Grizzlies and Wolves

After all the sun and hitting the many boardwalks around Old Faithful we headed for West Yellowstone.  The kids could nap in the car on the way (yeah, yeah wishful thinking mom!) and we could catch some nice scenery.  I don't think I need to tell you which one actually happened!  I had read online and heard from someone else that the Grizzly Wolf & Discovery Center was pretty cool.

Well, it was very cool.  We were able to see some grizzly's, wolves, eagles, and owls up close.

The animals were all rescued from various parts of the country as well as locally.  The bears had usually gotten into human areas and needed to be removed from their situations.  We signed up our oldest (the other one was too young) for the 'Keeper Kids' program.  We needed to come back in two hours so we went and grabbed a bite to eat in town.

 

The Wild West Pizzeria & Saloon had tasty pizza, slow service (I usually need more than one beer w/ my pizza!), and no kid's menu (my littlest doesn't eat pizza).  There was no way I was going to order a $10 macaroni and cheese for her.  We settled on some noodles w/ butter that we payed $7 for! Anyhow...

We headed back to the Discovery Center for the start of the Keeper Kids program.  They each got to pick out a pin of one of the bears, 

 

had a nice interpretive nature talk,

 

and then headed for the habitat.  They put the bears away and let the kids in the habitat area to put out food (apples, grapes, peanut butter) and hide it for the bears to find.  They were suppose to build cairns to cover the food and they also hid some under a trash can.  The ravens have figured out when this happens as well so they show up in droves to get their share.  When they let the bears out (new one's every two hours so they are 'fresh') they immediately start looking for the hidden food.  It was fun for the kid's to see how long it takes the bear to find what they hid.

We went to the 'smells' program they had for the wolves.  The put out new smells every day in their habitat to see how they respond.  They used dog fur and parsley when we were there.  We weren't that enthralled with their reaction which was nothing.  They are still an attractive animal to watch.

My son's favorite part by far (of course) were the garbage cans displayed when you are leaving the center.  They are all supposedly 'bear proof' containers.  They've let the bears at the center have at them to see how effective they are and how they go about getting into them.  Needless, to say most of the containers had seen better days!