Disclosure: This is an unsponsored post. We attended and thought you’d be interested. All opinions expressed are our own.
This week my sister, mother and I took the kids to Wild West City. We had heard of it before and saw a deal on Groupon so decided it was well worth a try. The ride is a painless hour to Stanhope NJ. Right near the attraction are a Shop Rite, McDonalds, and a great little Tavern that we had lunch at.
The kids had a blast, and we spent the day together enjoying and having time out in the sun. There’s a lot of history to be learned, but my kids (8 and 5) were not interested in the museum displays. Thy different buildings were set up as mini-museums of what each place would have been during the time period. They were dark (of course), and required a lot of reading which my kids were pretty quickly bored with. This is fine, because we’ve been places before where this happens, so we just went to the buildings they were really interested in and read a bit about that. I wasn’t hell bent on a history lesson for the day.
All of the people who worked there were lovely, ready to explain history of the period and play along with the kids. The horses are all friendly and love to be pet. There are “shows” in the main street that happened pretty much all day with 2 of them being geared toward children’s participation.
We watched the opening ceremonies and said hi to some horses and then headed down to some of the interactive exhibits.
First we spent some time down at the barn. There were a few animals that you can pet and feed. Animal food cost .50 per cone and it worth it. The kids enjoyed having their hands tickled by the munching animals.
Next we hit up the FREE mining exhibit that we could have literally spent all day in. There’s a large mound of dirt to dig up and then sift through in the water feature. There was ACTUAL FOOLS GOLD in the pile, which the kids were loving- MOM TIP- bring a snack size plastic bag to put it in to bring home.
We walked back up to the main street to watch another small show and then did a carriage ride. Carriage rides, train rides and pony rides have an additional cost and you have to purchase tickets at the main stage or pizza stand before you head over. The kids enjoyed being held up :o)
We did the pony ride which was fun (they hadn’t ridden anything except the camel at the Ren Faire).
The kids wandered and took some photos locked in the jail before there was the robbery and calling for deputies (all kiddos) to help track them down. This was SUPER CUTE. There’s a staged robbery, then they call for help finding the bad guys. All kids present are sworn in and given badges. They then track the bandits and bring them to the jail. Judges are chosen and a hearing is held… I won’t tell you all the details in case you want to go see for yourself. MOM TIP- if you look in the main street on the ground you can find the empty cartridges from the blanks being shot by the actors as a little souvenir.
WE spent the better part of 4 hours there before getting hot and hungry. You can bring your own food for the picnic area, or you can purchase from the food stand or saloon. We decided that since we were done for the day we would leave and look for a restaurant which we did. We went down the road to the Stonehill restaurant, which was really very, very good (and had AC).
Kids had a blast, learned a few things, and did something different. This is not an expensive day out compared to many. There is a fun Halloween event they’ve got going on if you want to head over during the fall (weekends only), or maybe just add to your adventure list for next year.
As always- we appreciate you letting them know you heard about them here if you head over :o)
