Found! Santa is working deep inside Rickwood Caverns State Park.

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Rickwood State Park
Rickwood Cavern State Park’s Santa’s Underground workshop, photo by Pat Byington

Forget the North Pole.  We just found Santa hard at work in a cave in Alabama at Rickwood Caverns State Park.

Beginning this past weekend Rickwood Caverns, which is near Warrior, Alabama, 25 miles north of Birmingham opened up it special presentation of Santa’s Underground Workshop. The cave is decorated with over 100,000 Christmas lights and of course Santa will be found deep inside the cave daily, hard at work.

Birmingham Alabama Santa
Found! Santa at Rickwood Cavern State Park, photo by Pat Byington

“Basically what we are doing now during the Christmas season, is giving back to the community, giving them something really nice and unusual for Christmas. Hopefully folks will enjoy a family outing, because that’s what we are all about,” added Pendergrass.

The special Santa’s Underground Workshop tour will be open through Dec. 23. Admission is $10.

Rickwood Caverns State Park makes a comeback
Rickwood
Rickwood Caverns State Park, photo by Pat Byington

The cave at Rickwood Caverns was commercialized in the late 50s. The state purchased the area in 1974 to be operated as a State Park. The beloved State Park was recently closed on October 2015 because of funding shortages.  It was re-opened in Spring of 2016.

In November of 2016, the state resolved its State Park funding woes after the voters of Alabama approved a constitutional amendment protecting State Park appropriations.

This fiscal year, two years after its closure, Rickwood actually turned a profit according to Lamar Pendergrass.

If you are interested in seeing Rickwood Caverns without the holiday lights, check it out year round beginning in January. The limestone cave is estimated to be about 260 million years old and about a mile long with a path of 4,962 feet that descends 175 feet underground. It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to take the tour of the caverns.

But of course, now is a great time to bring your family, friends and especially children to experience a memorable tour of lights, natural history and the man himself – Santa.

FullSizeRender 171 Found! Santa is working deep inside Rickwood Caverns State Park.
Rickwood Cavern State Park

* Tickets are $10 and children 3 and under are free.  Tour hours are 2 p.m.-8 p.m. December 1-23. Additional information can be found on the State Park website.

 

 

Pat Byington
Pat Byington

Longtime conservationist. Former Executive Director at the Alabama Environmental Council and Wild South. Publisher of the Bama Environmental News for more than 18 years. Career highlights include playing an active role in the creation of Alabama's Forever Wild program, Little River Canyon National Preserve, Dugger Mountain Wilderness, preservation of special places throughout the East through the Wilderness Society and the strengthening (making more stringent) the state of Alabama's cancer risk and mercury standards.

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