As we drove into the park, we started to wonder whether our research had failed us as there wasn't a single rock in sight! We stopped off at one of the picnic areas for a quick wee break and to try to find a map to work out where all these rocks were.
After consulting a map, we decided to head to a feature called King and Queen Seat which looked to be the most visited area of the park.
We pulled up into the car park and walked down a short path which opened out into an overlook surrounded by impressive rock formations. 190 feet below was Deer Creek and the rocks called King and Queen Seat rises up above the creek. We saw equipment from a couple of climbers who must have been taking on the challenge of scaling this huge rock formation, something I would not consider even on a good day, let alone a cold and wet one.
Lee of course had great fun scaring me by walking to the edge of the rocks, hands in pockets with not a care in the world, whilst I stood as far away from the rocks as I could, wishing he would just hurry up and hoping he didn't trip! (Lee later confided in me that he was secretly pooing his pants as he neared the edge!)
There are quite a few trails in the park and on a drier and warmer day, taking one of these down to the valley floor and back up again would be a cool challenge to do but today we decided we needed warming up with the heated seats and a hot coffee instead.
The location of the park was very rural and unless you were either a local or had planned a visit for the day, I don't think you would stumble across it. We headed back on the road and headed towards Hershey. The drive took us through some beautiful countryside in Maryland and past a number of small and quaint little towns, each seeming to have a little quirky attraction to look at as we passed by.
We eventually hit the main roads and headed towards our next destination, Hershey's Chocolate World.
I was never a big fan of Hershey's chocolate until this trip but I am a huge fan of peanut better and after discovering Reese's Chocolates, I am now a full-on addict!
Entrance to Hershey's Chocolate World is free but this only gets you access to the huge gift store, the restaurant area and a free ride on the Hershey's Chocolate Tour. You then have to pay for tickets to the other attractions. We decided to buy a ticket for the Historic Hershey Trolley Tour.
Hershey's Chocolate Tour was a lot of fun. Entrance to the ride takes you through a maze of rooms explaining the history of Hershey and how chocolate is made. I expect on a busy day, this is to distract you from waiting in the queues but it was 2pm on a Sunday when we visited and we went straight through this area to the start of the ride. We then jumped into a Hershey's Kisses car which took us on a 'factory tour'. I was a little disappointed at first that it wasn't a proper factory tour, it was a child's amusement ride through a fake factory explaining the process for making Hershey's different products with talking cows, singing chocolate bars and clever lighting and animation but it was a huge amount of fun. At the end of the ride, we all received a sample chocolate. I would have loved to do a real factory tour but I don't think one exists for Hershey, I will have to wait until we get home and then try to persuade Lee to take me to Cadbury's.
We jumped on board the trolley for the Historic Hershey tour and was greeted by our driver (who was struggling to walk so I was little nervous about him being in charge of this old fashioned trolley) and our tour guide, a young local guy who was a Mennonite like Milton Hershey.
We learnt a lot on the tour about Mennonites, the life of Milton Hershey and what happened to the company after his death. Following this tour, we both have a lot of respect for the Hershey company. Milton Hershey and his wife were unable to have children so instead they decided to help others by establishing the Hershey Industrial School. In 1918, Hershey transferred the majority of his assets, including control of the company, to the Milton Hershey School Trust fund, to benefit the Industrial School.
Today, the school is called the Milton Hershey School and it is a majority shareholder in The Hershey Company and sole private owner of Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company. The profits are used to fully fund the schooling of 2,000 students per year in the school as well providing investment in local services such as the local hospital, theatre and museum.
The tour took us all around Hershey explaining the history and along the way, we were treated to different Hershey chocolates. We finished the tour back at Chocolate World and were given a Hershey's chocolate bar each and were asked that before we eat it, we read the writing on the back. It said:
"Every Hershey product you've enjoyed has helped support children in need through Milton Hershey School. Thank you for making a difference!"
This message is on every Hershey chocolate bar (we did check a few back in the gift shop) and we'd never noticed it before.
Before leaving the trolley, there was one question I needed answering. Why were there so many KitKats in the gift store?! Surely this is a Nestlé product. Our tour guide explained....
KitKat was originally created by Rowntree, a UK company who expanded to Europe but didn't have a presence in the US. They signed a contract with Hershey allowing them to produce and distribute KitKats in the US.
When Nestlé acquired KitKat through the purchase of Rowntree, they had to honour the contract with Hershey and the contract doesn't have an end date. Hershey can continue to produce and distribute KitKat bars until the company is sold to another company.
KitKats are one of the biggest selling chocolate bars for Hershey but due to the agreement they have in place with Nestlé, they are not allowed to introduce any new variations (such as peanut butter flavoured or KitKat chunky like we have in the UK).
Another mystery solved by Project MERTA!
Our hotel in Hershey was the Marriott Fairfield Inn, a basic hotel but it had a gym, swimming pool, free hot breakfast, free fast wifi and lovely clean modern rooms. We were upgraded to a suite thanks to my Platinum status and for one of the first times on this trip, it was great to know that we were going to enjoy the upgrade for more than just one night.
We headed out for dinner, to Tröegs Brewery, an independent brewery owned by two brothers Chris and John Trogner. As well as being a working brewery, the building is also a bar and restaurant selling their own great beer and high quality fantastic tasting food. We of course had to try a good number of their beers in a tasting before both choosing the one we liked best to have with our food.
After eating and drinking all we could, we walked around the brewery itself on a free self guided tour. We were able to see all the different stages of the beer making in action, see the working lab were new ideas and recipes were developed and learn the story of how Chris and John went from backyard beer making to an award winning major brewery company.
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