Accessible Information

ACCESSIBLE INFORMATION

Thank you for your interest in our natural attraction!

There is no charge for parking at our attraction. The parking area immediately around the historic Penn’s Cave Hotel is paved, and there are accessible parking spaces located by the east side of the Penn’s Cave Hotel. There is additional parking space available on the grounds that is comprised of a combination of grass and/or gravel/stone.

Our visitors center is accessible. The area immediately around the visitors center and leading to the visitors center is paved, and the visitor center porches on the north and south side are comprised of concrete (in the front) and pavers (in the back). The visitors center floor is tiled. There are flat, commercial grade throw rugs by each of the main doors for safety during rainy days, etc. Wheelchairs, scooters, walkers and/or other similar type of walking assist type aids may be used in these areas. There are some pictures of the inside of the visitors center throughout our website at www.pennscave.com.

While we have accessible bathroom facilities inside of our visitors center, during peak periods of traffic many people prefer to access the newer, larger accessible outdoor restroom facilities located between the Penn’s Cave Hotel and the Visitors Center. The larger accessible outdoor restroom facilities are open throughout the summer hours of operations and during periods of high visitor traffic during the off-season.

The cavern and farm-nature-wildlife tours are both rated as physically challenging and due to the nature of the access and services provided, neither of these tours are accessible. For pictures of these tours (including pictures of the cave stairway, walkway and boats) please visit our website at: www.pennscave.com. 

By way of additional information on Penn’s Cave, the cavern itself is a natural attraction that has only one visitor entrance, and that entrance is not handicapped accessible and can be very physically challenging/physically strenuous. There is a 350 foot, 45 degree incline followed by 48 steps that all visitors must descend to reach and board the boat and then come back up after the cavern tour. There are benches located at the top of the incline and at the dock (essentially, at the top and at the bottom, but not in between that walk). Cavern boats are flat bottom boats with bench seating; the aisleway of the boat must remain clear so that our guides are able to safely walk from the front of the boat to the back of the boat. The cavern tour is given entirely by boat and all of our guests must also be able to step from the dock onto the boat and immediately go down 3 steps into the flat bottom portion of the boat. Our guests must remain seated on the boat for the entire tour, and, depending upon which side of the boat they are seated on, may have to bend over at certain points in the cavern (e.g., the Straight of Gibraltar).  Unfortunately, because of the steep incline, we are strictly prohibited from allowing wheelchairs, scooters, walkers and/or other similar type of walking assist type aids beyond the visitor’s center building. However, we do allow our visitors to use a single cane or walking stick to go down to the cave entrance.

The Farm-Nature-Wildlife tour is also not accessible and can be physically challenging/physically strenuous. It is given by bus (most are school bus style) with bench seating. Depending upon the bus in service at the time of your arrival, there will be three or four steps that must be used to both enter and exit the bus. We do allow our visitors to use a single cane or walking stick to board/depart the buses. The Farm-Nature-Wildlife tour is approximately 60 minutes long and takes our visitors through the Penn’s Cave farm grazing pastures, mountain and forest areas which have been preserved as natural habitats for birds and other animals. This bus will travel up and down steep hills at times, and the ride may be bumpy at times as the bus does travel mountain roads that have gravel and shale surfaces. There is one stop where our visitors may depart from the bus to view some of the animals, but otherwise our visitors must remain seated at all times while the bus is moving.

Presently there are no weigh restrictions for plus sized visitors on either the cavern or the farm-nature-wildlife tours. However, because of the nature of the weight distribution on our boats and the nature of the bench seating on our boats and buses, passengers at or over 300lbs will be required to purchase two tickets. When our tours are running at full capacity, our plus size customers may feel “squeezed in.” 

There are weight restrictions for the Mountain Tours. For more information on the Mountain Tours and applicable restrictions, please visit the Mountain Tour page of our website.

While our tours are not accessible, you may want to reach out to Woodward Cavern and/or Lincoln Caverns as both caves are nearby Penn’s Cave and have different natural features allowing easier access. Therefore these two caves are able to offer accessible sections within their caverns with advanced reservations.

Woodward Cavern is located in Woodward, PA and has sections of its cavern that are  accessible. Woodward Cave’s tour season is somewhat limited (only available from the end of May to mid October) because of the cave’s importance to the survival of its inherent bat population! Though the Woodward Cavern bat population was once decimated by White Nose Syndrome (which affected several caves, including Penn’s Cave), presently several thousand bats hibernate in Woodward Cave annually! Woodward also has a beautiful, large campground that features hookup sites, primitive (non-hookup) sites, cabins and more! For more information on Woodward Cave and Campground, please visit their website at www.woodwardcave.com.

Lincoln Caverns and Whispering Rocks is also nearby, in Huntingdon, PA and, with advanced reservations required, offers accessible areas of its cavern through an original cavern entrance. Lincoln’s extremely popular annual Ghosts & Goblin’s events are running again this October! In addition to its wonderful cavern, Lincoln is also known for its tremendous educational and workshop programs featured throughout the year! They are also located right near Raystown Lake – a popular Pennsylvania vacation spot! For more information on Lincoln Caverns and Whispering Rocks, please visit their website at www.lincolncaverns.com

For more pictures and reels, please visit our Facebook page. While Penn’s Cave does not have a formal video of its tours at this time, there are numerous videos of our tours and facility posted by various past visitors on youtube.com.