When is the groundhog festival and how does one get to Punxsutawney?

One of the popular traditions celebrated in the United States is the Groundhog Day. It is celebrated on the second of February. This has been celebrated since 1886 when a groundhog comes out looking for his shadow after a long winter slumber. If he sees his shadow, he will take it as an omen to bad weather for 6 weeks and he will return to his hole.

If he does not see his shadow because the day is cloudy, he sees it as a good sign for spring is coming and will stay above ground. Punxsutawney is located in Pennsylvania, USA. When you take part in this tradition, you must have a hotel reservation months before it as hotels do not have any vacancies on Groundhog Day.

You may be thinking that the Groundhog Festival is in February because of the date of groundhog day. However, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Festival is actually set to begin on Sunday, July 1 of this year and end Saturday, July 8. To get to the festival, directions are pretty simple and can be found on their website or by typing them into your GPS.

However, as a brief rundown, when coming from Pittsburgh, you'll take PA 28 North to Kittaning, US Route 422 East, and then US Route 119 North into downtown Punxsutawney. If you are coming from Altoona, follow I-99 to State Route 36, taking that north into downtown.