‘New and unexpected’: Hobb’s Grove introduces 1st of its kind escape room

SANGER, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – There is a new attraction waiting for people at Hobb’s Grove.

A pop-up escape room created by Next-Gen Escape takes you through a cloning lab, inspired by the first cloned sheep, Dolly.

Calvin Kammer builds escape rooms with his wife, Kiara. They started building the mysterious rooms in 2019.

“We kind of wanted to do something new and unexpected,” Kammer said, hinting at the one at Hobb’s Grove.

From coming up with a unique idea to how people get out, Kammer and Kiara create the entire experience themselves and build it all by hand.

“They should expect some thrills in there. It’s a ten-minute-long game,” he said.

When people first enter, they’re handed their own Dolly that they take with them through each round.

When asked if people get this room in time, Kammer shook his head no.

“To get started, it takes a little bit of going. But once they get the momentum from the first room, normally it’s pretty easy going,” he said.

Attention to detail and reading the writing on the wall —literally —will get people through until they reach the final room, where people must part with Dolly.

Kammer said that patrons will kill Dolly to prove that clones don’t have empathy.

The wild journey that Kammer takes people through has been a hit at Hobb’s Grove. Usually, he says, October is a slower month for business.

“We’ve had over 1,000, probably a few thousand at this point, which again, that makes us like, one of our best months of the year,” he said.

Nov. 1 is the last night to visit Kammer’s cloning lab.

If anyone missed the fun, Kammer says they’re bringing a holiday-themed escape room to their Fresno location on N. First.