Patch's Best 2026 Halloween Yard Haunts: Lake and McHenry Counties

LAKE-McHENRY COUNTIES, IL—If you're looking for new zombie graveyards, body parts, floating ghosts and devil's playgrounds to explore for Halloween, you've come to the right place. Patch has assembled its annual scary yard tour for 2026, created by some of Chicagoland’s most imaginative and demented exterior decorators.

Given the scary yard tour’s history of breaking the internet, we have organized the 2026 list by county. So click on the link for the list of scary yards near your house and buy a few gallons of of regular unleaded. Unless noted, most yard haunts are now up and shocking their neighbors, so you’re not wasting gas at $4.65 per gallon. Support your neighbors who are blowing up their electric bills.

GET ON THE LIST: We LOVE reader submissions, so we'll be updating the list every FRIDAY leading up to Halloween. So send in your pictures and tell us why your yard haunt is worth a drive-by to lorraine.swanson@patch.com.

Read more about how to get on the Patch 2026 Tour of Scary Yards.

See what other counties are doing:

• DuPage/Kane Counties
• Lake/McHenry Counties
• Cook County/Chicago
• Will/Kendall/Grundy/DeKalb Counties

LAKE COUNTY

Kitty's Bone-a-Palooza, ON THE GREEN BAY TRAIL just BEHIND 1356 St. John’s Ave., Highland Park—Dolly Parton is working 9-to-5 in Kitty Fishman's boneyard. Now double the size and in its sixth year, her over-the-top skeleton display has become a fall favorite for families, nannies with strollers, and cyclists cruising Highland Park’s Green Bay Trail (Robert McClory Path).

This isn’t your average front-yard décor. Kitty stages dozens of life-sized skeletons in hilarious, spooky—not-scary—scenarios—walking the dog, hula-hooping, skateboarding, barbecuing, crocheting, playing baseball, soccer, golfing with eyeballs, or even a contorted game of Twister. You’ll also spot a full skeleton band, swimmers splashing in an inflatable pool, and old ladies in curlers using a walker or taking out the recycling. Tots love playing with the barbecuing skeleton’s toy food.

NEW! 430 Lincoln Ave W, Highland Park (corner of Lincoln and Linden Aves)— Known as the Halloween House in the neighborhood, the Alomas have made most of the decorations in their yard—adding a new feature every year. The original was the pumpkin monster, and the most recent is the UFO rescuing one of its aliens and a few cows.

The yard’s scenes vary from the cemetery haunted by the pumpkin monster (look closely at the custom tombstones for fun surprised) to an army of ghosts led by a 20+ ft dementor to a witch concocting potions to a spider (called Jerry by some in the neighborhood) waiting to trap its next meal to a clatter of skeletons attempting to scale the house led by the skeleton giant to the massive snake guarding its eggs.

Most of the decorations are homemade from leftovers and construction material like chicken wire, PVC pipes, plywood and paint, a kiddie pool, duct tape and duct work, and old costumes. The skeletons are one of the few things we’ve purchased as is. The characters are scary but not too scary—and most kids love running around the yard. “We welcome folks to pose with the creatures, but please be gentle with the setup, be safe, and do so at their own risk.”

Lake in the Hills

Massacre On McKinley, 4 McKinley St., Lake in the Hills–This ever-growing, ever-changing yard haunt is a full walk through with five scene boxes, a circus tent, cemetery, rotten pumpkin patch and an enclosed tunnel.

Bones Cove, 1048 Lake, Libertyville–Bryan Slowic has been burying bones in his yard since 2021. It’s all hand-built (except the skeletons), and has spooky music and a fog machine. They’ll be handing out traditional candy bars on Halloween.

McHENRY COUNTY

Algonquin

Dark Chapel, 1490 White Chapel Lane, Algonquin – Fans of the haunted Westbury Manor and Cemetery in Algonquin will now find mastermind Darren Rich’s yard haunt at a new location, now named Dark Chapel. He's brought all his spooky decorations and creepy animatronics along. Rich's yard haunts have been haunting Algonquin for eleven years now. It's been picked as Algonquin's spookiest house twice now. The yard haunt will remain open until 9:30 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday and until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, through Halloween.

Cary

NEW! 390 Oakmont Dr, Cary–Crystal and Dave Van Dyne adore Halloween. They do a fam-friendly graveyard display that they try to change up every year. This year they’ve got a skeleton couple who have been getting to know each other by going on a date, having a few drinks with their bartender and now they're enjoying a nice, slow dance with a jazz band behind them. A skeleton wedding is scheduled to take place the week of Halloween. We love romance! The Van Dynes are collecting for “Skeletons for St. Jude.” There will be signs with QR codes.

Crystal Lake

NEW! East Broadway Scare On The Square, 500 E. Broadway Ave., Crystal Lake—The Felix family has set up a market square featuring a witches' pub, butcher shop, playground, cemetery, flower shop, and more, all centered around a movie theater.

“Please take time to get out of your car to look around as long as you like. Along your way you will find lots of little details, surprises and scares. Our haunt uses both static and animatronic figures along with sound and lights to help fill the yard with Halloween fun.”