****This was not a paid post and my honest opinion was used. The
opinions are solely my own and may vary from others.Admission fee's have been provided by
Bearizona for the review free of charge.****
Every year thousands of people visit the Grand Canyon in Arizona, but they don't know about some of the other wonderful attractions located in the areas surrounding the Grand Canyon. One of those wonderful places to visit is called Bearizona that offers you a up close encounter with a number of animals including Big horned sheep, Buffalo, Bears and more! Bearizona is located in Williams,AZ which is 30 minutes west of Flagstaff and an hour south of the Grand Canyon.
Bearizona is split up into two sections there is a drive-thru section and a walk-thru section that each offer a unique and fun experience. The first section of the park we visited was the walk-thru part, after a almost two and a half hour drive from Phoenix the kids needed to use the bathroom so we thought it would be easiest to do the drive-thru second. The bathrooms were clean and well kept, they were even better than some bathrooms I've seen in restaurants. I wasn't sure if you had to do the drive-thru part first or not so I asked a staff member and they were kind, friendly and very helpful. All of the staff members we seen feeding animals, cleaning enclosures, etc. all seemed happy, friendly and really seemed to care about the animals and the park. In the walk-thru section there is a Beaver (Named Justin Beaver), Porcupines, Otters, Bobcats, Baby and Teenaged bears, Foxes, and more! During various times through-out the day they offers a number of shows including their Birds of prey show, otter feedings and more.
The animals all had appropriate sized enclosures for the size of the animals, the baby bear shown above was the only bear in the enclosure at the moment so he/she had plenty of space to run around. The adolescent bears had a large enclosure with a small cave area to sleep in, a large metal tub for bathing/keeping cool and plenty of places to roam I wasn't able to count them all but there were at least five to six bears in the enclosure. They had an interactive spot where you could walk into a cave like structure to go in and see where the bears sleep, there is just a thick see through wall dividing you from the bears. They also have a mine shaft with various small animals to see it was pretty fun for the whole family to experience.
Next we moved onto the drive-thru portion, before you enter the park they give you a small list of rules to follow while in the drive-thru portion which include rolling your windows up while you are in the bears and wolves sections otherwise you are free to have your windows down, and drive 15mph. Please remember not to exit your cars, provoke the animals, and don't try to feed them anything these rules are put in place to keep not only you safe but the animals as well. Each section of the drive thru is divided by cattle guards and fences which keep the animals separated from each other. We really liked that the park had various feeding stations and drinking sections for the animals near where the cars drive so that everyone is able to see them, most of the animals were right up next to where everyone drives and many even cross the dirt road to reach the other side which is a chance for great photos and to see the animals up close.
The drive-thru section is three miles long and was amazing in my opinion, while you are in the bear section your car is pretty much surrounded by bears we lost count of how many bears they had. We seen bears playing together, bears scratching their butts on tree, bears sleeping and bears just doing bear things there was even one a few cars ahead of us who came up to their car to say hello. The park is monitored by video camera, park staff also keep an eye on things by driving thru in their jeeps and tour buses take people on the trip as well if you do not want to take your own vehicle in.They offer all of this plus more, I don't want to spoil it all for you so you will have to go visit to see what else they have in store for you. Entrance to the park is Adult: $20.00 + tax
Children (Ages 4-12): $10.00 + tax
Seniors (62 & Older): $18.00 + tax and you are allowed to drive-thru or walk around as much as you would like. Bearizona is privately owned and receives no tax dollars towards the care of their animals all funds are from the sales of ticket prices, as you can imagine with as many bears as they have on the property their food bill must be pretty hefty. My family had a blast and I know you will as well when you stop by to visit.
