Tuesday, August 9

Inside the Visitors Center

This place was full when we arrived at 10 AM (when it opens) – with 4 or 5 busloads of people. We thought we may have long waiting lines. When we were given instructions for getting tickets, she said they opened early for these buses – and they were leaving. That was nice. 🙂

It was suggested that we go on the wildlife tour first. This was our guide.

He walked backwards the entire way to the bus – giving us information and instructions as we walked.

Jesse is in his seat and ready to go.

We drove by a few farm animals first. I somehow missed getting pictures of the bison because they were on the opposite side of the bus.

They have a beautiful herd of elk.

I thought this tree looked nice – all by itself in the middle of the field – as we made our way to the Texas Longhorns.

Thanks Jana for taking these pictures for me. She was closer to the herd than I was.

It is already growing horns.

I suppose you know what we are going to see next.

Our guide got out of the bus – with some food – to entice them to the fence.

They came to the fence but were quite distracted because the man who bottle fed them when they were pups was walking along the trail.

I think there were 5 or 6 in the pack.

These two are twins – brothers – and were also bottle fed here as cubs. It was about this time that they acted like they were preparing to fight. Our guide scolded them and they stopped.

He carefully chose grass to feed him.

He held it up high so the bear would stand up.

We were fascinated by this butterfly that kept flitting around the bear. They knew it was there and sometimes moved toward it but the butterfly was faster than the bear.

This was a pretty area with flowers that enticed bees and butterflies.

It was a lazy time of day for the mountain lions, so they just looked at us.

They are not in the open as it appears. I took this picture through glass.

He was not impressed with this group.

Our next stop was the bobcats. We only saw one, because the brother stayed inside the building the entire time. The guide said he rarely comes out in daytime.

Bobcats mark their territory a lot, so the area smelled rather strong of cat urine.

The bighorn sheep were the last animal on the tour.

They were lying down, but quickly came to the fence when our guide got out of the bus.

They knew he had food for them.

We went by the farm buildings again on our way to the visitor’s center.

This little guy was waiting for us just outside the visitors center gift shop.

~~~

Tomorrow night – Penn’s Cave