Tour the Scene of 10 Gruesome Deaths

I love horror movies. My love of them started with the 1980 classic Friday the 13th. I watched it for the first time on HBO in my basement with my brother and we were scared to death. Obviously, the thought of some crazy serial killer was scary, but the fact that my brother and I spent most of our summers going to an overnight summer camp that looked a lot like Camp Crystal Lake made it even more terrifying.

Well, did you know that the original site of Friday the 13th is a real overnight camp? Did you also know that that camp is still in operation today? Did you know that you can actually take a tour of the camp several weekends throughout the year? Did you also know that the Boy Scout Camp where they filmed Friday the 13th is in Hardwick, NJ less than three hours from the Capital Region? Well, it's all true and if you're not afraid of running into Jason Voorhees you can take a tour of the real Camp Crystal Lake next month.

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Now it's not actually named Camp Crystal Lake, it's actually a Boy Scout camp called Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco, and normally it's off-limits to anyone other than campers, counselors, and BSA officials, but a few times a year they open the camp to horror freaks like me to come to see where they filmed one of the greatest and cheesiest slasher films of all time. The camp is largely unchanged since the filming and if you're a fan like I am, you'll recognize the cabins and main lodge and the dock from the film.

In the past, they have had original cast members that you could meet during the tour. They would come and talk about the filming, behind the scene pranks, and what it was like working with a young  Kevin Bacon. That's right if you don't remember Kevin Bacon played Jack, who had sex, smoked a joint, and then was stabbed through the neck with an arrow by Mrs. Voorhees.

So if you'd like to take a tour of the real Camp Crystal Lake, the first tour is available on April 16th. The tours sell out so quickly that they have to do a lottery to sell tickets. Sign up HERE if you'd like to try to get tickets.

To give you an idea of what the tours are like here's a video of a past tour.