a morning at the wild animal park

by Stacy

In our continuing explorations of San Diego (and use of our shiny new zoo membership), my husband and I went on a short trip to the Wild Animal Park. Unlike the urban setting of the zoo, the animal park is north of San Diego in Escondido. After a short jaunt up the freeway, past the ostrich farm and honey stand, we arrived and parked.

The Wild Animal Park is much larger than the zoo and more spread out. The animals have larger enclosures with winding garden paths connecting the areas. Much of the park is dedicated to African animals. One of my favorites was watching the lion observing the giraffes from the top of an SUV parked in his enclosure:

wild animal park

We only saw part of the park as I had to get home and pack before heading to the airport. We’re looking forward to another trip already. The park would be a wonderful place just to walk around with many benches and patios to sit and appreciate the plants and wildlife.

wild animal park

In addition to larger animals like lions, gorillas, giraffes, rhinos and hippos, there are also aviaries, monkeys, and meerkats:

wild animal park

There are tons of tours and activities at the park. You can ride a zip-line or float in a hot air balloon, take a photo caravan or small safari bus, or even ride a Segway or a mule. We didn’t do any of those (this time), but just walked around a few parts of the park. For both this park and the zoo, it was nice to know we can come back and didn’t have to see everything in one trip.

Despite taking our time and watching some animals for quite a while, one of my favorite shots came from just walking around. We paused at a turn in the road and saw this little guy:

wild animal park

We still have a lot of the park left to see, and we are looking forward to taking visitors along to enjoy it with us.

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Justin October 18, 2009 at 1:01 pm

This photos are all excellent!
The hummingbird is particularly awesome capture.

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stacy October 20, 2009 at 9:55 pm

Why thank you, sir. =)

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