Sunday, October 17, 2010

Bear World and the Tetons


For Fall Break we were supposed to be here,
but a flood left the camp ground damaged and the canyon closed. Since we had it in our minds that we were going on a vacation, we had to choose a different place. We haven't been to Yellowstone for a while, so we decided to go north. First stop, Bear World! We drove through this park near Rigby, Idaho, and saw bears, wolves, elk, turkeys, deer, and mountain goats all living in their separate fields.A rare white elk.
Bears galore.
After driving our car through, we hopped on a big truck where we were given food to throw out to some of the animals.
Even the grizzlies came over for a donut. All the bears are putting on weight for their winter hibernation.
This is Big John, the biggest black bear of the group. All black and brown bears are called black bears no matter their color.
All of these bears were born in captivity. The cubs have their own pen to keep them safe from the male bears. The year old bears wrestled and played until it was time to be fed.
This cub is sucking on the trainers arm just like a baby would suck on a pacifier. He was making a happy "nuk, nuk" sound as he sucked.
The bears ate about 8 bottles each. But they are old enough that they were going to be weaned the next week.
Bear World had a great petting zoo. The deer were especially soft. Ironically, this is usually the time we are out in the hills shooting them.
Rachel loved this fawn and spent a lot of time with it.
It is so cute eating out of her hand. Oh my goodness, can we get a pet deer?
This little piggy, the one with the fur, followed us around wagging it's tail.
There were also mountain goats, regular goats, and chickens. One mountain goat named, Butthead, had been taken out of the petting zoo because he had a habit of butting his head on the small children. Hence the name.

One dear with a deer.
Another dear with a deer. Bear World was a lot of fun and highly recommended. We saw more wildlife here than our two days in the Tetons and Yellowstone, so it's a good thing we got this in. It was closing for the winter just two days later.
We ended our day with a view of the Tetons,
and a pose under the Antler Arch in Jackson, Wyoming.

5 comments:

Sharla said...

Way to go! You didn't let this weekend get rained out so to speak! We tried to pry Brandon away for some alternate vacation fun, but I think he was glad to be here hanging out with friends and as you can see from Justin's E-mail, he is glad we are going to put this back on our to do list so he gets in on the adventure. I think you found a great replacement and looks like you packed in the fun. Can't wait to see yellowstone! Petting zoos are the greatest!

Angie said...

I would love to go to that petting zoo. That looks like so much fun!

Ryan and Donna said...

Very cool trip. That picture of the Tetons is a keeper. I laughed as I read your comments about the deer. Looks like you guys had a fun UEA break.

Mills Family said...

Wow! I think that my little family would absolutley LOVE going to Bear World! We will have to plan for that on of these days in the future. I'll have to show Jayme and TREY these pictures in the meantime though!! "Big John" looks about as big as our cat here at our house! Maybe our cat is getting fat ready for winter too :)
Your kids are so dang cute! Rachel is really growing up now huh! I havn't seen you guys in a while. We'll have to come and stay soon!!

Ash and Matt | A SoCal Story said...

Bear World looks like so much fun! The baby bears drinking from the bottles are adorable, although they hardly look like babies! Yellowstone and the Tetons are so pretty. I feel like that was an excellent back-up plan!