Westacular

We learned about the West Coast Game Park from a brochure at the Cannon Beach RV park we stayed at, and Sarah Michael was excited to visit it.

She was excited, that is, until she got there.

When you buy your admission you are also offered food to feed the animals that wander freely around the pathways.  The animals aren’t dumb, they know that when people come through the entrance gate they probably have goodies so the deer and pygmy goats and mountain goats and llamas mob you.

This is fun for grownups and some kids, but this is terrifying for Sarah Michael.

We quickly rid ourselves of treats then the animals moved on and SM calmed down.  Only then were we able to wander around and see all the animals.  In addition to the aforementioned free-roamers, the park also has lions and tigers and elk and peacocks and bears and and emus and “rare” four-horned sheep and a lot more.  The sheep are crazy looking, I am certain they’re evil.

They also offer the opportunity to hold and pet a baby tiger and baby leopard and other animals that if they were adults would rip you to shreds.

It was a fun trip and we had a good time.  Sarah Michael is still traumatized from the free-roaming animals, she just got done telling me how she didn’t have a good time today.  That only means that by tomorrow the Game Park will be her favorite part of the trip.

One of the nice things about RVing with a Jeep is that when you’re out and about in the Jeep you can go Jeepin’.

Today as we were driving south to Bandon, OR to see the West Coast Game Park I spied a forest service-type road so we embarked on a little detour.

The road was pretty civilized, wide and gravel-paved, so as is my preference I bailed off onto the first non-gated single track road I saw.  It was fun to explore, and the path went on for quite a while, though it ended at a large power pole, so it must have been an electric company maintenance road we were on.

On the way back down towards the main gravel road something exciting happened, though sadly I was only one who bore witness.  About 50 yards ahead of us I saw a black bear run across the road!  When we got to the point where it crossed, we looked for it, but it was pretty area was dense with stumps and trees and vines and bushes and flowers and vegetation.  I was thrilled, though I wish we could grabbed a picture of it.

The next brush with wildlife came a few minutes later on the main road.  We rounded a corner and startled a deer.  He took off down the road so I engaged in pursuit.  I’m sure the deer was frightened, but it would take comfort in knowing that I enjoyed watching it do that nifty bounding thing that deer do, where all four legs seem to be in unison and it leaps more than runs.  Of this we tried to take pictures, but they didn’t turn out very good.

We followed the road for about six miles before we decided to turn around.  We found a little off-shoot road that climbed up to the summit of one of the hills, and there I stopped to watch some loggers work across the valley.  The area was experiencing a lot of tree removal, the results of which are not pretty, but the dudes have a job to do and people need wood, and the hills will be replanted, so I harbored no resentment.

It was fun to take the Jeep offroad, I look forward to doing more of it during our trip.