Oct. 1 Day 45 Minocqua, Wisconsin
We started early with a visit to the Wildwood Wildlife Park, a small town zoo. They had many pretty trees. (Picture 1) Admission was $14 each, which I thought was a little steep. After seeing all their animals, I realized it cost a lot to feed all those critters, so I think it is fair.
The first area, which you must go through, is a Petting Farm, and I thought, "This is going to be hokey." A very big bunny had the "laid back" attitude of all the animals in the petting area. (Picture 2) There were goats and pigs, too. They had several small animals in cages here. During the summer they have animal shows and a walk-in budgie aviary.
They had many different injured birds of prey. They have cranes, kangaroos, a llama, camel, emus, wallabies, buffalo, zebras, turkeys, deer, including an albino, roaming and willing to be petted, reptiles, primates, a Canadian lynx, wood ducks, bobcat, snapping turtles roaming free, a bobcat, Arctic fox, porcupines, foxes, quail, tiger, woodchuck, raccoon, prairie dogs, a leopard, and a mountain lion. I'm sure I left some out, but I wanted to show that they had a wide variety and many animals.
They had several animals I had seen before, but I had forgotten the names of the aoudad, fisher, coatimundi, cavy, tamarin, marmoset (Picture 3), duiker (which we have seen many times in San Diego), capybara, and kinkajou. I really miss my memory! New to us was the muntjac..
You can feed many of the animals. They have "bear juice" you can feed the black bears. There are pellets for the rabbits, deer, and camel. The deer approached even though I didn't have food for him (no quarters--I've been tossing them in the console in the Jeep ever since we encountered toll roads). (Picture 4)
There were 2 special exhibits. There was a beautiful pheasant area, with the most gorgeous golden pheasant, a "knock your socks off" beautiful red-and-gold pheasant, and many more elegant pheasants. I was amazed at the exotic chickens. Some were ruffled; others were super fluffy; some had really pretty colors.
We felt that many of the cages were way too small, but they were immaculate. I really close to see a beaver and black bear. We got closer to most animals than we have ever been anywhere before. The river otters did have a nice large area, and they delighted us with their antics.
We had lunch at Culver's, a chain we've seen often in our travels. Dean's fish sandwich was huge and tasty, my hamburger not so much.
I have an interest in Native Americans. We couldn't go to the previous "Indian" museum in Green Bay because they were closed for inventory, so the George W. Brown Jr. Ojibwe Museum & Cultural Center was a must. It is a small museum, and probably wouldn't interest many people, but I learned a lot. There were many page-long explanatory signs (some written on Ojibwa and English), which I stopped to read, so we spent a couple of hours there. (Pictures 5, 6, and 7) Most people would be done in 15-20 minutes. Admission was $3.
We didn't make it to the Woodland Indians Art Center.
Staying at Patricia Lake Campground--WONDERFUL! Beautiful, wooded campground. We are in Site B1, the only one with satellite reception--FHU, 50 amps ($19.50 with Passport America--What a steal!), helpful, considerate owners, can check out at 3:00 for only $5 more