Visit Eastern Pennsylvania’s Crayola Experience for Colorful Fun

If you’re looking for a destination for fall family travel full of color, you’ll want to put Eastern Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley on your list. Not only is fall the perfect time of year to see the leaves change as you explore the region, but it’s also a great time to discover one of the most colorful attractions for little ones.

© Eugenia Lazaris

The charming small town of Easton is home to Crayola Experience, where Crayola has combined the company’s colorful history with hands-on fun. The experience starts on the ground floor of the old Crayola factory, where you are immediately immersed in a world of color. As you head upstairs and make your way through different activities and exhibits, you’ll find plenty of activities appealing to all sorts of interests. You can wrap crayons with a customized wrapper, so you get to go home with crayons named after you and the kids; create puzzle art or sand art; and work with washable markers to design your very own felt-creature, like a pterodactyl or fish. Exhibits make use of the different areas of the factory, which not only gives the kids plenty of room to run around, but also does a great job of preserving the crayon-making history of Easton.

Each paid admission receives tokens that can be redeemed for certain things throughout the experience, such as wrapping your own crayons or receiving a marker in a retired color. If you run out of free tokens, you can always purchase more from stations throughout the building. That said, there are plenty of things to do that don’t require a token, like taking a crayon and melting it down into a wax mold of a race car or a ring. Getting to choose your color for this activity is a great way to personalize the experience, and kids (not to mention adults, too!) enjoy turning a standard crayon into something completely different in a matter of minutes.

© Eugenia Lazaris

These days, you can visit the Crayola Experience in several parts of the country (there are locations in Texas, Florida and Minnesota), but the Easton location is the original. Decades after it opened, it is still exciting kids of all ages. Peppered throughout the experience are exhibits sharing the history of the company, along with what is involved in the crayon-making process. Inside one of the rooms is a massive play space for kids to take a break from their artistic explorations and burn off some energy. The entire place is also accessible for everything from strollers to wheelchairs.

And when you’re all done, end your day in the gift shop, where you can find fun and unique items full of colorful fun.