FLASHBACK FRIDAY! Since it’s Good Friday for us, I thought a trip back to 2019 to visit the Creation Museum and The Ark Encounter would be fitting. We highly recommend The Ark Encounter (and, no, you can’t drive by and see it from the interstate, road, or parking lot—we tried).
If you are unfamiliar with Christianity, new to the faith, interested in how the Earth was created or how dinosaurs and dragons relate to the Bible, then the Creation Museum could be intriguing. For us growing up in Christian homes & church, accepting Jesus early in our lives, & going to a Christian university, we didn’t learn a lot here.
We recommend going to the Creation Museum FIRST if you buy a 2-day pass. I recommended this to a coworker for her Spring Break trip this year and she said that was really helpful. The botanical gardens in the summer must be very pretty and the connection to dinosaurs and dragons was interesting. They also have videos you can watch as well. It’s pretty much a one way flow and they take you through the 7 C’s of creation. We went in the spring so the gardens hadn’t started blooming yet. Even in the spring with breaks, it was very busy!
The Ark Encounter should be an ENTIRE DAY experience! If you can only do one—PICK THIS ONE!! The first time you see it while riding the bus out to it, it’s massive. Plan that it takes a while to get to it. It’s not just a 5 minute thing from the parking lot, buy or show your tickets, and then get shuttled out to the Ark. Then you have to walk up all the ramps to get inside. Expect to read & walk—A LOT! Even Jon & our teens would wait outside each room for me to finish reading it all (and I’m a fast reader) but I wanted to soak it all in. There were some things here that I had not heard before and took some mulling over in my brain. While this starts you off in one line, you can pretty much go at your own pace among the different levels. Expect younger kids to not be as patient as my family was this trip. Since both places are handicapped accessible, strollers would be a good thing to have along but check the websites before you go.
There are things to entice the littles with outside afterwards like the mini zoo and a ride. The gift shop was huge and had crafts from all over the world when we were there. The day we went was during spring break and it was cold and rainy so there wasn’t a lot open outside. We also ate at Emzara’s Buffet which may have been a little pricey but it was easy & the food was good. I understand a buffet can be difficult with little ones. We used to always dread when the carry-ins came around at church with 4 kids. I believe they gave you a big tray to get around so that could be helpful.
We stayed at Big Bone Lick State Historic Site in Kentucky. It’s a nice, small campground of 62 sites around 30 minutes to both museums (in opposite directions) and not too far from I-75 & I-71. The nature center had cool fossils of animals that came to these salt springs at one time like the ground sloth (pictured with our 13 year old), a or a mastodon, and a saber-tooth tiger. If you stay here, don’t miss it! I believe it’s been improved since our visit in 2019. There are also bison on site as well. We took the dead-end trail out to see them in the field and by the time we got there they had maneuvered back to the feeding areas we’d just left. Ha-ha. We got some steps in at least. This campground has other amenities as well like a pool and laundry. It was pretty cold the week we went and we had to bring in our water hose each night. For a spring break, it was only 1/3 full.
Have you been to any of these places? If I had to do it over again, we’d stay at the same campground away from the hustle and bustle and be at The Ark Encounter when it opens and close it up. However, if you’ve never been to the Creation Museum, it’s worth a trip. There might be something there that settles in and makes you think.
Here are the websites for each of these places so you can take a closer look: The Creation Museum , The Ark Encounter , and Big Bone Lick State Historic Site . Thanks for stopping by and we hope you will follow us for more adventures and tips!
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