Do you know those signs they have all over the place at zoos that say 'Please Don't Feed the Animals'? I always though those things were such a joke. I mean, who cares if you toss the wolves a little piece of your hot dog or the elephant a peanut or two. What's the worst that could happen? They get a yummy treat? Oh no, the horror.
Images of a park filled with giraffes, lions, elephants and other exotic animals danced across my imagination. Since, I wasn't a 100% sure what I was picturing was accurate, I asked Kelly to explain it to me.
What I was picturing was close, but still a little out of the ballpark. There are animals in the park, but more of the not so exotic type. Kelly told me I could expect to see squirrels, deer, turkeys, birds and buffalo. It was the buffalo part that surprised me. Apparently, buffalo once roamed the area and the park wanted the park to reflect more what things used to look like. The park also serves as a sanctuary to the buffalo.
I didn't realize that not to long ago, there were less than a 1,000 buffalo in existence and the animal was placed on the endangered species list. Today though, the population of buffalo has rebounded thanks in large parts to these type of sanctuaries and ranches.
It seemed like a good idea, but since neither of us wanted to spend the gas money, we called up a couple of our friends and finally found one who was willing to drive. Good old Bryan.
The ride wasn't to bad. Only 45 minutes and we stopped at McDonald's twice to get drinks and ice cream cones. It is my opinion, that an adventure just isn't an adventure unless you have ice cream.
When we finally got there the first thing we noticed was there weren't a whole lot of cars in the parking lot which is exactly what I wanted. Some peace and quiet, hanging out with my friends and getting some awesome photographs. I immediately smiled as I took everything in and thought to myself, 'It doesn't get better than this'. Oh man, I was so wrong.
We paid our money and signed all the forms and the safety waivers. I wasn't sure why we had to sign safety waivers, but before I could ask, they walked us outside to a yellow Hummer and tossed us a set of keys.
None of us knew what was going on. Maybe they were giving guided tours today, and I was supposed to give the keys to the driver when he showed up. We waited for ten minutes then Kelly went inside and asked what was going on.
He told her that we were just at the check in station and that the actual sanctuary was a few miles away. Part of their gimmick was that they give you a vehicle and you drive yourself. He explained that there was a gps in the truck that would tell us how to get there.
Being it was my idea, I felt it only fair I be the one to drive us. Strangely, not everyone felt the same way. Eventually, we agreed to take turns driving there and would also take turns driving on the way back. That we could all say we drove a Hummer.
It took us roughly 15 minutes to get to the actual sanctuary. It was amazing as we drove how quickly civilization was replaced by nature. There were only five other vehicles in the parking lot. Tree of them were yellow trucks and the other two were yellow Hummers. Dirt trails branched off in every direction.
For me that is always the hardest part about hiking. I never know which trail to start with. Luckily, there was a map thumb tacked to a board on the north side of the parking lot. You know, the kind with the 'you are here' dot. I like those, because I get lost kind of easy.
It had already been established that we all wanted to see the buffalo. It didn't take us long to find a trail that would take us all the way around the area known on the map as Buffalo Lake. The map indicated that this is where visitors would see the highest concentration of buffalo.
I took a picture of the map, you know just in case we needed it for later. Remember I get lost easy. We found the trail and started down it. For the first few minutes we didn't pay to much attention to the scenery since we were all busy taking out our cameras. However, once they were out, we were taking pictures of everything. There were trees wrapped in vines and flowers in shapes and colors I had never seen before. /
We were only 10 minutes into the trail and I already had taken around 100 pictures. And that number quickly went up when we saw a buffalo grazing just off the trail. He had dark brown hair and was ginormous. Like if someone had disguised a miniature tank as an animal. This one must have wandered a little bit from the main herd.
He was so impressive. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a Hersey bar. I broke off a piece and called out to him. I knew I wouldn't be able to get him to come to us, but I wanted to feed him. There aren't a whole lot of people who can say they ever fed a buffalo. And yes, I did notice the sign at the beginning of the trail that said 'Please don't feed the animals', but whatever. That's just a suggestion anyway.
I kept calling out to the buffalo till he finally looked our way. He had seen enough people not to be spooked by us, but still followed his instinct to keep his distance. I tossed the broken off bit of Hersey bar to him. He sniffed it at first then licked it a few times. Eventually, he finally ate it.
When he looked back up at me, I swear he was smiling. I tossed him the rest of the broken up candy bar. He quickly ate all the parts. For a few seconds, he stared at us then started coming towards us.
Bryan laughed and told me to throw him more candy bars, but I couldn't. I only had one. Suddenly, the buffalo started to run at us. I'm not sure what you call it when a buffalo runs, but he was moving. We all panicked and started running back down the the trail to the parking lot. The buffalo stayed behind us the entire time.
I chanced a look over my shoulder and saw he was gaining on us fast. We ran back to the Hummer, got in and locked the doors. Ahhh, safety. When I looked up, the buffalo was gone. He must have given up and went back to grazing. Just as I was about to let out a sigh of relief, something heavy landed on the roof of the Hummer. I wasn't sure but I swore I could see hooves dangling over the roof of the Hummer.
Bryan freaked, jammed the keys into the ignition and threw the Hummer into gear. The Hummer sped down the road back to the check in area. The whole time we could feel the buffalo pounding on the Hummer, trying to get in.
We flew over the speed bump at the check in area and went air born. I am pretty sure we almost smashed into two cars, but somehow we avoided them. The guy who checked us in came out with an air horn and blasted it several times at the buffalo. I'm not sure why it worked, but it did. The buffalo walked down the front of Hummer and started back the way we came from.
The check in guy asked if we were okay and when we said we were he asked us to leave and to never come back. Fair enough.
We may never be allowed back to the park, but I learned a very important lesson. The reason they don't want you to feed the animals is because animals go bonkers for chocolate and will kick your ass to get it. Lesson learned my friends. Lesson learned.
Well, after yesterday, I can tell you that the people who post those signs aren't really worried about the animals getting a little snack here and there. They serve a much greater more important purpose.
The weekend had been pretty uneventful. I had to work at both jobs which made it really hard to go to any cook outs, the lake or do anything fun at all. Luckily, this was a three day weekend so I had one more day, and I swore to God that I would cram as much fun into that one day as possible.
And I did pretty good on keeping that promise. I managed to get invited to three different cook outs, made plans to go see Iron Man 3 at 9 pm and after that go to a friends late night pool party. So, my night was pretty packed with awesomeness, but I still had nothing to do during the day time.
I really wanted to find someone or some people and go hiking, but I knew all the good parks would be packed with tons and tons of people. Usually this also means, the trails are over run by people and I like to take a lot of pictures, which is kind of hard to do when you have people blocking the views. I brought this issue to a good friend of mine, and she suggested instead of going hiking at a park, we go check out this new walk through animal park / sanctuary.
Images of a park filled with giraffes, lions, elephants and other exotic animals danced across my imagination. Since, I wasn't a 100% sure what I was picturing was accurate, I asked Kelly to explain it to me.
What I was picturing was close, but still a little out of the ballpark. There are animals in the park, but more of the not so exotic type. Kelly told me I could expect to see squirrels, deer, turkeys, birds and buffalo. It was the buffalo part that surprised me. Apparently, buffalo once roamed the area and the park wanted the park to reflect more what things used to look like. The park also serves as a sanctuary to the buffalo.
I didn't realize that not to long ago, there were less than a 1,000 buffalo in existence and the animal was placed on the endangered species list. Today though, the population of buffalo has rebounded thanks in large parts to these type of sanctuaries and ranches.
It seemed like a good idea, but since neither of us wanted to spend the gas money, we called up a couple of our friends and finally found one who was willing to drive. Good old Bryan.
The ride wasn't to bad. Only 45 minutes and we stopped at McDonald's twice to get drinks and ice cream cones. It is my opinion, that an adventure just isn't an adventure unless you have ice cream.
When we finally got there the first thing we noticed was there weren't a whole lot of cars in the parking lot which is exactly what I wanted. Some peace and quiet, hanging out with my friends and getting some awesome photographs. I immediately smiled as I took everything in and thought to myself, 'It doesn't get better than this'. Oh man, I was so wrong.
We paid our money and signed all the forms and the safety waivers. I wasn't sure why we had to sign safety waivers, but before I could ask, they walked us outside to a yellow Hummer and tossed us a set of keys.
None of us knew what was going on. Maybe they were giving guided tours today, and I was supposed to give the keys to the driver when he showed up. We waited for ten minutes then Kelly went inside and asked what was going on.
He told her that we were just at the check in station and that the actual sanctuary was a few miles away. Part of their gimmick was that they give you a vehicle and you drive yourself. He explained that there was a gps in the truck that would tell us how to get there.
Being it was my idea, I felt it only fair I be the one to drive us. Strangely, not everyone felt the same way. Eventually, we agreed to take turns driving there and would also take turns driving on the way back. That we could all say we drove a Hummer.
It took us roughly 15 minutes to get to the actual sanctuary. It was amazing as we drove how quickly civilization was replaced by nature. There were only five other vehicles in the parking lot. Tree of them were yellow trucks and the other two were yellow Hummers. Dirt trails branched off in every direction.
For me that is always the hardest part about hiking. I never know which trail to start with. Luckily, there was a map thumb tacked to a board on the north side of the parking lot. You know, the kind with the 'you are here' dot. I like those, because I get lost kind of easy.
It had already been established that we all wanted to see the buffalo. It didn't take us long to find a trail that would take us all the way around the area known on the map as Buffalo Lake. The map indicated that this is where visitors would see the highest concentration of buffalo.
I took a picture of the map, you know just in case we needed it for later. Remember I get lost easy. We found the trail and started down it. For the first few minutes we didn't pay to much attention to the scenery since we were all busy taking out our cameras. However, once they were out, we were taking pictures of everything. There were trees wrapped in vines and flowers in shapes and colors I had never seen before. /
We were only 10 minutes into the trail and I already had taken around 100 pictures. And that number quickly went up when we saw a buffalo grazing just off the trail. He had dark brown hair and was ginormous. Like if someone had disguised a miniature tank as an animal. This one must have wandered a little bit from the main herd.
He was so impressive. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a Hersey bar. I broke off a piece and called out to him. I knew I wouldn't be able to get him to come to us, but I wanted to feed him. There aren't a whole lot of people who can say they ever fed a buffalo. And yes, I did notice the sign at the beginning of the trail that said 'Please don't feed the animals', but whatever. That's just a suggestion anyway.
I kept calling out to the buffalo till he finally looked our way. He had seen enough people not to be spooked by us, but still followed his instinct to keep his distance. I tossed the broken off bit of Hersey bar to him. He sniffed it at first then licked it a few times. Eventually, he finally ate it.
When he looked back up at me, I swear he was smiling. I tossed him the rest of the broken up candy bar. He quickly ate all the parts. For a few seconds, he stared at us then started coming towards us.
Bryan laughed and told me to throw him more candy bars, but I couldn't. I only had one. Suddenly, the buffalo started to run at us. I'm not sure what you call it when a buffalo runs, but he was moving. We all panicked and started running back down the the trail to the parking lot. The buffalo stayed behind us the entire time.I chanced a look over my shoulder and saw he was gaining on us fast. We ran back to the Hummer, got in and locked the doors. Ahhh, safety. When I looked up, the buffalo was gone. He must have given up and went back to grazing. Just as I was about to let out a sigh of relief, something heavy landed on the roof of the Hummer. I wasn't sure but I swore I could see hooves dangling over the roof of the Hummer.
Bryan freaked, jammed the keys into the ignition and threw the Hummer into gear. The Hummer sped down the road back to the check in area. The whole time we could feel the buffalo pounding on the Hummer, trying to get in.
We flew over the speed bump at the check in area and went air born. I am pretty sure we almost smashed into two cars, but somehow we avoided them. The guy who checked us in came out with an air horn and blasted it several times at the buffalo. I'm not sure why it worked, but it did. The buffalo walked down the front of Hummer and started back the way we came from.
The check in guy asked if we were okay and when we said we were he asked us to leave and to never come back. Fair enough.
We may never be allowed back to the park, but I learned a very important lesson. The reason they don't want you to feed the animals is because animals go bonkers for chocolate and will kick your ass to get it. Lesson learned my friends. Lesson learned.
