Children's Halloween Trail and Festival
October 24 & 25, 2009
Tickets are $5 for everyone 4 years and older; children 3 and under free.
Attendance to the surrounding festival is free.
See the chart below for availability. We encourage guests to call ahead if they wish to purchase tickets for a specific time.
To attend the non-scary Children's Halloween Trail, families must purchase tickets for a specific time to enter the trail (tickets go on sale Sept. 2). To choose a time from the list at the bottom of this page, please call Shaver's Creek at 814-863-2000. The festival surrounding the trail is free to the public.
The tradition of the Shaver's Creek Children's Halloween Trail goes back nearly twenty years. The trail does not portray the typical "scariness" with which Halloween is normally associated. The Shaver's Creek Trail is truly a family event!
Children (and their families) are led by guides to five different sites along the trail with costumed characters that help children understand the season and the cultural items we use to depict it. Children learn about natural history associated with Halloween, like why we use images of owls, spiders, corn stalks, and pumpkins during this time of year. The walk lasts about forty-five minutes to one hour. The Halloween Trail stations are staffed by Penn State students from across campus who are participating as part of their capstone experience in the RPTM 325 class: Introduction to Environmental Interpretation. The energy and creativity they bring to the stations is absolutely outstanding! Each year they create new, exciting, and activity-filled stations that cover topics such as pumpkin and jack-o'-lantern folklore, the un-scary truth behind bats and spiders, the origin of trick-or-treat, and more.
In addition to the trail itself, Shaver's Creek comes alive throughout the weekend with a community festival that includes pumpkin carving, face painting, music, entertainment, activities, natural history programs, crafts, and great food!
Students and Volunteers:
If you would like to volunteer to help us host nearly 1,000 visitors during the weekend, please e-mail our volunteer coordinator at chtvolunteers@outreach.psu.edu. Penn State students may sign up for a 1-credit course, RPTM 297B. View course details.
Families must purchase tickets for a particular time slot to tour the trail. The rest of the festival activities run continuously throughout both Saturday and Sunday, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $5 per person for ages 4 and older. Children 3 and under are free.
Saturday Trail Start Times:
| 11:00 a.m. |
| 11:30 a.m. |
| noon |
| 12:30 p.m. |
| 1:00 p.m. |
| 1:30 p.m. |
| 2:00 p.m. |
| 2:30 p.m. |
| 3:00 p.m. |
Sunday Trail Start Times:
| 11:00 a.m. |
| 11:30 a.m. |
| noon |
| 12:30 p.m. |
| 1:00 p.m. |
| 1:30 p.m. |
| 2:00 p.m. |
| 2:30 p.m. |
| 3:00 p.m. |
|
