Fossil Rim

Last weekend, as one last hurrah before school started, we took a day trip and drove up to Fossil Rim Wildlife Park. This is, by far, one of our favorite places to go. They have a lot of great animals (including giraffes, which are always our favorite!!!), aren't too far away, have a cool restaurant with wonderful food and lots of pretty scenery. Its just a nice place. And, if you are in the mood to stay in town longer, I've heard that the Dinosaur Valley State Park is a fun little place too, though we've never been.

Anyway, the hardest part about going this time of year is going when the animals are most active..you know, before it reaches 100 degrees outside! So we woke the kids up early, left the house by 6:30, having breakfast in the car, and got there just after 9am. Perfect!

Yea, except for the whole rain problem. I know! It hasn't rained in like 3 months. Like, not a drop. But the one day we pick to drive 200 miles it decides to monsoon. Ok, I may be exaggerating a a little. But not much. It was a pretty bad little storm. So we drove on anyway since we were so close. Got there just after 9am. It was raining pretty good. No discounts either for rain days. ;) We waited a bit, researching the area to see if there was anything close by we could kill some time doing while the rain passed (it was supposed to end by noon at the latest anyway), but there wasn't. Nothing inside anyway. So after a little while in the parking lot, we went ahead and decided to buy our tickets.

We had moved Brenna's carseat to the very back (the third row) for the drive up, so when it came time to drive through the park, the girls could have a lot of room in the backseat with no carseats back there. So they hopped over and we started our drive through...in the rain.

We talked to one guy on his way out, who was there photographing animals...and he said it was the most active he had seen the animals in three months. He said they were all happy and dancing and playing...it was great!

So we went in with a good attitude and lots of napkins and our windows rolled up. But by the time we reached the first animal, the rain had slowed to just a slight rain. We would roll the windows down long enough to feed the animals and roll them back up as we drove to the next. The inside of the car got a little wet, but not too bad. And the girls didn't care once the animals started coming up.

Brenna absolutely loved it! The last time we were here, she was still a 'baby', so this time, she was really able to hold her own and get into and feed everything by herself and all. She loved it.

And then we got to the slobbery guy. Him and Brad became best buds.

Brenna wanted nothing to do with the "slob berry" (sounds like strawberry) guy. But he came up to her window, surprising her when she wasn't paying attention...

And then followed us (by her window mostly!) for the next 1/4 mile! He would not give up! We were all cracking up, it was hysterical...mostly her reaction to him. :)

I didn't take a lot of pictures, going up the hill, because of the rain, but we did stop to see and feed a bunch. Basically you drive up the hill, going one route, and it takes up to a couple hours, depending on how much time you spend with the animals and stopping and what not. Then you get to the top and there is a restaurant, a petting zoo, and a gift shop overlooking the park. Its really a neat place. So we reached the top around 12pm and had lunch. By this point, the rain had pretty much stopped completely.

We checked out the petting zoo.

The girls measured themselves... Brooke was as tall as a zebra, Brenna as tall as a cheetah. :)

We visited the gift shop and then we hopped back in and headed back down the hill, armed with camera this time!

You pretty much see the same animals...your route is not that different. Though, on the way down you do get to go by the caged animals (more on that in a minute).

So, first, we came to the giraffes. As I mentioned these are by far our whole family's favorite animal here. They are so soo gentle and nice. They love to come in through your sunroof to eat (if you have one) and aren't shy at all! (in the first pic below you can see the restaurant up there on top of that hill)..

This one surprised Brenna by showing up at her window! LOL

Took this picture as we were leaving the giraffe area. Check out that tongue!!!

Here's a couple videos of them feeding the giraffes...

We then came to the zebras. Hmph. These are NOT my favorites. I will roll up my window at the ostriches and the zebras. Seriously. They are too aggressive for me. They even have signs up "zebras will bite". Anyway, I will, however, humbly share this video of me almost freaking out with the zebras. All other animals you can hand feed, but we tell the girls to drop the zebras food on the ground. And the video shows one of them start to get aggressive wanting his food.

What the video doesn't show is that same zebra that just bit and kicked another one, going up to the window of my precious 3 year old. I was trying to get Brad to either GO! or roll up her window. Ugh.

Do not like zebras.

Moving on. As I said earlier, we did get to go by the caged animals. And when I say, "caged"...its not like they are in small zoo-like cages. They just have fencing around their part of the park for safety reasons. I'm not a big PETA person or anything, but zoos kinda bother me sometimes seeing the animals so caged up and they always look sad to me. But here its a BIG area that is fenced in and it is much more animal friendly (or at least it looks it to me). So the dangerous animals there would be the rhinos and cheetahs. When we've come before, the cheetahs, if you see them at all...are only laying down far back in the shade or their little houses or whatever. But because of the rain, and consequently the cooler temps (in the 70's...yea!), they were allll out and about and playing around. It was so neat to see!

Most of the animals, actually, were, by far, more active this day than usual. They were probably so excited to see and feel the rain and get a break from the 100 degree days we assumed. So what started as a bummer of a trip when we got there ended up being the best possible scenario. I highly recommend this trip to anyone out there with kids that love animals. My girls love doing this and are always asking to go back. Its relatively inexpensive and not a bad drive for a little day trip. So so much fun! :)

And I'll end with a funny little video of Brenna, being Brenna. She likes to make us laugh. This was taken while we were waiting on our food at the restaurant. She wasn't mad or in a bad mood or anything. This is just her, being funny. :)