A Walk on the Wild Side

On Sunday we took a drive in the late afternoon to check out the Wild Animal Sanctuary.  It's located in Keenesburg, Colorado, just south of I-76.   Trust me, it is way out in the "boonies"!

This is not a place that breeds animals.  The staff here attends to wild animals that were captive under the most unfortunate circumstances. Some were raised to be "pets" in basements, cages and other cramped places/ used for photography sessions or raised for their fur. Some of the bears had their teeth and claws removed, one was addicted to nicotine (the Russian circus trainer used cigarettes as a reward to train it).   The staff here has rescued animals from almost every state in the U.S.

I could almost hear Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz  say, "Lions, tigers and bears...oh my!" as we approached the entrance.

These two lions didn't seem to have a care in the world.  Talk about being relaxed!

There were hundreds of gulls flying around.  Odd to see, especially since this place is so far from the ocean!  Their numbers were matched only by the plethora of rabbits living out here on the prairie.

This bear had just woken up as we approached the enclosure.  He lumbered off to the pile of melons nearby, completely ignoring the gulls surrounding him.  He was on a mission.

The recently completed "Mile into The Wild" walkway allows visitors to observe and photograph animals above their compounds.  It has 100 sections of bridges that were added in multiple stages.  Sometimes, the animals were directly below us!

I caught a picture of these gulls looking down at the ground.  It was almost as if one was saying, "Hey, Gully, look at bear down there!  What in the world is he doing?"

It was late in the afternoon when we arrived, just when the animals were emerging from their dens and becoming more active.  We spotted this lone hybrid wolf up on a huge mound of dirt.

A few minutes later, another two hybrid wolves appeared at the end of the mound.  Didn't see them emerge....all of a sudden they were there and looking right at the first wolf.

It was interesting to observe the interaction between the different members of the pack.  I was snapping away as the gray one got closer and closer to the Alpha wolf.

This wolf was in a different compound and was much fatter and huskier than the first pack.  Looks like he was licking his chops and ready for supper.  Even though there are rabbits everywhere, all the animals ignore them.  They are intermittently fed a special diet, so they are never ravenous enough to hunt down and kill one of those cute bunnies.

It's "TCT" or tiger cuddle time in the early evening for these two!

I got a kick out of these two grizzlies.  The male was lumbering after the female along one side of their huge enclosure.  Apparently, he somehow ticked her off (like guys do at times) and she was having nothing to do with him.  She plopped herself in the big pond of water and wouldn't let him in!  He sat there beside it, looking dejected.  Maybe he learned his lesson and next time he'll be a bit nicer........

It's great to see these animals enjoying life.  They may not be out in the wild, but this is the next best thing.  Plus, they have "room service"!  Even though they can't order off the menu, I bet they are content with the meals.  The cottontail rabbits are also thankful for that!

New Chapter in our Life

This year, we tried something completely new to us: being full time volunteers.  For the months of July and August we are camp hosting at Boyd Lake State Park, located in Loveland, Colorado.

Here we are in our olive green volunteer shirts.  Trust me, if I had picked out a color for volunteers to wear, it certainly would not be olive green!  I feel like I'm in camouflage when I combine the shirt with my khaki shorts. The combination might be good for hiding in the tall grass behind our 5th wheel, but I haven't tried that yet: the possibility of a snake being there keeps me away.

I wondered if I was considered a "host" or a "hostess", and thought about maybe reading up on what it takes to becoming "A Hostess with the Mostest" under Epicurious.com.  That didn't happen. There was a book titled "The Perfect Hostess" but I knew that was never going to happen either. Another book listed on the internet was "Entertaining is Fun: How to be the Perfect Hostess".   Don knows I am "entertaining" at times, but that relates more to me doing goofy things.  I think I'll just settle on being a good ole camp host and leave it at that.

This year, they changed out all the signs in front of the camp hosts sites.  At the end of July, they even added our first names.  I guess the campers here can figure out that I'm Laurel and the guy sitting outside reading is Don...

Boyd Lake has 148 pull through sites in the campground area.  We have a site in Loop A, which backs up to this prairie, allowing us great views of the incoming storms and evening sunsets.  This is a view from one of the many bike paths around the lake.

Don can even choose his lunch off the "A la cart" menu here.  Although he has a lot of choices, he usually chooses a bologna or peanut butter sandwich.  No need for an extensive lunch menu for him.

Boyd Lake is big enough to have a marina and different sections for fishing, water skiing, sailing and jet skiing.  On nice days, especially weekends, it is crowded with boats of all sizes.  There is something for everyone here.  There is boating, skiing, swimming, fishing, walking and bike trails, wildlife viewing (including a resident eagle), waterfowl hunting, camping and picnicking, all within the park.

Here is a view of the swim beach, popular with the locals.

Bret, Tatum, Nate and Ella came over one Saturday while Kim was out of town.  It was one of the hot weekends, so they had fun fooling around in the water.  I think Bret's arms finally got tired of throwing Ella into the water numerous times.

Every weekend, the campground is full, packed with people in tents, pop up campers, huge Class A motorhomes and trailers.  We've seen everything from a  16 ft. tiny trailer that housed 2 adults and 2 large dogs and the gigantic behemoth seen below.  That big fella was shipped over here from Germany and was the most unusual RV we've seen here so far.

It has been a wonderful experience for us.  The other 5 couples who are camp hosting here have become friends and we've had the chance to share our knowledge of RVing with other people who camp here.  It has kept us active (and off the streets), plus we get our site and utilities for free!  Also, our 3 children know exactly where we are at for these two months.  Usually, when we travel during the summer, they don't know where we are at until that evening when we stop (or maybe even a day or two later). 

It's always great to be able to wake up to see the sun rising in the distance, casting a golden light across the calm blue lake in addition to having a wonderful view at sunset from our site.  What more could we ask for?