Wildlife Safari Park in Winston, OR
I grew up watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. Wouldn’t miss it.
There he is, our host Marlin Perkins, riding through the plains of Africa. He and his crew are following a herd of wild buffalo whose water source is quickly drying up. The herd must be relocated. Marlin and his group of biologists move in. But wait, the largest female is indicating a readiness to charge. She is protecting her young. Marlin is no match for this 2,000 pound beast. Insert dramatic superhero-like music.
At that age it was hard not to notice that looking at a (usually motionless) anaconda through a glass window at the zoo was a far different experience than seeing how one of those snakes could wrestle down an antelope for dinner. I wanted to jump into the tv and ride along with Marlin. Then many years later I learned that even people who don’t have tv shows could actually travel to these far off places and head out onto the plain to see native animals in their own habitat. My dreams of being on a safari quickly took root and quite honestly have never completely disappeared. I don’t imagine I will find myself in Africa anytime soon, but I did enjoy a scaled down version not long ago on the plains of Interstate 5.
A bit south of the town of Roseberg, OR is the smaller town of Winston. Here lies Wildlife Safari, the largest animal park I have ever been to. There are two components to it, one is the “Village” where you’ll find the store, food, a petting zoo, a place where kids can ride a camel, and a few reptiles on display.
The second component to the park is the drive-thru safari. It takes about an hour to complete your route, which stretches through sections of the park labeled as various continents. For example, in Asia you can watch Sika deer, camel, emu, and more just walking about nearby. In Africa you can drive near giraffe, elephants and a hippo. We were lucky to be in the park about a week after a baby zebra was born. The zebra mom was focused on the foal, unconcerned about the onlookers driving through her territory. Some of the park’s residents are within a fenced location, such as the lions and cheetahs. Most of the other animals we were able to slowly drive past.
Taking a drive through acres of land while the deer and the antelope play was far more safari-esque than walking through a zoo. But if you really want to go Marlin Perkins style you can go from this:
to this: 
Wildlife Safari offers many opportunities to get up close with the animals. You can ride a camel, feed a giraffe, even have your car washed by an elephant. There is no guarantee how much attention you will get from the animals. Having a bucket of yummy fruit available was incentive enough for this giraffe to come closer to the safari vehicle. We were advised, though, they will leave whenever they feel like it. Sure enough, when our friend’s favorite goodies were gone he moseyed his way back to his shaded area.
We also had the pleasure to meet some of the elephants close-up with their trainer. One of the elephants produced some artwork right in front of us. His trainer gave him some sponges with paint on them, and he covered a canvas to his liking using his trunk. The artwork was put on sale in the gift shop. According to the trainer, each of the three elephants have their own unique style of painting; one uses long broad strokes while another has a more short but meticulous technique.
There are quite a few kinds of encounters you can sign up for, both free and up to $10 per person extra. I personally really enjoyed, as did the kids, feeding the giraffe. Of the guests I talked with, most of whom happened to be locals, the elephant car wash seemed to be the favorite animal encounter. It seems worth it to me, if you are spending several hours here anyway, to be able to talk with the trainers in a small group setting and learn and connect with any particular animal. If, however, the budget is tight, the Village offers a way for young kids to run around and enjoy animal encounters of a different kind.
Hey, every good buffalo-relocator has to start somewhere.
Today’s post is part of “Mondays are for Dreaming” at Mother of All Trips. Check out the site for more travel dreams.
Wildlife Safari provided my family with tickets in exchange for a review of our own experience there.
What a find! A friend of ours who lives in NorCal recently told us about this place, so I’m glad to finally read more about it. Looks like you guys had fun!
Wow, that looks amazing! I bet your kids will cherish that experience forever!