Thank you so much to Visit Penn State for hosting us at Penn's Cave! Wow, what a great time we had! As always, all views & opinions are my own! Thank you for supporting my blog & family!
Visiting Historic Penn's Cave
This may be one of our most fun stops ever!
We visited
Penn's Cave on our way home from Hershey. If I remember right it was about an hour or so away. It wasn't terrible at all, & it was on our way home.
& if you're wondering if it's worth the drive off the "beaten" path, it SO is.
Penn's Cave is America's only all-water cavern & wild park! We weren't able to visit the wild park too, so I imagine it would be even more amazing than what we already think! There is so much history in this place!
Before you arrive, bring along a sweatshirt. The temp drops to extremely chilly no matter how hot it is outside. I think the day of our visit it was close to 90 degrees & in the cavern, it was 60.
I could be totally fudging those numbers, but regardless I went in thinking I wouldn't need a sweatshirt & quickly started teeth chattering & was happy Brandon had given me his!
When you arrive, know that you need to keep your backpack ect in the car.
You enter the "Visiting Center" & that is where you buy your tickets. During our visit, The first tour of the day was 9:30 AM & the last was 7:00 PM. Tours leave every hour. But do check their site before your visit, in case those change!
The tour is about 45-50 minutes long. Which is something to consider, as you know your child best. You have to sit quite still the entire tour. My girls, even my ants in her pants one, did great as they keep you very entertained.
After you pick your time slot, you can look around the store or outside, & wait for them to call over an intercom when you to head down to the cavern. They have really neat things available in the store. They also have a cafe you can grab a bite to eat. Or buy a bag to mine for stones in!
Also make sure you check out Penns Cave Hotel
Once your time slot is called you head down.
It's so bizarre because just a couple steps down, you instantly feel the temp drop!
You wait for your boat at the "dock".
They have a little machine for you to feed the rainbow trout if you wish. The girls found this really cool!
The boat is a flat bottomed, square boat! As crazy as it looks, in the hundreds {I can't remember how long it's been since they have been doing this} they haven't had one tip yet!
The tour guides are amazing, & hilarious {think Disney World/Land Jungle Cruise ride} the tour is full of corny dad jokes to make you giggle but just as full of information! They point out certain formations & tell you all the history. It was SO educational.
They, with full disclosure, who you complete darkness by having you put your hand in front of your face then turn out the light for just a brief second. It is so neat! I thought the girls may be scared, but they thought it was really cool too!
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| This is what they called "cave bacon" |
You get to the end of the cavern, & come outside to the pond. It is so gourgeous! & you maybe even lucky to spot some elk or baby deer while your're out! It is SO freaking neat to float back into the cave! Then your able to view everything from the opposite angle on the way back!
I am sure you can see now, why this made our must do list!!
