Bearizona

We are in Williams, Arizona, a quaint and fun town on Route 66, which is south of the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. We have been having a good time eating at some of the local restaurants and tasting local wines and beers. The small downtown area is full of Route 66 stuff, so it’s been interesting taking in those sights.

Bearizona, a drive-through wildlife park, is just down the road from our campground, so we decided to get up close and personal with some bears, bison, and wolves! We were a little nervous, as we’d heard that the younger bears sometimes get a bit frisky and rip off side mirrors from vehicles. We just bought Bonnie, the Dodge Ram, and we didn’t want her getting roughed up by some hyper, teen bears. We went ahead and threw caution to the wind and risked it! I am so glad we did! It was a bit pricey, but it was well worth the cost. We had a really great time.

We drove through three miles of Ponderosa Pine Forest, and got to see North American animals in their natural habitat. There are parts of the drive, where visitors are allowed to roll down the windows and stop, and there are other parts where windows go up and there’s no stopping allowed (bears and wolves).

We saw Tundra Wolves, Arctic Wolves, Brown Bison, White Bison, young bears, and adult bears. After our drive, we decided to go back through, but this time we took the bus tour, so we had a guide who told us more about the animals and threw in some fun stories about things that have happened in the park (like the time a bear from outside of the park managed to get in – the guide thought this was a great ad for Bearizona: Bears are actually sneaking into the place! They got word that it’s like a bear resort)!

Also at Bearizona is a more zoo-like area where we got to see some smaller animals: otters, bobcats, foxes, jaguars, and javelinas. We really enjoyed watching the Birds of Prey show, too, where we saw owls, hawks, and ravens do their thing! So much fun!