastern time. For the combined Happy Halloween listing, that header reads 2:30 to 8 p.m. The schedule in each event's description is the local one. The City of Ouray's own events widget lists the same 12:30, 1 and 3:30 start times in Mountain Time. The joint calendar is fairly new. The City of Ouray and the Town of Ridgway announced in March 2026 that it would become the county's main events platform and replace several separate calendars.
Fellin Park holds the middle of the afternoon
From 1 to 4:30, Fellin Park is the base. Decorating runs the whole stretch, and the costume contest fits inside it from 3:30 to 4. Families already at the decorating tables are a short walk across the park from the contest.
The contest has three age divisions, and each one awards first, second and third place:
- Little Ghouls, ages 0 to 5: $50, $20 and $10 gift cards
- Kids & Teens, ages 6 to 17: $50, $20 and $10 gift cards
- Adults, ages 18 and up: $50, $20 and $10 gift cards, and the first-place adult also wins a 10-punch hot springs pool pass
The adult category is the reason grown-ups have to plan their costumes for the afternoon. Judging finishes at 4, before dark and before Main Street fills up.
At 4 p.m., the day moves to Main Street
The costume contest ends at 4 p.m., and Trick-or-Treat Street opens on Main Street at the same minute. It runs until 6. On the schedule, the park and Main Street hand off with no gap between them.
Also at 4, the Wright Opera House at 472 Main St. opens "Trick or Treat: Witches @ the Wright." It's free and family-friendly, with Halloween activities and candy while supplies last. The Wright runs until 7 p.m., an hour after the street event ends. That makes it the last stop of the day. Kids who are still going after 6 can head there, and families who stayed in the park late can still make it.
Because the Wright's candy runs out when it runs out, families who want both stops have to choose between going early and going late. The table above shows how the hours line up. The listing doesn't say how much candy there is.
The grown-up version of Ouray Halloween already happened. The Beaumont Hotel at 505 Main St. held its 4th Annual Boo-Mont Halloween Ball on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. It was 18 and over, with a costume contest, a DJ, a cash bar and hors d'oeuvres. Tickets were $45 online or $50 at the door. This year, the 31st belongs to families.
The pool pass that carries Halloween into ice season
The day starts at the hot springs and ends back there for one adult, the first-place costume winner, who takes home a 10-punch pass. That pass will get used in the months after Halloween, when the pool is set up differently. Right now, the pool's page lists the Snack Shack as closed for the season and the Activity Pool as open as a winter cold plunge. The same page says the City is looking at improvements to the Poolhouse and links to a planning presentation and a schematic-design summary. It doesn't list a schedule.
The pool's own description is about winter. It talks about soaking after a day of hiking or ice climbing and looking up at the snow-covered canyon walls from the water.
What stays open after the candy is gone
Ice season runs through the Uncompahgre Gorge. The Ouray Ice Park describes itself as free and public, with more than 150 named ice and mixed climbs along almost two miles of the gorge. The park lists the 32nd Ouray Ice Festival for Jan. 28 to 31, 2027. Its membership page currently shows these tiers:
| Level | Price | What the page highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Community | $50 | Entry-level support tier |
| Basic | $90 | Standard membership |
| Pro | $225 | Includes two Rotary Park special-event camping passes with restroom access, labeled "New this year" |
| Ambassador | $500 | Adds three more Rotary Park passes, five in total |
Two other notes on that page matter to returning members. The Family plan has been discontinued. And members whose auto-renewals didn't carry over from the old platform need to buy a new membership. If your family renewed automatically in past years, check your account before the gorge freezes.
For breakfast through the winter, the HummingBird Bakery, which opened May 15 at the Ouray Holiday KOA at 225 County Road 23, plans to stay open from November through April while the campground is closed. That's according to the Ouray County Plaindealer. The bakery's hours are Friday through Tuesday, 7:30 a.m. to noon or until it sells out. As at the pumpkin float and the Wright's candy table, getting there early helps.
Halloween is one of the days when you can see how close together Ouray's pieces are. You can swim, walk to the park and finish on Main Street within one afternoon. If you're thinking about a home, cabin or acreage within reach of Ouray's Main Street, Fellin Park and the hot springs, Colorado Land Home & Ranch can walk you through what's available around Ouray. Schedule a consultation whenever you're ready, after the candy's gone.
