Trick or Treat Trek: The Halloween Tradition My Family Never Misses

There are certain events that quietly become part of the rhythm of your family’s year. You go once because it looks fun, then again because the kids remember it, and suddenly you realize you have photos from practically every Halloween of their childhood taken in the same place.

Trick or Treat Trek is that event for us.

My kids have been coming to Fort Hunter Park for Trick or Treat Trek since the event began, and somehow, we have never missed a year. Costumes have gotten bigger, kids have gotten taller, and the candy negotiations on the ride home have gotten considerably more sophisticated, but this one has stayed firmly planted on our family calendar.

And this year, Macaroni KID gets to be part of the fun again, too. We’ll be back along the trek as one of the treat stations, so if you see us, COME SAY HI. We’ll be the people enthusiastically contributing to your children’s October sugar inventory.

If you’ve never been, Trick or Treat Trek isn’t simply trick-or-treating in a park. Kids follow clues around Fort Hunter, discovering treat stops, characters, games and a few creepy-crawly surprises along the way.

So, what exactly is Trick or Treat Trek?

Think Halloween scavenger hunt meets trick-or-treat trail.

Kids arrive in costume and follow clues through Fort Hunter Park, with each clue leading them toward another stop and, importantly, another goodie.

The first stop even puts kids to work decorating a treat bag they can use to collect their treasures along the route.

There are also outdoor lawn games, family entertainment and character appearances sprinkled into the afternoon, so this is much more of an adventure than a traditional door-to-door candy grab.

The costumes are half the fun

One of my favorite things about going year after year is watching Fort Hunter fill up with tiny superheroes, princesses, witches, pumpkins, creatures and costumes that I absolutely cannot identify but will enthusiastically compliment anyway.

There are characters to meet along the trek, too, which means your child can go from collecting candy to casually encountering a princess in the middle of Fort Hunter Park.

Then things get delightfully creepy

Wildwood Park’s educational staff will once again host a Creepy Crawly Critters Station, bringing some wonderfully Halloween-appropriate nature education into the trek.

Kids can learn about spiders, snakes, bats, bugs and other creatures that have been unfairly carrying the entire Halloween aesthetic on their tiny backs for generations.

And this is one of the reasons I’ve always loved this event. Yes, my kids believe we are here for candy. Meanwhile, Dauphin County has quietly slipped wildlife education into Halloween.

I respect the strategy.

There’s plenty to do between treat stops

The afternoon also includes outdoor lawn games and family entertainment, giving kids opportunities to play their way through the park instead of simply sprinting from candy source to candy source.

And Macaroni KID will be waiting somewhere along the trek

This is the part I’m particularly excited about.

After years of bringing my own kids through Trick or Treat Trek, Macaroni KID will once again be participating as one of the community treat stations.

There’s something especially fun about getting to stand on the other side of one of our family traditions and help create the experience my kids have loved for so many years.

So when you find the Macaroni KID stop, please say hello. I cannot promise that I will recognize you underneath an inflatable dinosaur costume, but I will do my best.

Before you go: tickets matter for this one

Trick or Treat Trek is FREE, but it has limited capacity and advance timed tickets are required for participating children.

Families bringing infants or toddlers should also know that some of the treats distributed during the trek may not be appropriate for the littlest trick-or-treaters.

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