Safari North Wildlife Park

Safari North Wildlife Park

Samantha's First Zoo Experience

While in Minnesota recently, we decided to take Samantha to her first zoo.  Houston has an awesome zoo, but it's in Houston - where 6,000,000 other people could potentially go if they wanted and my aversion to crowds has led me to avoid taking the chance to this point.  Safari North Wildlife Park has opened recently in Brainerd, and it was perfect.  Nel and I grabbed Samantha and her "Nana" (that's Nel's mom) and headed over on a nice weekday afternoon.

Feeding the giraffes

Samantha is a little cautious around some animals so we really wanted to get her face to face with some critters in the hopes that she'll get over it.  She seems to have no pattern to what type of animal she's not too sure about.  When she's unsure of something she just says "no" quietly.  Today it was parrots in a cage 20 feet away: "no" - raccoons sleeping in a pit separated by a wall: "no" - bears playing in the trees 50 feet away behind a fence: "no" - giant giraffes taking things right out of your hand with tongues the size of your arm: "YES" - surprisingly.

 
Sam has been on a turtle kick lately so the giant tortoises were a big hit....

....even the one's you could ride.

About halfway through the park they have a neat little area with a playground, snack bar, and petting zoo which made for a nice break from animal viewing for Samantha.  

Hitchcock knew what he was talking about.

The thing Samantha enjoyed the most, again - surprisingly, was being "attacked" by parakeets.  They will sell you little Popsicle sticks with seeds on them and when you walk into this pen they go crazy.  This picture is actually pretty tame.  I walked in a second time with two sticks and barely made it out with my life!  It's like being attacked by piranha - but with little beaks instead of teeth.  I would have thought it would be a little unnerving for Sam, but she kept wanting to go back inside.

I was pleasantly surprised by Safari North.  It has that small town informal feel to it.  You can just walk around and check things out at your own pace and they have an impressive collection of critters.  I have no idea what they do with them in the winter but it has to be a massive undertaking to move tigers, grizzly bears, alligators, etc. to a new location every fall and spring.  They have a cute little gift shop and as I mentioned before a nice snack bar halfway through the park.  If you're in Brainerd and looking for something fun and relaxing for the afternoon check it out.