Kaysville best friends Julia Walker and Rossy Martinez are creating a spook alley in Julia’s garage for the second year in a row.

“We set it up last year and it was a hit. Everybody loved it. The kids in the neighborhood just kept coming back and bringing more people with them,” Walker said.

Walker is from Elmo, Utah (near Price) and has lived in Kaysville for 22 years. She raised four sons and is the proud grandmother of two grandsons.

“My parents did not let us go Trick or Treating as kids. I missed out on some of the fun. As I got older and started having kids, Halloween just became one of my favorite holidays,” Walker said. 

Martinez grew up in LA but has lived in Utah for over 20 years. 

The friends met years ago when their mutual friend, Georgette Walker passed away from brain cancer at age 36. Georgette was Martinez’s best friend and Walker’s sister-in-law. 

“It was sudden and tragic. It was a hard, hard time,” Walker said. 

After Georgette’s passing, the two women comforted each other over their loss.

“We shared our sorrow and helped each other through the grief,” Martinez said. Walker added, “We stayed up many nights just crying and talking about her and it evolved into a best friend relationship.”  

Martinez lives in Walker’s basement and last year she wanted to put on a spook alley. The two have handmade most of their spooky items or purchased them from the dollar store or the online classifieds. 

“We found a doll at [the thrift store] and muffed her up with a spider on her neck, put her on a swing hung from the ceiling. Just fun little things, sitting around and hanging,” Walker said. 

They created potion bottles with glowing skeleton hands inside, a framed floating head, a chandelier made from skeleton bones, and skeletons with pumpkin heads. One of their favorite items is a coffin painted black and filled with a life-size skeleton. 

“We had it so the door [of the coffin] was propped open and the skeleton was in the coffin. Rossy ran around and jumped out from behind the coffin,” Walker laughed.  

Walker said she asked visitors if they wanted to be scared or not before they went through the spook alley. They only had two little girls who would not go in. 

“Some people don’t want to be scared and some people do. We tried to keep it family-friendly and young-kid-friendly,” Walker said. 

The two best friends also share a love for baseball and attended several MLB parks last year to visit games. 

The friends plan to run their free spook alley at 1042 Barley Lane in Kaysville on Halloween night from 5 to 11 pm. 

“We’ll just go until people stop coming. We like to have fun,” Walker laughed. λ