Bear Country, USA

We spent Matt's birthday, July 24, looking at various wildlife and reptiles. Our first stop of the day was Bear Country, USA, a drive-thru wildlife park located in Rapid City, SD. This fabulous park has all manner of wildlife, allowed to roam free while you drive through. There are elk, reindeer, big horn sheep, Rocky Mountain goats, Dall sheep, cougars, wolves, black bears, to name some of those I can think of off of the top of my head. Then they have a "Babyland" area, with smaller wildlife, such as porcupines and otters, as well as bear cubs, lambs, etc.

Most of the reindeer were lying down, giving us a view of nothing but spectacular antlers. This one, however, had decided to go in for a drink.

There were a ton of black bears, just roaming free. In spite of the warning on our ticket about keeping your windows up all the time, I kept rolling mine down to take pictures. This distressed Matt to no end. I think he was convinced an animal was going to leap in through the open window and devour me. Luckily, this did not happen, although we had a bear come up from behind and walk right next to me while I was taking a picture in another direction. Oops!

In the Babyland area, they had more than a dozen bear cubs. While they were all cute, this extremely tiny one was just so freaking adorable I could hardly stand it. I swear, he made you want to just scoop him up and cuddle him.

We got to Babyland at lunchtime for the otters. After feeding them several fish, Matt convinced me that I needed to glove up and feed them as well. Which explains the rubber glove and the raw fish in my hand.


Matt was compelled to pose with the bear while Rob was compelled to imitate it's pose.

For lots more pictures, including elk, cougar, dancing cubs, noshing otters, etc., you can take a look at the album at http://picasaweb.google.com/debdistante/BearCountryUSA.

Wind Cave National Park

On our way to the Rushmore area, we took the scenic drive through Wind Cave National Park. We opted against doing one of the cave tours due to time constraints but we wanted to see if we could spot any of the wildlife that roams the park. The signs that said "Wildlife at large" just cracked us up.

This was our only glimpse of the buffalo that roam the park. They were *very* far away and looked more like black spots against the hillside than anything else.

The prairie dogs, on the other hand, were everywhere. And they were most adorable. Vehicle traffic didn't phase them at all but if you stepped outside the car, they went scampering.

We also saw several pronghorn antelope. This guy had some nice "prongs".

There were also lots of little ones, like this mama and her babies. My being out of the car to take pictures didn't bother them but it set off the prairie dogs like you wouldn't believe. They protested loudly and vociferously the entire time I was out. Then once I got back in, they quieted right down.

Evidently, Matt got a little creative with the camera when I was checking us in to our next campground. I'd turn the other way in a hurry if you encounter this psychotic driver...

More pictures are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/debdistante/WindCaveNationalPark