Creatures of the Night at the Ogden Nature Center takes place over two days, Friday Oct. 9 and Saturday Oct. 10 starting at 5:00 pm. The event features not only recreational activities, but an environment for education and learning.

Stefanie Zwygart, who is the education director at Ogden Nature Center, says that “It’s designed as a non-spooky Halloween program for students. So it’s educational, but we really focus on providing that opportunity for our younger kids to come and enjoy the holiday.”

Food vendors from Lucky Slice and Crepes Etc. will also be present, so those in attendance will have the option of eating dinner at the event.

There will be a variety of activities for all ages.

Creatures of the Night will feature a festival-like atmosphere, complete with campfires and a Spider Web Crawl—a string spider web that children can crawl through. There will also be crafts, a fortune teller, a mad scientist and a Crepuscular Creep.

The Crepuscular Creep will consist of a giant puppet show featuring naturalists dressed as various animals that are awake during the night, dusk or dawn.

According to Shawnee Sawyer, who is an outreach naturalist educator at Ogden Nature Center, there will be 30-minute presentations featuring several different animals, including different breeds of owls and snakes. “There will be presentations with barn owls, elk snakes and corn snakes,” Sawyer said.

Legends about owls will also be told, as well as explanations of why these creatures—along with snakes and spiders—have moved into the realm of horror.

The Weber State University zoology and botany clubs will also be present and participating during the event.

“Usually, we bring some live spiders that a handful of us collect,” said Jessica deJong, who is a zoology major and member of the zoology club.

A few of the spiders the club will bring include black widows, hobo spiders, jumping spiders and a wolf spider.

“The wolf spider [will be] holding its egg sack,” said deJong. “That way, we can talk about how even spiders can be good parents.”

Creatures of the Night has been taking place for over 10 years, and the turnout ranges between 1,000 to 1,500 attendees.

“That’s why I like doing these things because it’s cool how excited people get about learning new things— even the adults,” deJong said.

The event is six dollars per person or five dollars for those who are members of the Ogden Nature Center. Children three and under will receive free admission.

For more information, call 801-621-7595, or visit Ogden Nature Center’s website.