Monday 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Tuesday 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Wednesday 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Thursday 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Friday 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Saturday 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Sunday 9:00 am – 4:00 pm
The Laurel Caverns Visitors’ Center is where you will begin your trip. There is ample parking for cars and buses in our tiered parking lot which leads down to our meeting area. Within the Visitors’ Center you will sign waivers, receive an introduction to the cave along with access to the cave.
Our Souvenir Shop has reasonably priced items every child can afford along with Laurel Caverns collectibles for all ages. We’ve got a fantastic collection of T-shirts that can only be found on site. If shopping time is a problem for school groups we’ve got pre-set souvenir packages with a variety of items ranging in price from $3-$4 which can be ready with advanced arrangements.
$7 per participant over age 2
It does not require special equipment or clothing. It can be toured in a wheelchair. It has three purposes. The first is to give children a caving experience without the dangers of caving. The second is to give them a sense of what it is like to be an archeologist. The third is to help them understand how stalactites and stalagmites form.
The Grottoes of Learning is the largest simulated cave in the world. It covers 10,000 square feet and is larger than some natural tour caves in Pennsylvania and Ohio. It was originally built, and privately funded, by the Laurel Caverns Conservancy, in the 1990’s to study the growth-rates, and growth-stages of stalactites and stalagmites.
The entrance and exit to the Grottoes of Learning is in the Laurel Caverns Visitors’ Center. Because it is unlit, each participant is given a lantern as their only light. During a brief introduction in the first room, each family, or group of four, is given a clipboard identifying twelve paintings of animals made in the Grottoes by humans living in the late Holocene Epoch of geologic time. Participants are to find all twelve. The introduction also has a brief overview of how stalactites and stalagmites form, and how to identify each while on their exploration of the Grottoes. The cost is $7 per participant (Adults pay only the child rate).
The Fun Activities Program is for groups of fifteen or more serving children, primarily ages in the range of four through nine. With this, participants are given both a guided tour of the entire lighted portion of Laurel Caverns and the Kaving for Kids excursion through the Grottoes. At the conclusion of the program, all participants are given a marine fossil about five times as old as Tyrannosaurus Rex, the kind found at Laurel Caverns. Call 724-438-3003 for reservations. The cost is $16 per participant (Adults pay only the child rate and receive a fossil as well).
Family Lookout which is off the back deck of the Laurel Caverns Facility to see a beautiful view high above Chestnut Ridge.
This popular activity is done in a cave-like setting in a room adjacent to the Laurel Caverns Gift Shop. Participants are given a card showing all the gems they might find, a sand-filled bag containing those gems, a bag to hold the gems, and a sifting tray. They then work the tray in a waist-high water trough that simulates those used to pan for gold in he 1800s. The cost per bag varies with size and market conditions, but there is an effort to keep the cost at Laurel Caverns below what is charged elsewhere.
It is the mission of the Laurel Caverns Conservancy to preserve and protect the Laurel Caverns property from commercial development and to utilize it instead for educational purposes by providing low cost learning services, with an emphasis on geology and environmentalism, to the general public, schools, summer camps, scouting groups and other such organizations while assuring them a safe and attractive environment in which to observe and study the natural qualities of this privately preserved park.
