On Saturday, October 31, park rangers will hand out the last clues of their Spooky Scavenger Hunt beside the flagpole in front of the Welcome Center at Kīlauea Military Camp. The hunt ends at 4 p.m. At that same hour, decorated cars start lining up at Carlson Court, the skate park at Cooper Center, for Volcano's Trunk or Treat.
That 4 p.m. overlap shapes the whole holiday weekend this year. It comes from a bigger change this fall, too. For now, Kīlauea Military Camp is where the park and the village meet.
The park's front door moved up the road
The Kīlauea Visitor Center has been closed for renovation since February 18, 2025. The National Park Service construction schedule lists the closure as running "to late 2026." It gives no exact reopening day. The closure covers the visitor center, its restrooms, sidewalk and lānai, and about half its parking.
In the meantime, a temporary Welcome Center and the park store are open at Kīlauea Military Camp every day from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Parking is at the ball field, and there are portable toilets. In June, West Hawaii Today reported that the renovation was more than 75 percent complete and on track to reopen later in 2026.
So this October, a lot of the summit's public life runs through KMC. The park's Halloween scavenger hunt meets at the Welcome Center flagpole. The camp's Lava Lounge Bar and Grill hosts the annual Halloween party. And on November 11, KMC is the site of a Veterans Day ceremony.
Friday night belongs to the Lava Lounge
The holiday weekend starts the night before Halloween. The 2026 KMC Annual Halloween Party is Friday, October 30, at Lava Lounge Bar and Grill, with a $10 cover.
- Doors: 4 p.m.
- Event start: 6 p.m.
- Lava Bites served until: 9:30 p.m.
- Last call: 10 p.m.
- Music ends: 11 p.m., with DJ Klassik on the decks
- Costume contest: "big prizes," according to the listing
The party is listed on Volcano Winery's Local Happenings page. That page links to the Lava Lounge's own page at Kīlauea Military Camp. Because Friday's party and Saturday's scavenger hunt are both at KMC, anyone with a costume ready on Friday can wear it again the next day.
Saturday hands off from the flagpole to the skate park
This year, Halloween falls on a Saturday. The Volcano Community News says organizers moved Trunk or Treat an hour earlier because of that. It now runs "from 4pm till about 5pm before it gets really dark." The earlier start puts the village event right where the park's afternoon program ends.
Here is how the day lines up, in order:
- 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Kahuku Unit. This is the option farther afield. The Annual Halloween Bingo Scavenger Hunt starts at the Kahuku Unit Visitor Contact Station, which you reach by turning off Hwy 11 near the 70.5-mile marker in Kaʻū. Families pick up free bingo cards, find the pictured items across the Kahuku grounds, and bring a card with five in a row back for a goodie bag from the Hawaiʻi Pacific Parks Association.
- Noon to 4 p.m., Kīlauea summit. The Spooky Scavenger Hunt meets at the KMC flagpole in front of the Welcome Center. Rangers lead families through the forests near the summit, with "haunting facts" about the nananana makakiʻi, the Hawaiian happyface spider that lives in the trees. Costumes are encouraged.
- 4 to 5 p.m., Carlson Court at Cooper Center. Trunk or Treat is a free community event for keiki and families in costume, with candy and small toys. Prizes for the best-decorated vehicles are donated by VCA, the Volcano Senior Group and Cooper Center. The newsletter says organizers always need more people to decorate cars and hand out candy, and it lists a contact for registering a car.
Cooper Center is at 19-4030 Wright Road, the same place as the village's weekly markets. The park's programs are free, but park entrance fees still apply on Halloween. The National Park Service also notes that programs can change or be canceled without notice.
The week before sets the table
Two dates before Halloween are worth planning around.
On Saturday, October 24, Volcano Winery's Pōʻaono Pāʻina runs from 2 to 5 p.m. at 35 Pii Mauna Drive. It's a free gathering on the fourth Saturday of each month, with live local music and food vendors, and it's "open to everyone from keiki to kūpuna." The winery says this one is a return "after a couple of weather-related pauses," and it invites guests to bring a picnic blanket.
On Tuesday, October 27, the National Park Service has a fee-free day for Theodore Roosevelt's birthday at all fee-charging national parks. That makes it the one day this stretch when a summit visit costs nothing. It could be a good day to scout the Welcome Center at KMC before the Halloween crowd arrives.
The winery's regular weekly visitors are also on its calendar. On Thursdays, an Italian market pop-up from Roma Organic sells pantry staples and specialty ingredients. On Sundays, the Bread & Chocolate food truck brings baked goods. The winery doesn't post hours for either.
The season keeps going at the same addresses
The KMC calendar doesn't end on October 31, and neither does the village's. Here's how November lines up:
| Date | Event | Where | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Through Nov 15 | "The Shape of Water," ceramic sculpture by Stephen Freedman | Volcano Art Center Gallery, Building #42, Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park | 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; opened Oct 3 |
| Sat, Nov 7 | Volcano Art Center Golf Tournament Fundraiser | Volcano Golf Course, 99-1621 Piʻimauna Drive | 8 a.m. check-in, 9 a.m. tee time; four-person scramble, $125 per player |
| Wed, Nov 11 | Honoring All Who Served | Kīlauea Military Camp | Pre-show 10:30 a.m., ceremony 11 a.m. to noon, veterans expo noon to 2 p.m. |
| Sundays and Thursdays | Cooper Center markets | 19-4030 Wright Road | Sundays 6 to 10 a.m.; Thursdays 3 to 6 p.m. |
Volcano Art Center's exhibition page has the details on the Freedman show. The golf tournament listing has registration details. The gallery is inside the park, so the exhibition works well as an add-on to a Welcome Center stop. It's also free to see on the October 27 fee-free day.
The Veterans Day ceremony puts KMC back at the center of the calendar less than two weeks after Halloween. The Cooper Center markets keep their usual weekly schedule throughout.
What's open at the summit right now
Anyone planning to walk the summit before or after the scavenger hunt should know that access changed this month. On October 7, the park closed Halemaʻumaʻu Trail and part of Byron Ledge Trail, 1.3 miles in all. The National Park Service release cited continued inflation and increased seismicity at the summit. Both trails go down from the caldera rim to the floor.
The Keanakākoʻi side is also closed. That includes old Crater Rim Drive, the overlooks near Keanakākoʻi crater, and Crater Rim Trail to the crater. Devastation parking lot remains open. Uēkahuna and Kīlauea Overlook are not on the park's active closure list. The park's eruption viewing guide lists both as viewing spots reached from Crater Rim Drive West.
The USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory's October 14 notice kept Kīlauea at alert level WATCH and aviation color code ORANGE. The notice reported glow, flames and minor spattering in Halemaʻumaʻu, with no sustained fountaining or overflows since the overflows of October 12. HVO wrote that the summit "remains at a high level of pressurization" and that conditions could change rapidly.
Those conditions are from mid-October and may have changed by Halloween. Before heading up, check the park's alerts and conditions page and HVO's latest notice. The Spooky Scavenger Hunt is set in the forests near the summit, not on the closed caldera-floor trails, and it starts at the KMC flagpole.
At Wai Pacific, we keep track of Volcano Village's calendar, from Cooper Center's Trunk or Treat to the Pāʻina at Volcano Winery, because those dates shape life on Kīlauea's slopes. If you're thinking about a home near the KMC flagpole or Carlson Court, we're glad to share what we know. Start Your Island Real Estate Experience.
