Safari Park

Our final day in San Diego - I wish I could tell you what do it was but quite frankly I've lost track of days, dates etc.  I only thing I know is it's day 3 of of our Go Card and what time things open.  The Safari Park opens at 9 and it's an hour away from our campsite so we had to get moving.    We heard it was similar to to park but bigger but worth seeing and it was!  The Safari Park is 1800 acres and while you don't walk all of it (No, I am not quite that crazy!) there was a lot of walking involved. 

Thankfully, we had gotten a few pointers from Teena and Anthony the night before and, of course, we ask the guides at the gate and the first fellow gave us the best advice.  He suggested doing the longest, hardest hike first when we had the most energy and getting it done with and then doing the rest later in the day!  We took that advice and set out towards Condor Ridge.  Wow.... almost all uphill and a long ways away.  Thankfully, we bring waterbottles with us!  It was beautiful.   The animals are still in cages but the areas are huge so it doesn't have the same feel as a zoo.

 

It's quite neat how the Zoo and the Safari Park work together so closely to save animals from extinction.  They raise animals and release them into the wild as well as send them into other zoos.  But, there was also some pretty cool exhibits.... like the Cheetah Run - showing off how fast a cheetah can run.  First, they have a dog companion run a course and he can do it in about 10 seconds and then they let the cheetah go and quite honestly, I don't even know if we got it on tape because a cheetah does the same run in less than half the time.  AMAZING! 

We even got to see the very rare white rhino....

The Park was definately worth the drive and worth the walking! They did offer different  expereiences inside the park which we did not take advantage of because of time and expense but I  honestly don't think we missed out on anything by not doing them.  What was part of the main expereience was plently to see and do.

When we left (yes, after closing!) we went to a little place called Chitos for Mexican food.  Being so close to the Mexican border we figured we would get good Mexican food and we were not disappointed....  Another good day of being tourists!