Safari Park

While in Natural Bridge, we decided to try out the Virginia Safari Park before heading home. Although the safari park is advertised as a "180-acre drive-thru adventure," I must admit I was a bit skeptical of this billing and thought we would be in and out in no time. This was certainly not the case and we all had the best time while we were there. The park is very well maintained and consists of a small zoo complete with giraffes, tigers, flamingos, monkeys, and even an aviary where you can feed the birds.

The big attraction though of course is the drive-thru safari. Upon entering the park you can buy buckets of food that you take with you along the 3 mile safari road which consists of over 1,000 animals...all of which you can feed from your car! The whole thing was amazing and it was surprising to all of us to see just how close the animals would come. The animals weren't aggressive (except for the ostriches...more on that later), but were very forward and had no problems approaching the cars and even sticking their heads in hoping for food. None of them were rough though and if no food was available then they simply backed away and moved on. We were given instructions though not to try and pet them or feed them out of our hands...just the buckets...and it went great.

Here are a few pictures from our safari experience. Be sure to check out the slide show on the right hand side of the page for more great pics though! Enjoy!


Sarah & Grammy feeding one of the first animals we saw.





Steve...with his new buddy in the background. :-)


Feeding the birds.


Petting the Burmese Python. I was not a fan of this guy, but figured I better give it a try since Sarah had already done it! :-)


In addition to the pictures, we also got a few really good videos of the experience. Here is one where Sarah & Daddy are feeding the animals together.




The next video is of me feeding an overly aggressive ostrich. Let me first say that I'm not a huge fan of big birds. I find them to be scary and mean and if possible, I choose to stay away. This guy however didn't give me much choice once he realized I had food. While I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the safari park, I did not enjoy this particular incident.

When watching the video, please note how my daughter is laughing at me while my husband seems to be ignoring my pleas to move the car forward. I think it's safe to say I was begging him at one point and yet we did not move. When the bird finally did back away, I was then concerned that he was going to stick his head through the sunroof. I'm pretty sure that would have sent me right over the edge! :-)