Bear Mountain Butterfly Sanctuary

Cool little spot to stop if your in the area. They have a room where the butterflies roam around and even land on you. My kid loved it.

Highly recommended — my 5 year old looooved this! We spent a great afternoon here (about 3 hours) learning about butterflies and frogs. The highlight was definitely the butterfly room where butterflies land on you. We definitely spent at least an hour in that room. There are art projects and puzzles and a short movie. We will definitely be back for the butterfly room!

Awesome experience! We got to go in a room with butterflies and feed them. The owner is great! She is very knowledgable and passionate about butterflies. You watch a short video and then she will do a presentation about the butterflies which was very educational but fun! I went with my family (just adults) but it looked like a great place to take your children with crafts and puzzles in the one room. We got milk weed seeds to plant in our garden for the butterflies and my mom even bought two caterpillars for our home so we can release the butterflies at our house when they are ready. I honestly was so surprised about all the info I learned from going to this place. If I am ever in the area again I would definitely go back.

If you’re looking for a fun half-​day Summertime activity to participate in, and maybe have children who can be trusted not to squash bugs; check out Bear Mountain Butterfly Sanctuary.
It’s got plenty of parking, the fares are reasonable, and you can personally interact with lots of butterflies. It’s a neat experience! They’re attracted to bright colors too, so be careful if you show up wearing white!
The owner is very energetic, knowledgeable and passionate about her business. She puts on a show that was very informative!
Check it out. It’s by Jim Thorpe, so you can make a day of it!

This is a great rainy day activity for the 5 and under set. The room with the butterflies, as one noted, is quite small, BUT there are butterflies after all and it is cleverly decorated with fairies and greenery. The woman who runs the place is very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about butterflies. We all enjoyed her talk.
Kids can make a simple craft, and also live butterflies (in chrysalis form) are available for purchase. They also have a small assortment of frogs from around the world.
Would this be worth a very long drive by itself? No, but combined with other things in the Jim Thorpe area, or as I said good rainy day alternative I give it two thumbs up.

For the 10 and under group this was perfect. Coming from Philadelphia museums it was a shock how really small it is. That said, my kids were so excited that you could actually feed the butterflies with sugar water. And they were everywhere! Great pictures of the butterflies landing on their heads, their clothes, etc. Really cool.
We’ll go back again.

Bear Mountain Butterflies is a really unique place to take children in the Jim Thorpe area.
I say area because although the address listed is a Jim Thorpe address, the building itself is located a few miles outside of the tourist downtown area.
Bear Mountain is usually open May-​September usually from Thursday to Sunday.
The building itself is small and rather odd looking and consists of a small area with about 20 – 25 chairs where you watch a short video on butterflies and then a member of the staff explains their life cycle and shows you different specimens and their unique colors and markings.
Then you go into the «FLUTTERARIUM» which is where butterflies and some moths fly freely around you and you can dip small paint brushes into sugar water and see if you can either pick one up or get one to land on your brush.
There is also a small area that displays a few poison frogs and a small gift shop.
All in all, Bear Mountain while not spectacular is a winner for its funkiness and uniqueness and is well worth a visit for an interesting hour or two.