Yellowstone Bear World

Nolan and I wanted to get away with the kids the other day and we decided to do something we have been meaning to do for awhile. We drove up to Rexburg, ID and visited Bear World. A couple of Wednesdays ago we left at 8am and headed up to Idaho. We traveled through the Star Valley way. Oh my gosh it was so beautiful. Nolan and I fell in love with that area. If we could move there we would. It was so pretty. Anyway, we got up to Bear World at around noon. We have heard about this place from friends who had been, and we were excited to see it ourselves. The first thing we did was travel on a paved road through the park. The first part was just regular wild life. Nothing really dangerous. There were some buffalo, deer, and elk. Then we got to the next gate. Nolan and I laughed at how it seemed like we were entering Jurassic Park. They give you the basic instructions like go 5mph, don't stop if a bear climbs on your vehicle, and never roll down your windows (duh). The first area there were grizzly bears. Two younger ones and a papa bear. They are confined in an electric fence and cannot come up to your window. The next area was where all the black bears are. There had to have been like a total of thirty black bears in that area. It was such a cool experience. It was a hot day so most of them were just laying around, but some were up walking. There were also three wolves in the area too. The bears got really close but none actually got on to our truck. The next thing we did there was go to the petting zoo. This was not like your normal petting zoo. It was an acre of land and all the animals just run free. You could go up to any animal in there or they could come up to you. The little nanny goats kept coming up to Kadrie and putting their horns under her and trying to flip her. She did not like that very much and she let them know it. Our favorite part of the petting zoo were the deer. In Green River you see deer running around town all the time, but I have never been able to touch one. It was the neatest thing. There was a new baby fawn that was only a couple months old. If you went up to it, he would just lay his head on your lap. After the petting zoo we headed over to the children's amusement rides. There were about five rollercoasters there for the kids. They were the only ones there so they got to ride as long as they wanted. They had such a great time. Finally it was time to leave, but we decided to drive through the park one last time. This time we saw a brown bear crossing the road so Nolan drove right up to it. We stopped (I know, we broke the rules) to see if the bear would climb on our truck. Sure enough we looked back and the bear had climbed up on our tailgate. He would have climbed in but Nolan started pulling away. It was exactly what we were hoping for. It was such a great experience to see the bears so close up, but I still have my fear of bears and I hope to never see one without my truck window separating us. After Bear World we traveled down to Lava Hot Springs. We went swimming in the mineral pools and then went out to eat at a Thai restaurant. I can never pass up a good curry. It was about 8pm when we finished eating and we had another 3 1/2 hours to get home. We decided not to stay the night somewhere, because we are trying to save for the upcoming adoption. Eventhough it was a lot of driving it was so worth it. It was a great family day!