Wild Animal Park Early Risers Caravan Tour

link: Early Risers Tour photos

Last weekend for Cybil’s birthday we went on this awesome tour at the Wild Animal Park in San Diego and bought the photo set (we spend too much money there, since it goes back to the animals).

The tour we took is the best one the park offers (we’ve also taken the Cheetah Run, Medical Center, and Carnivores Tours). The Early Risers tour is the Photo Caravan, a talk with a bird keeper, behind the scenes with the Asian elephants, a private animal encounter, and brunch in the place where the original founder hit people up for money. All of that starts at 7:30am and is done before noon, so you miss the worst of the heat.

After the tour we went up to the Kupanda Falls Botanical Center, up above the Conifer Forest (map) and played Ra, which is this nifty bidding game that works surprisingly well with just 2 players. The top of the park is really nice. It’s a steep walk and there aren’t many animals (none if you go up as high as the Botanical Gardens), so there aren’t many people. We’re down at the park enough for tours that when we’re done we often just hang out and play board games.

I’ll fill in titles and descriptions of those photos eventually. In the meantime highlights are the cloned cow (with the short horns), the mean-ass cows with the nasty curved horns, and the funny anime/pokemon looking animal at the end is a Springhaas.