The carousel at House on the Rock

One of the most amazing parts of our trip to the House on the Rock was the carousel. My dad laughed at me because I just stood there like a little girl, staring up at this amazing creation with my mouth hanging open!

I was so mesmerized by each of the animals that I forgot to take a photo of the entire carousel. Here's an image from the official House on the Rock photo gallery.



But it was even more spectacular in person, with the lights, the angels flying overhead, the music playing, and the animals turning round and round.

The carousel was unveiled in 1981 after 10 years of construction. It's 35 feet tall, 80 feet wide, and weighs 35 tons. There are more than 20,000 lights.
Here are a few of my favorite animals.











The carousel features 269 hand-crafted animals, but not one is a horse. There are unicorns and zebras and other horse-like creatures, but no regular horses. I thought that was so unusual, but I quickly realized that he didn't include any horses because he had too many to choose from! So all the horses are instead hung on metal poles on wall after wall in other rooms, along with a few other carousel animals.









If you ever find yourself in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and you don't have time for the full tour of the House on the Rock (at least 4 hours), just head straight for the carousel. It will be worth the trip.