Family Fun at the Indian Echo Caverns Fall Festival

Every month we plan a Family Fun Date where we get our grandchildren and take them out for something fun to do. We are really fortunate that we live 15 minutes from Hershey, 15 minutes from Harrisburg and 45 minutes from Lancaster Pennsylvania, so we always have a lot of things to choose from.

Last weekend we took our daughter and both grandchildren to Indian Echo Caverns which is located 15 minutes from Harrisburg and 5 minutes from Hershey. They are open year-round and you can pay a reasonable admission to take a guided tour of the under-the-ground cavern. We’ve taken the tour many times and have always enjoyed it.

Indian Echo Caverns was hosting a Fall Festival and we knew the kids would have a great time! Admission was free, but you did have to pay for each activity as you went along. They had a bounce house, several different types of carnival-style games, tractor-pulled hayrides, horse-pulled hayrides, mining junction, candy art stations, face painting for the kids and all kinds of other things.

One of the things I really enjoyed doing was shopping at some of the arts, crafts and jewelry vendors that were there. I love supporting the home business owners & mom and pop shops. We picked up a few jars of honey from a local bee keeper and some homemade cookies from the bake stand.

My grandchildren had fun climbing onto some of the vintage tractors and climbing on the hay bales. The Princess had a lot of fun in the bounce house, got a hand-painted glitter tattoo, went mining for gems at the mill (she got quite a few gems too!), played some carnival games and both of the grandchildren LOVED feeding and petting the farm goats!

They had a few food vendors set up there that were selling various fall soups, pulled pork sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs, etc., but we passed on those since we were taking them all out for dinner after our Fall Fun Play Date. Plus, those food vendors were pretty pricey and asking $10 for one pulled pork sandwich! hmmm, no.

We spent about 2 hours at the Fall Festival and I have to admit, we had a great time. When visiting, you do need to pay attention to what activities you and the kids are doing, because it can really add up, since you’re paying for each activity that you do. Some I felt were reasonably priced and other’s…not so much! The Princess is 7 1/2 years old and she was the ONLY one of our grandchildren doing the activities and we easily spent $20.00 just on that. Overall though, we had a great time as a family!

Have you gotten out this autumn season yet for any fall festivals or fairs? What kind of Fall activities do you enjoy doing?