(Unopened, plastic bottles of water are permitted.) Outside food and beverages are not allowed. For those who require outside food due to allergy issues please contact guest services.
People Also Ask
Plan for a whole day and arrive early.We recommend arriving early and planning for a whole day. The gate opens 30 minutes before the park so wake up and start out your day at the Ark Encounter.
The Ark Encounter takes very seriously its responsibility to ensure that its attractions are family friendly. Due to this, we require all guests to wear clothing that is appropriate. Inappropriate clothing at our locations includes, but is not limited to: Clothing with obscene language or graphics.
You can easily spend at least a whole day visiting the Ark, the Ararat Ridge Zoo, enjoying a meal, and catching one of our dynamic, world-class speakers at the Answers Center. It will take 5–6 hours to take in the entire experience at a leisurely pace.
Is there free parking at the Ark Encounter? No parking is not free but they have a large parking lot and nice buses to drive you to the park. It is $15 for standard vehicles.
The zoo, Children's Zoo, kangaroo walkabout, and animal shows are included with Ark Encounter admission. Camel rides and camel encounters have an additional cost.
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.
The Creation Museum offers a variety of ways to explore its exhibits, so it's hard to say precisely how much time is needed for a complete tour. Generally speaking, visitors can expect to spend between 3 and 5 hours at the museum. When we visited, we were there for at least 5 hours.
On recent Saturdays, the Ark has drawn over 7,000 daily guests. As a result of excellent 2021 attendance, area hotels, restaurants, and other tourism-related businesses are booming.