WOLF PARK RIDE

This morning I woke up to the most beautiful rainbow that I have ever seen.  This rainbow was a clue as to how the day would go, which was awesome!  

Today we decided to meet up with a few people to ride up to Wolf Park located in Battle Ground, IN.  Today’s ride included Dan & Marci, Steve & Marci, my husband, and me.  Four bikes and six people small group but it was a great ride.  We all met up around 10am this morning at US421&St Rd.32, we headed north and due to construction on 421 we continued north on 29 to 26.

We stopped for lunch at the TripleXXX in Lafayette, IN.  This was a neat little restaurant, the food was awesome, guests were friendly, and the restaurant staff was awesome.  They had some awesome food and great root beer.  After getting or bellies full of food, it was time to head out to Wolf Park.  The road into the park was gravel, long and full of some big holes so we had to go extremely slow and keep our eyes peeled out so that we would not go down.  We finally made it to the Wolf Park Center and as I stood and gazed at my surroundings, I noticed that the facility really did not look like much from where I was but we headed inside the building, which was the Gift Shop, and it was truly amazing inside, everything Wolf you could possibly want.  We then made our way out to the bleachers to sit in for a demonstration on the Wolves.  This was very interesting to listen to and it was nice to see the Wolves interact with their natural habitat, each other, and the workers.

After the demonstration, the Staff escorted the group to the back of the park to see the Buffalo and Wolf Demonstration, along the walk we saw the Senior Wolf Center, which I thought was somewhat sad and I felt sorry for Kiri.  He is 18 years old and has severe arthritis, they do give him medication but it was still sad to see, he has had a full life and living out the rest of his days in his enclosure with plenty of room to roam. 

We also were able to see the Coyotes and man were they hyper, they started their howling and carrying on, I think they were jealous of the Wolves because they wanted to get out and play.  We made it to the bleachers where I was able to get some good pictures of the Bison; the history about these animals and our ancestors was quite educational and new to me.  I have never seen a real Bison, and I have to say they are so beautiful, the site astounded me.  If you want to learn more about the Wolf Park, you can visit their website at www.wolfpark.org .  Watching the Bison was education and entertaining at the same time.  I was watching one of the babies he was just standing out in the field face to face with the photographer and he did not move as if he was protecting the heard, he will be the big guy in charge one day.

There is so much information given in the demonstrations but you can learn even much more by watching these majestic creatures in their own environment.  I had to leave the group for a little bit and on my way back (yes I was escorted to and from the bathrooms) I was able to get some great pictures of some other Wolves that were in their enclosures.  All of them have such beauty, grace and an eagerness to be noticed, all of these animals were born in captivity and are well cared for, I am very thankful that this park has the ability to learn and teach others about the Wolves, Buffalo and all of the other animals they have.  It takes a lot of dedication to do their jobs and I for one commend each caregiver at this facility.  Please take a moment to view the pictures below to get a glimpse into this facility.  The Wolf Park is raising money to build a new Education Center and they are doing this by people donating to their organization.  I hope you enjoyed reading this blog entry as much as I have enjoyed writing it.  Please stay tuned for more blogs on upcoming rides as the season is winding down.