The Wilds

Saturday, June 23rd, we surprised the kids with a trip to The Wilds. We told them a day before that we were going to a surprise place, as long as they were good that day :) Seth claimed to hate surprises and kept begging us to tell him where we were going. Isabelle asked a bunch of yes/no questions to try to figure it out. We didn't tell them where we were going until about an hour before we left!

The Wilds is in Cumberland, Ohio, which is just east of Zanesville. It is the largest conservation area in North America (click the link to read more about it). The drive there was about an hour and a half. Isabelle watched the movie "Bratz" on the way, Seth played with his LeapPad and Parker watched some of the movie, but got restless and cried for a bit. We stopped to stretch our legs and buy some dum-dum suckers and that made Parker happier.

Once we got there, we checked in and hopped right onto the bus. It was a neat bus with a roof but no windows. Thankfully, it was not crowded and there were several little kids on the bus. We picked a shorter tour, 1 1/2 hours, that was designed for younger kids. Surprisingly, we had a nice breeze on the bus and the temperature was quite comfortable.

Our tour guide/bus driver was Dixie. Isabelle noted that she has a doll named Dixie. We saw several different species of animals as we rode along the gravel path throughout the park.

Persian Onager (wild donkeys)

The wild donkeys came right up to the bus. We weren't permitted to touch them.

Bactarian Camel - endangered. They store fat in their two humps. Dixie told us that camels do not spit like a lot of people believe.

Baby and Mama camels

We were pretty close to them

Isabelle petting the baby camel

Greater One-Horned Asian Rhino - endangered

Przewalski's Wild Horse - endangered

The wild horses also came right up to the bus

Giraffes - Among the trees, the giraffes didn't seem that tall, but they were!

Grevy's Zebra - endangered

Pere David's Deer - extinct in the wild

Fringe-Eared Oryx

A female Ostrich (the male was black)

The last stop of our tour was a building we went in and learned about more animals and got to touch them. Parker didn't like this part of the tour, so he didn't get to pet any animals.

A Possum

Armadillo

Boys having fun

Sloth (she's feeding him grapes)

Baby Cheetah (we were not permitted to touch her because she's so young and not totally comfortable with people yet)

On our way out, we touched a baby Alligator

Our tour bus

After our tour, we stayed for lunch and ate outside. We could see people zipping along the zipline. Hopefully we'll get to do that with the kids when they're older. It was a great day!