Friday, December 28, 2012

bearizona

On December 22nd, we took a little day trip with my parents up to Bearizona. For those of you who don't know what it is- it's basically like Jurassic Park- except with wildlife instead in of dinosaurs! It's a drive-thru wildlife park. When you get there, you get a little gps box that senses where you are in the park and gives you information on what animals you will see in each area- and the recorded info isn't totally lame and boring either, it was pretty entertaining and interesting. Once you finish the drive-thru portion, you can park and walk through a zoo like area and see even more animals! It was super fun!

We obviously took a ton of pictures- I won't post them all, we have a bunch that look really similar and some that are kinda blurry- so I won't bore you with all them. I have done my best to pick out some of the best ones. So here we go!

I am pretty sure these are the Dall Sheep, but I may be wrong. Whatever they are they were the first animals we saw on the drive thru part.

 
 
Next, we have the American Burro. I thought it was funny how this guy was scratchin his head on the tree  :)
 
Most of our photos of these guys came out blurry- our auto-focus kept focusing on the surrounding trees, rather than the animals. But here are a few pictures of the Brown Bison
 
 
 
Next we came across some Wolves, or woofs, as I like to call them to bother my dad! These guys were really beautiful! There was a bit of a traffic jam at the exit so we got to see them really close up- it was AWESOME!
 
 
 
 
These two found something in the snow that they liked- they kept sniffing it...
 
 
...and then rolling around on top of it. It was funny to watch.
 


In the next section we saw White Bison. They were really close to the road too, so we got lots of good pictures.
 
 
 
 
And here is a White Bison picking it's nose with it's tongue. Nice!
 
 
Then we stumbled upon some Big Horn Sheep being photo bombed by a deer- who, FYI, was not on exhibit- just trespassing!
 
 
You can see the deer a little better in this one (bottom left corner)
 
 
 
 
Finally, we came to the Black Bears! They were much more awesome to see in person- the pictures don't do them justice. It was hard to get good pictures because I am pretty sure that their section of the habitat is the biggest, so they have more space to wander. And most of them were pretty far back from the road- but we got a couple of decent photos.
 
 
 
 
 
And that does it for the drive-thru! (In case you were wondering, there were a couple of sections on the drive that we just couldn't get a picture of the animals- either because they were too far back or just at wacky angle. So there are more animals than the ones I have pictures of)
 
 
On to the walk-thru part!
 
First stop, the Beaver! He was being really cute and active, but staying as close to his heat lamp as possible. I took a bunch of pictures because I thought he was so cute, but when I reviewed them, he mostly looks like a furry blob! Oh well,  this was the best of the bunch:
 
 
I am not sure if this is peacock, or something else, but they were wandering around and I thought they were pretty so I snapped a pic.
 
 
Then we saw Raccoons! I love raccoons, I think they are sooooo cute!
 
 
 
The Lynx were cuddled up together to stay warm.
 
 
And then we found the baby bear exhibit!!! I took tons and tons of pictures here. I coulda sat there and watched them all day. So adorable!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
After the bears, we saw some Javelina- which I think are hideous, but my dad insisted I take a picture of.
 
 
Then we saw such a beautiful fox! I wish he had come a little bit closer so I could have gotten some better pictures, but here are a few of the best ones.
 
 
 
 
 
And last, but not least, the Arctic Fox. He was sitting right in the front of habitat waiting to have his picture taken. He had a very "I'm Sexy and I Know It" attitude and kept posing. Every time the camera would click, he would turn so I could get him at another angle- it was hilarious, but I got some really gorgeous photos!
 
 
 
 
 
 
And as we were leaving, we decided it would be a good idea to photograph the humans that went on this journey.
 
Mom and Dad:
 
 
Me: Now Kiss!!
Dad: Why?
Me: Just do it!
hahaha
 
 
And then Nathan and I
 
 
Of course, we had to kiss too, since I made my parents do it.
 
 
Oh, and also, we bought a teddy bear for the baby! So soft and cute!