Wolf Sanctuary of PA — Attraction in Elizabeth Township

Our son LOVES wolves, so this was a must-do on our list! Booking can be difficult as this place is very popular and sells out quickly. January, the calendar is posted. The first of every month, at 10am, more tours may be added. The guides are all volunteers, so it is based on their availability. I highly recommend a non-summer visit, as that is the best viewing seasons due to heat for the wolves. Our weather today was amazing!

There are a total of 54. We chose the private tour, as we wanted the most time and exposure that you will not get with the public tour. Our guide was wonderful, knowledgeable, and full of information! There are some distant enclosures that you cannot see well but most of the enclosures you will walk past in the private tour. Our guide said the public tours are shorter and you don't see as much. We also had our tour just after feeding, which meant most of the wolves were right at the fence line. Our highlight was hearing the wolves howl not once, not twice, but THREE times!! It was the most breathtaking sound!!

There are a few enclosures that they ask that you do not stop in front of. Please listen to them. They're volunteers and are there to show you a part of nature you will most likely not see anywhere else. There are reason they have rules. Be respectful.

You need to wear good walking shoes as the ground is rocky and there is an incline at several points in the tour. Do not wear flip-flops, sandals, heels, etc., unless you are truly comfortable wearing them in a wooded and rocky area. The tour ends at a small, adorable gift shop. There are portable toilets only. They allow pictures, but not professional. No pets (completely understandable). Please read the do/don't on the website.

Overall, the private tour was very informative. The sanctuary does a fantastic job taking care of the wolves, and you can tell they are passionate about what they do!

Keep in mind, the Wolf Sanctuary is non-profit and is not eligible for most federal grants. They run on donations, fundraisers, and the tours. While they do make improvements, it's slow. If you've ever been a part of a non-profit, you completely understand. This is a wonderful, family-owned Sanctuary, and they do a tremendous job. Almost every guide and person there is volunteer. Ultimately, they exceeded our expectations. Keep in mind, we did a private tour, not public, so you will have a different experience with a different tour. But, for us, you don't want to pass up this experience. In fact, we plan on making this an annual visit, or every other year. We cannot wait to...

I brought my riding group to the Sanctuary on May 18th. My wife had wanted to see the Sanctuary since hearing of it a year ago. The reception staff was very courteous and helpful. Check-in and payment is a bit tedious, given an overall crowed of over 100 people with kids, etc. It takes a long time to get in, get parked and get through check-in. After check in, it wasn't clear if they took separate groups, or if one was supposed to fall into the crowd. The tour was supposed to begin at noon. However, one tour guide began a presentation which ran from about 11:45, which one is just supposed to walk into it and stand there. She put out a lot of interesting information, but her monologue ran until about 12:15, during which everybody could only just stand there and not see anything. Finally, she gave it a break and allowed the gate to be opened to let us in. At the first station, there she was again, talking and talking .... It occurred to me that people thought they had to stop to listen to details on wolf-olgy to the veterinary-sciences level, the pack relationships and personality details on each wolf to the Game of Thrones level. While this was happening, people would pack up against the fence and stand there interminably, instead of taking it in and moving on, blocking the view of those behind them. I ended up going around. It isn't that I didn't want to learn all the info. I heard most of it while standing there not being able to see anything. The knowledge management needs to be looked at insofar as imparting so much info to a large crowed of people, so they can get through the tour in an hour or so.

A bright sunny warm morning in May is the wrong time to do this tour, and If I'd thought about it before hand, I would've realized that wolves prowl nocturnally and are more active when it's cool. My wife and I will return in the late fall/winter and enjoy a moon tour and a night at the lodge.

This tour is fascinating, but it is a mature experience; not a zoo for kids. Someone else mentioned, "it isn't a place for fun." Well, if you're looking for amusement, as in a zoo, this it's not the place. It is a place for learning about an endangered species. My group all made donations to help keeping this unique sanctuary alive and well.

Great job, WSPA! Only recommend a better balance of tour guide presentation time, vs....

I had tickets in November and had a family emergency and they wouldn't refund me so I rebooked for last June on a Saturday night. This is literally the only reason why I came back to Lancaster, was for the wolves. My dumb luck a thunderstorm was looming. Also because it has been so hot and so dry there was not going to be a bonfire - bummer. All of those things happen, no fault of the sanctuary.

Now on to the tour, I don't recall her name and she was nice and some feedback. It was a VERY large group, like 20+ people. some were slow walkers, which is fine, but the rest of us had to wait for EVERYONE to catch up before discussing the topics at hand. Also the tour guide was repetitive with a lot of things about the wolves, how they get the wolves, how they are fed, how they are paired etc. It got to a point where I started to walk ahead. The entire tour could have taken 15 minutes - 30 minutes to walk through. So maybe they were stretching it out for the sake of time. I didn't get to see that many wolves as I would have hoped, so that is another reason why I went off on my own. We ended up catching up to the other group so we had to stop and wait for that as well. We were allowed to take pictures but not record videos, which was another bummer. There was a point where all of the wolves were howling at once and I would have wanted to record that breathtaking sound of this magical species. Huge disappointment. That's when I realized we were at the end and just went off on my own.

I went into the gift shop, which we were warned was very small, they had cute stuff. The only thing that interesting to me were the hoodie sweatshirts, I have a thing for them and get at least one or two. For my size in the colors I wanted there weren't that many common sizes, so I had to go a size smaller.

Overall I'd say this is a one time thing, I was expecting and hoping for more. The pictures I included were the only 4 wolves I was able to see. Checked it off my bucket...