Last October the City of Brandenburg held its first Pumpkin Walk, and the Buttermilk Falls walking trail was lined with more than 365 carved and painted pumpkins. That figure comes from a post on Brandenburg City Hall's Facebook page, as WMMG 93.5 reported the Monday after the event. That works out to roughly one pumpkin for every day of the year, and the public supplied most of them.
The second Pumpkin Walk is set for Friday, Oct. 23, and Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026, at the trail's River Road entrance. How big it gets this year depends on how many households show up a day early with a pumpkin in the back seat.
The Show Is Built the Night Before
The format is easy to miss if you only came out last year to walk. The City provides the trail, the dates and the logistics. Residents provide the display. When City Hall employees Shannon Stull and Amy Haynes talked about the first walk on The Earlene Show with Earlene Bohannon of the Meade County Messenger, the message to the public was that everyone was encouraged to display a pumpkin.
In 2025 that took the shape of a separate evening. A decorating and prep event ran at The Riverfront on Thursday, Oct. 23, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. The finished pumpkins were then moved onto Buttermilk Falls Trail for public viewing on Friday and Saturday nights, according to the Messenger's report from that month's City Council meeting.
This year follows the same Thursday-before rhythm. A City-sponsored event listing for the 2026 walk gives pumpkin drop-off as Thursday, Oct. 22, and says carved or painted pumpkins are both welcome. If you want to add one, here's the sequence as it stands today:
- Pick carved or painted. The 2026 listing accepts both, and last year's trail had a mix of the two.
- Drop it off Thursday, Oct. 22. The listing gives the date but no drop-off spot or hours. Last year the work happened at The Riverfront, though that is a 2025 detail and may not carry over.
- Come back Friday or Saturday night to find it. The walk runs Oct. 23 and 24 and closes at 10 p.m. both nights.
Where the Pumpkins Go
People who mostly know the trail from the parking area may not have walked the full route the pumpkins line. Kentucky Tourism's listing for the Historic Buttermilk Falls Trail at 214 River Road says it was developed in 1996 by converting 2.5 miles of county road into a trail. It connects Riverfront Park, on the Ohio River, east to Kentucky State Route 933, and it winds through woods along Flippins Run Creek.
The falls the trail is named for come from a series of hillside springs that run all year. The same listing says that spring system once supplied water to many Meade County residents. The trail has always been a shared piece of county infrastructure, first as a road, then as a water source, and now as a gallery for several hundred residents' jack-o'-lanterns.
A few landmarks on the route are worth finding, in the dark or in daylight:
- The wooden footbridge over one of the streams along the main trail.
- Buttermilk Falls, which runs year-round.
- The Emmert Falls Primitive Trail, a 1.1-mile path that climbs through the hardwoods above, with a spur to Emmert Falls and a pavilion with seating.
- The "learning tree," a 100-year-old Osage orange where both trails meet, with handmade sassafras benches around it.
The Emmert Falls spur is a primitive trail, so a night visit with pumpkins along the main path is a different outing from a daytime hike up to the pavilion. If the walk is your first time on the trail, you can come back in spring. Kentucky Tourism says that's when wildflowers such as bluebells, Dutchman's breeches, shooting stars and trillium cover the forest floor.
The Opening Hour Has Two Versions
The published 2026 start times don't match, and last year's schedule probably explains why. The WMMG 93.5 community calendar lists the walk as 5 to 10 p.m. both nights. The City-sponsored event listing gives 6:30 to 10 p.m.
In 2025 the evening ran in two parts. From 5 to 6 p.m. the trail was open for people with mobility limitations, with cart rides for those who couldn't walk it. Public viewing followed from 6:30 to 10 p.m. WMMG's recap mentioned golf cart rides for mobility-impaired visitors as part of what made the first year work.
The two 2026 listings may simply be describing that same split, but the City hasn't published an accessible-hour schedule for this year. If a family member needs the cart, call ahead. The Kentucky Tourism listing for the trail gives (270) 422-3626.
The Rest of October Runs the Same Way
The Pumpkin Walk is the county's most visible October event, and the rest of Meade County's calendar is built on the same model. Each event happens because a congregation, a park or a group of volunteers decides to host it. The WMMG 93.5 community calendar, collected at Meade County Local, lists these dates for the weeks around the walk:
- Tuesday, Oct. 6, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The 3rd Annual Special Needs Pumpkin Patch at 125 Kennedy Road in Guston.
- Saturday, Oct. 17, 3 to 5 p.m. A Trunk or Treat at 7050 Brandenburg Road in Ekron, the address of Zion Grove Missionary Baptist Church.
- Saturday, Oct. 17, 5 to 7 p.m. Frankie's Fright Fest Trunk or Treat at 187 Moremen Road in Brandenburg. That address is listed for the Meade-Olin Park concession, and an earlier WMMG listing placed an event with the same name at Meade-Olin Park.
- Sunday, Oct. 18. The Harvest Festival & Turkey Dinner at St. John the Apostle Catholic Church, 515 Broadway, organized by Saint John the Apostle Adult Formation. The WMMG calendar lists 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and another event listing runs it to 3 p.m.
- Friday, Oct. 23, and Saturday, Oct. 24. The City of Brandenburg's 2nd Annual Pumpkin Walk on Buttermilk Falls Trail.
- Saturday, Oct. 24, 4 p.m. A Trunk or Treat at 9385 Rhodelia Road in Payneville.
- Saturday, Oct. 24, 6 to 8 p.m. A Trunk or Treat back at St. John the Apostle on Broadway, also organized by the Adult Formation group.
- Thursday, Oct. 29, 5:30 to 7 p.m. A Trunk or Treat at Flaherty Community Park, 278 Community Park Road, the home of Flaherty's youth baseball and softball program.
- Saturday, Oct. 31, 6 to 8 p.m. A Trunk or Treat at 1800 Armory Place in Brandenburg.
Saturday, Oct. 24, is the busiest night on the list. A household could start at the Payneville Trunk or Treat at 4, head to St. John the Apostle for 6, and end on the trail before it closes at 10. Most of these listings don't name an organizer, so check the details with each host before you build a night around them.
Two things from last year's Halloween announcements haven't been confirmed for 2026. In October 2025 the Messenger reported that the city's official trick-or-treat hours were 5:30 to 8 p.m., and that the City's Halloween Pumpkin Patch had moved to Stuart Pepper Middle School because of construction at the high school. Both decisions came out of the City Council's mid-October meeting last year. The 2026 versions will likely follow the same timing, so keep an eye on the Council's agenda postings and the Messenger in the next few weeks.
Counting Up From 365
WMMG called the first walk a huge success with a huge turnout, and the City said it plans to hold the event every year. No attendance count was published, so the pumpkin total is the only number anyone has from year one. Year two's total will come from the same place as last year's, the households that drop off a pumpkin on Thursday, Oct. 22. The trail is the same 2.5 miles it's been since 1996.
At Olive + Oak Realty, we believe front porches and shared trails both say something about a community. If you're carving a pumpkin for the walk this month and wondering how your own home would show this season, we'd be glad to talk it through. Request your free Home Strategy Session.
