I was super intrigued by it, because I will be the first to admit that my general knowledge about American wildlife is pretty embarrassingly limited. Growing up in South Africa, I was super exposed to the African wildlife (thanks to my mom - who is a nature junkie - in a good way) so I have always been slightly intrigued.
The other factor - Ian is super into wildlife as well (it took him a while to be ok with bugs in general, but he is still not fond of bees or moths,) anyways every single day he will tell me all about these awesome animals all over the world, that he reads about in books, sees in nature documentaries - and I am always amazed.
So when I saw that this place is literally down the road from the Grand Canyon, I need we had to stop here and check it out.
We made it plan to do it on Hayleigh's birthday, so they would have something to look forward to besides hiking 10km a day ;)
The park is two fold - a drive through wild park section, and then a walk through section, like a zoo - but better.
It is one of the most beautiful wild parks I have ever been to (and we have been to a lot) - it is taken care of so well, and and the surrounding pine forest is a gorgeous backdrop.
We did the drive through section first, and it was fabulous - I have never seen some of these animals in real life, so it was super impressive.
The kids loved it, and Ian was our own little encyclopedia. I think it is about a four mile loop to make it through all the sections.
It is a really nice little drive.
The walk through park was just as impressive.
As we went in there was the little stage area with the guy there, and so animals you could interact with and he of course told you some information.
The kids love love love stuff like this... they could have stayed in this one section all day long.
If you know Ian well, you know that for a while he was super into armadillos and pangolins, just because they basically have armor.
Can you imagine his surprise and pure delight when this man pulled out a tiny little armadillo? All I can say is day made, well actually trip made.
We spent the rest of the morning browsing through the park, and grounds (hoping to not get caught in another rain storm.) It was fabulous, and the weather was on point.
There was a large variety of animals - from farm animals to other wild animals, and the whole park was just beautifully decorated and clean.
The bird show was a blast, and super informative. I would highly recommend staying for this part.
I also loved browsing through the gift shop, and unlike other places it was not over priced.
Since we were already in Williams.
We decided to continue our Route 66 travels. I really love all these little town (to be clear there is absolutely nothing in them) but they are just cute and fun to walk through.
We found another diner, and this was probably one of my favorite ones. I loved the retro look, the old-fashioned soda was delicious, and the burgers were actually on point.
It was a great little rest stop after a morning out.
***
So on another day we wanted to drive down into the Grand Canyon through the Najavo reservation, but due the monsoon season, and a flash flood, we were unable to.
We drove through the town of Seligman (the birth place of Route 66) and this is also the town that the movie Cars was supposedly inspired by.
In between the storms we were able to walk through real quick.
We had dinner at this really interesting cafe...
With a really interesting menu. The food was actually pretty good, and it was my first time trying a bison burger. It was actually pretty good.
It has been fun going through all our pictures. You can read more about our Arizona road trip - here, here, and here.
Happy Thursday!
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