Milwaukee's Hawthorn Glen Outdoor Education Center is transforming its wooded trails into a family-friendly Halloween hike for the 33rd year running, with this year's edition built around a theme of tricksters. The event turns a walking trail of less than one mile into a nighttime adventure featuring eight interactive, educational and humorous skits performed at decorated stations along the way.
According to WTMJ, this year's tricksters theme focuses on the ways creatures in nature care for and protect themselves. Jessica Tipkemper, Milwaukee Recreation's outdoor education recreation supervisor, described Halloween Glen as a way to kick off the fall spooky season early in October, per the station's report. The event returns to the 23-acre Hawthorn Glen Outdoor Education Center, a nature center that, according to Milwaukee Recreation, hosts actors presenting interactive and educational skits at eight decorated stations.
Halloween Glen typically draws roughly 500 people each night and often sells out, Tipkemper told the station. The crowd includes returning actors, tour guides, families and community members, the same account notes, reflecting the event's three-decade run as a neighborhood tradition.
Two Ways to Walk the Trail
Families with younger children who can't manage the nearly one-mile trail have another option: the Tyke Hike, a shorter route led by its own tour guide that visits four of the eight regular-trail stations, according to WTMJ. Milwaukee Recreation's event page notes that the Tyke Hike also includes a treat and a take-home craft kit, and that tour groups generally spend 45 to 60 minutes walking the trails and watching the eight skits.
Pricing stays consistent with recent years. The full-length Halloween Glen trail costs $6 per person, while the Tyke Hike costs $3 per person, per the station's report. Milwaukee Recreation's site adds that children ages 2 and under may attend for free when accompanied by a registered, paying parent or guardian, and that the event is geared toward children ages 3 to 12 and their parents or guardians.
No Parking or Walk-Up Registration at the Glen Itself
Visitors can't simply drive up and park at Hawthorn Glen. Milwaukee Recreation's event page states there will be no parking, no walk-up registrations and no check-ins at the nature center itself, meaning participants must check in elsewhere and take shuttle buses to reach the trail. After the hike, attendees can purchase concessions, take part in arts and crafts, play games and watch cartoons, the organization's site notes.
Hawthorn Glen is operated by Milwaukee Recreation, which notes on its site that more than 12,000 students visit the nature center each year through Milwaukee Public Schools' outdoor education programs. That year-round educational use underscores why the Halloween event leans into nature-based themes rather than generic scares, pairing costumed performances with lessons about how real animals use disguise and trickery to survive.
A Tradition With Shifting Themes
Halloween Glen's theme changes annually even as its format stays largely the same. The 2024 event carried a “Myths & Mysteries” theme, while 2025's edition was billed as “Claws Out,” according to press releases from Urban Milwaukee. Those same releases describe the event as a family-friendly alternative to traditional haunted houses, with pre-registration required each year and programs historically run on back-to-back evenings in October.
Attendance has held steady over the years. Milwaukee Recreation told WUWM in 2024 that the event drew almost 800 participants the prior year, which the organization called about typical, with admission priced at $6 per person that year as well. Three decades in, Halloween Glen remains one of Milwaukee's longest-running nature-based Halloween traditions, swapping jump scares for skits about the natural world's own tricksters.
