Went to Hidden Valley Animal Adventure

MelissaSue81

My ILs found some groupon-type deal for it for half price tickets, so we all went today. It was definitely not what I thought it would be from what i had seen from the road (just from 20A, its actually a ways back from there).

There is a huge lodge thing where they have events and then the downstairs they have like fast food stuff and ice cream and a bar. That is where you get on the "trolley" ride..

The trolley ride itself is really cool.. its really a tractor pulling like a covered wagon.. and they give you feed so that the animals will come up (if you can get extra feed at the beginning of the ride do it, because once you're going they charge $2 per cup.. which is silly).. We ended up with like 6 cups between the 6 of us (including Natalie) and still used them all.. they were eager to hand them out at the beginning, it seemed, so it wouldn't have been hard to get extra..  So the trolley goes out and its just open space, woods, grass, hills.. really pretty and scenic, even on this crappy rainy day. and the animals are just free to roam (there are a few divisions, i am assuming some animals don't get alone with some others). but they just walk right up to the trolley and you can feed them and see them and touch them.. Its pretty crazy.. but cool. When I was looking on the website it showed the different kinds of animals they had and I pictured them having like one of each... but there are a LOT of each  kind of animal.. So that was fun. Eve really liked it and I am glad because she's been sort of indifferent about live animals lately (Was not into the zoo at all this year and we went to a monkey show at the library and she asked to leave), but it was neat that she could actually interact with them

I will say though, that the place seemed completely and utterly disorganized... One trolley had gone out right when we got there but we decided to wait for the next one.. well then it started thundering and lightning and they said they wouldnt' go out in the thunder and lightning.. so it ended up being about an hour that we waited, which was fine, but no one ever told us when they would be starting the next ride.. and we were the only people there when the first trolley left, so we should have been first "in line" to go on the next one, but there was no "tickets" or numbering or line..  and a lot of people had showed up in the meantime...everyone was just mulling about.. When the rain was starting to let up, my FIL finally asked someone and they said "Well if you want to go out in the rain, we'll take you out.." umm. OK.. so in the meantime when he came back to get us, other people were jumping on in front of us and we had to make a dash to even get on that one..  but we did, and it was fun..

They were supposed to be having some "harvest day" event today, but it didn't seem like they were doing anything for it.. maybe because of the rain, but again, they just didn't seem to have any organization..  There were a bunch of employees there that were either just standing around, or cleaning stuff.. like they didn't have anything to do because of the rain or something.   We didnt' end up eating there and we didn't really hang around afterwards either because we didn't feel like walking around in the rain.

BethPSU

I had never even heard of this place before reading your review.  I looked it up and was surprised that it is really close in Varysburg.  I think we will check it out.  Reed would love it, but I would be apprehensive to take Pierce on a 60 minute ride.  Is there any way to strap them down or would it be difficult with a 16 month old?

MelissaSue81

Definitely no way to strap them down... and its a very bumpy ride.. he'd definitley need to be held on to.. in fact, someone was always holding Eve.. but.. she wasn't really ever bored, so it wasn't so bad.. there was at least one kid younger than Eve on our ride.. maybe a little under 2? and he was OK too. I had N in a carrier.

jnk062602

So good to know. We don't have any free days before the end of their season I don't think.  But after it was mentioned before, I had decided I wanted to take her next yr for sure.  Now I know to make sure I do it with DH or my mom.  Obviously I would rather do it anyway with someone else, but a lot of times DH wants my days off to be his free time, so I do things with dd by myself.  But if it is bumpy especially with 2 kids it sounds like I won't want to do it by myself.

jnk062602

Isn't this the first year it has been open?  Maybe that had something too to do with the disorganization?

Mrs_Hark

thanks for the review!

i've seen a billboard advertising them and they have a booth at the erie co fair in the agri center bldg (you can sign up for some free giveaway) 

i'm not sure we'll make it down there this year but maybe next.