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TR: The Wilds (5/27/2012)
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GodsOnSafari
May 29, 2012, 11:39:20 AM5/29/12
to
(This is OT for RRC, I know.)
After a nice night of sleep in what are quite nice rooms at the
Sheraton Suites Columbus, it was time to rise and shine and meet with
my maternal sided parental unit for a long drive into the unknown. We
packed up and I chose to drive, citing a newly refilled A/C unit that
was pumping out some luscious cold. Our target destination was The
Wilds, an animal conservation center located just under two hours from
Columbus, south of Zanesville, in a location that is truly very, very
far from anything. We've read about it, but not seen it; maybe it
seems weird to beta test stuff on one's family, but we felt
comfortable with doing so given the reviews on the internet. Breakfast
would be an indisputably delicious meal at the Waffle House (my wife's
first visit!) on our way down. Seemed only right that if we were
headed to the middle of nowhere, we'd be getting eggs and grits at the
Waffle House.
As the drive continues, the big box stores and chain restaurants
become more and more sparse until eventually disappearing entirely
into a easily entrancing expanse of agricultural fields and hills.
They reappear as one reaches Zanesville. Based on what I can read, it
appears that it was once a popular location for the creation of
pottery, something that I imagine cheap imports and automation
probably demolished the commercial value of. Today, there's some
architecturally interesting buildings as well as a lot of blight. It
is....interesting. And it effectively acts as the gateway to whatever
it is you'd call the rest of that region south of I-70. The next
thirty minutes of the drive is spent winding up and down large hills
while traversing tight corners and blind curves, all at a shocking
speed limit of 55 miles per hour. Its a thrilling drive - give me
OH-284 on the way to the Wilds over The Beast any day.
Arriving at The Wilds, it becomes precisely clear why it is they
suggest arriving at least one half hour before your booked safari
takes off - to even get to the visitor center (known as the Johnson
Center) requires a shuttle bus from a dusty parking lot probably half
a mile or more away. Working one's way up to the highest point of the
facility, the sheer size of what you're looking at becomes apparent.
Busch Gardens Tampa is a tremendously large park at 335 acres.
Disney's Animal Kingdom and its 550 acres is larger yet. While The
Wilds does not use the entirety of its land for pasture, that area is
still several times larger than either of those parks. The total
number of acres is rounded up in promotional brochures to 10,000, but
is actually somewhere around 9,400. 17 Animal Kingdoms could exist
within its borders - that means the enclosures for animals are very
large, and the space you're confronted with looking at is downright
beautiful. Not themed beautiful; real beautiful. Its hard to believe
that up until the mid 80s, the acreage was devoted to a mining
operation.
When one goes to The Wilds, the overwhelming majority will choose a
"safari adventure". There's enclosed buses with air conditioning,
which seemed silly to me and a good way to take blurry pictures
through windows which lots of sticky handed children touched. On the
other hand, there are open air buses to take as well, which is what I
booked us on. I didn't really expect to be out there in 90+ degree
heat, but in actual practice, it wasn't so bad. The breeze from the
movement of the bus kept us fairly cool, and it did have a covering
over it to create shade on those inside.
Our "safari" took 2 and a half hours and covered a great deal of
ground. Most of the animals at the facility in the large pastures are
vegetarians for fairly obvious reasons. There's rhinos, giraffes,
various exotic deer and antelope, bison, and zebra. There's a
substantial number of different large enclosures to prevent some of
the species from intermixing - some deer, it was explained, have
natural defenses to diseases and parasites others lack. Or they fight.
Fighting among animals is a constant concern at The Wilds, and it
means that males are often separated from females unless mating is
intended to occur.
Two stops occur during the safari. One occurs early on at a rest area
at which water can be purchased or a visit to portable toilets made up
on a hillside. You can descend the hill and go down to the water front
to feed fish and, in our case, watch as Sichuan Takin (a sort of
chinese water buffalo) enjoy a dip. The second occurs with a visit to
the more heavily fortified mid-size carnivore area. There's some wild
dogs and Cheetah held here in very, very sizable pen. On some level, I
kinda like the idea of a whitetail deer sneaking its way in to provide
them some excitement, but you can see why they'd not be too excited
about it. When the tours conclude, they drop you off at the gift shop/
restaurant, from which point you can take another bus back down to the
parking area.
Giving a blow by blow of the tour seems silly - no matter what you do,
you have to expect at least being there a couple hours for any
activity, if not all day. And unless you're part of a very limited
number of persons based on the population size of the surrounding
area, you will have traveled some distance to get there, which
requires an expending of effort indicating interest. This is not
"themed entertainment" in the traditional sense, unless you think
watching Banteng eat grass in a 100 acre field thousands of miles from
their home is "theming". It is, however, an appreciably different
experience from the theme park brethren or drive thru safaris a lot of
folks might be interested in. Honestly, the only similarly sized
locations in the US are large game hunting facilities in places like
West Texas, which aren't intended purely for conservation and
research, but rather for the purpose of offering rich people a chance
to shoot a water buffalo. I suppose that's better than having rich
people travel to Africa to shoot said water buffalo, but that's
neither here nor there. The point I'm trying to make is that to have
this somewhere else, you basically need to go to Africa, which says
quite a bit about the quality and scope of The Wilds.
It doesn't really need to be said that is not a traditional zoo, and
so one can't go expecting The Wilds to have a carousel or a roller
coaster. Instead, you're supposed to go look at the animals, and
there's a lot of them. There are thrills for those seeking them -
there's a 2 hour plus ziplining trail that works its way down the
mountain that I have to admit looked mighty appealing. There's also
luxury yurts to stay at which feature meals as part of the plan for
one's stay. They overlook the facility high on a bluff, and out there
in the middle of nowhere, you have to believe that there'd be some
amazing star gazing, as well as some truly not-of-this-world sounds
being made from the inhabitants. For those looking for less adrenaline
or not wanting to spend big money for luxurious accommodations in a
very out of the way place, there's a shorter excursion aimed at
families where some of the animals get fed, as well as a butterfly
house located next to the parking lot that's free to see.
When we returned to the road, we were a bit hungry, and I made the
split decision to stop at Cracker Barrel for our lunch. Meredith
wasn't terribly enthused because of the lack of good lunch options,
but hey; we're in Zanesville. There's nothing here to begin with. Food
was eaten and we were back on the road, just in time to hear the last
6 laps of the Indy 500 as we rolled on the freeway. In spite of
actually doing very little, most everyone in the car was quite tired
from the day out, and everyone but me got pretty quiet and either
considered or full on visited the sandman. As we got closer to
Columbus, I decided to switch things up. My wife searched for and
found the Jeni's Ice Cream location over in North Market, and we went
there.
I've never personally been to the North Market, but it can be
described as "a city market for a good sized city". There's some
unprepared produce and meat for sale certainly - all of it looked
really good - but there was also more than a fair amount of prepared
food from various vendors touting local ingredients and stuff like
that. Having eaten lunch a couple hours prior in Zanesville at the
nadir of western culture, eating a full meal simply wasn't gonna
happen. Ice cream though, could. Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream is becoming
something of an institution in the Columbus area, having opened
several shops in the Columbus Metro area and distributing product to
supermarkets for sale as well. They have a number of flavors that have
quite complex flavor profiles thanks to the inclusion of pepper into
the mix, giving them a bit of a spicy bite. After a couple samples, I
went with scoops of Ugandan Vanilla and Whiskey and Pecans. Jim chose
the Whiskey and Pecans as well, while my wife selected the Buckeye
State flavor and my mother selected Queen City Cayenne. My mom was the
one who really pushed wanting to visit a location, and so this
fulfilled one of the big items she wanted to check off on this trip.
The rest of the market is so expansive, we're likely to return on our
own one day with much emptier stomachs.
After returning to the Sheraton Suites, we went into nap mode only to
be rudely awakened by the alarm of my cell phone as a reminder to meet
my mother again. We stumbled out and went to her room, hatching a plan
just to walk around the block. Remembering that New England has yet to
see Chipotle appear, that ended up becoming our dinner. The two of
them really enjoyed their massive burrito, and while its kind of old
hat to us, look; Chipotle represents part of the massive change in
food service that's taken place in the last decade. People know you
can get better food quick service, and they've demanded it, as its
success indicates. Sure, its a chain, but its a chain of good food.
After a nice night of sleep in what are quite nice rooms at the
Sheraton Suites Columbus, it was time to rise and shine and meet with
my maternal sided parental unit for a long drive into the unknown. We
packed up and I chose to drive, citing a newly refilled A/C unit that
was pumping out some luscious cold. Our target destination was The
Wilds, an animal conservation center located just under two hours from
Columbus, south of Zanesville, in a location that is truly very, very
far from anything. We've read about it, but not seen it; maybe it
seems weird to beta test stuff on one's family, but we felt
comfortable with doing so given the reviews on the internet. Breakfast
would be an indisputably delicious meal at the Waffle House (my wife's
first visit!) on our way down. Seemed only right that if we were
headed to the middle of nowhere, we'd be getting eggs and grits at the
Waffle House.
As the drive continues, the big box stores and chain restaurants
become more and more sparse until eventually disappearing entirely
into a easily entrancing expanse of agricultural fields and hills.
They reappear as one reaches Zanesville. Based on what I can read, it
appears that it was once a popular location for the creation of
pottery, something that I imagine cheap imports and automation
probably demolished the commercial value of. Today, there's some
architecturally interesting buildings as well as a lot of blight. It
is....interesting. And it effectively acts as the gateway to whatever
it is you'd call the rest of that region south of I-70. The next
thirty minutes of the drive is spent winding up and down large hills
while traversing tight corners and blind curves, all at a shocking
speed limit of 55 miles per hour. Its a thrilling drive - give me
OH-284 on the way to the Wilds over The Beast any day.
Arriving at The Wilds, it becomes precisely clear why it is they
suggest arriving at least one half hour before your booked safari
takes off - to even get to the visitor center (known as the Johnson
Center) requires a shuttle bus from a dusty parking lot probably half
a mile or more away. Working one's way up to the highest point of the
facility, the sheer size of what you're looking at becomes apparent.
Busch Gardens Tampa is a tremendously large park at 335 acres.
Disney's Animal Kingdom and its 550 acres is larger yet. While The
Wilds does not use the entirety of its land for pasture, that area is
still several times larger than either of those parks. The total
number of acres is rounded up in promotional brochures to 10,000, but
is actually somewhere around 9,400. 17 Animal Kingdoms could exist
within its borders - that means the enclosures for animals are very
large, and the space you're confronted with looking at is downright
beautiful. Not themed beautiful; real beautiful. Its hard to believe
that up until the mid 80s, the acreage was devoted to a mining
operation.
When one goes to The Wilds, the overwhelming majority will choose a
"safari adventure". There's enclosed buses with air conditioning,
which seemed silly to me and a good way to take blurry pictures
through windows which lots of sticky handed children touched. On the
other hand, there are open air buses to take as well, which is what I
booked us on. I didn't really expect to be out there in 90+ degree
heat, but in actual practice, it wasn't so bad. The breeze from the
movement of the bus kept us fairly cool, and it did have a covering
over it to create shade on those inside.
Our "safari" took 2 and a half hours and covered a great deal of
ground. Most of the animals at the facility in the large pastures are
vegetarians for fairly obvious reasons. There's rhinos, giraffes,
various exotic deer and antelope, bison, and zebra. There's a
substantial number of different large enclosures to prevent some of
the species from intermixing - some deer, it was explained, have
natural defenses to diseases and parasites others lack. Or they fight.
Fighting among animals is a constant concern at The Wilds, and it
means that males are often separated from females unless mating is
intended to occur.
Two stops occur during the safari. One occurs early on at a rest area
at which water can be purchased or a visit to portable toilets made up
on a hillside. You can descend the hill and go down to the water front
to feed fish and, in our case, watch as Sichuan Takin (a sort of
chinese water buffalo) enjoy a dip. The second occurs with a visit to
the more heavily fortified mid-size carnivore area. There's some wild
dogs and Cheetah held here in very, very sizable pen. On some level, I
kinda like the idea of a whitetail deer sneaking its way in to provide
them some excitement, but you can see why they'd not be too excited
about it. When the tours conclude, they drop you off at the gift shop/
restaurant, from which point you can take another bus back down to the
parking area.
Giving a blow by blow of the tour seems silly - no matter what you do,
you have to expect at least being there a couple hours for any
activity, if not all day. And unless you're part of a very limited
number of persons based on the population size of the surrounding
area, you will have traveled some distance to get there, which
requires an expending of effort indicating interest. This is not
"themed entertainment" in the traditional sense, unless you think
watching Banteng eat grass in a 100 acre field thousands of miles from
their home is "theming". It is, however, an appreciably different
experience from the theme park brethren or drive thru safaris a lot of
folks might be interested in. Honestly, the only similarly sized
locations in the US are large game hunting facilities in places like
West Texas, which aren't intended purely for conservation and
research, but rather for the purpose of offering rich people a chance
to shoot a water buffalo. I suppose that's better than having rich
people travel to Africa to shoot said water buffalo, but that's
neither here nor there. The point I'm trying to make is that to have
this somewhere else, you basically need to go to Africa, which says
quite a bit about the quality and scope of The Wilds.
It doesn't really need to be said that is not a traditional zoo, and
so one can't go expecting The Wilds to have a carousel or a roller
coaster. Instead, you're supposed to go look at the animals, and
there's a lot of them. There are thrills for those seeking them -
there's a 2 hour plus ziplining trail that works its way down the
mountain that I have to admit looked mighty appealing. There's also
luxury yurts to stay at which feature meals as part of the plan for
one's stay. They overlook the facility high on a bluff, and out there
in the middle of nowhere, you have to believe that there'd be some
amazing star gazing, as well as some truly not-of-this-world sounds
being made from the inhabitants. For those looking for less adrenaline
or not wanting to spend big money for luxurious accommodations in a
very out of the way place, there's a shorter excursion aimed at
families where some of the animals get fed, as well as a butterfly
house located next to the parking lot that's free to see.
When we returned to the road, we were a bit hungry, and I made the
split decision to stop at Cracker Barrel for our lunch. Meredith
wasn't terribly enthused because of the lack of good lunch options,
but hey; we're in Zanesville. There's nothing here to begin with. Food
was eaten and we were back on the road, just in time to hear the last
6 laps of the Indy 500 as we rolled on the freeway. In spite of
actually doing very little, most everyone in the car was quite tired
from the day out, and everyone but me got pretty quiet and either
considered or full on visited the sandman. As we got closer to
Columbus, I decided to switch things up. My wife searched for and
found the Jeni's Ice Cream location over in North Market, and we went
there.
I've never personally been to the North Market, but it can be
described as "a city market for a good sized city". There's some
unprepared produce and meat for sale certainly - all of it looked
really good - but there was also more than a fair amount of prepared
food from various vendors touting local ingredients and stuff like
that. Having eaten lunch a couple hours prior in Zanesville at the
nadir of western culture, eating a full meal simply wasn't gonna
happen. Ice cream though, could. Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream is becoming
something of an institution in the Columbus area, having opened
several shops in the Columbus Metro area and distributing product to
supermarkets for sale as well. They have a number of flavors that have
quite complex flavor profiles thanks to the inclusion of pepper into
the mix, giving them a bit of a spicy bite. After a couple samples, I
went with scoops of Ugandan Vanilla and Whiskey and Pecans. Jim chose
the Whiskey and Pecans as well, while my wife selected the Buckeye
State flavor and my mother selected Queen City Cayenne. My mom was the
one who really pushed wanting to visit a location, and so this
fulfilled one of the big items she wanted to check off on this trip.
The rest of the market is so expansive, we're likely to return on our
own one day with much emptier stomachs.
After returning to the Sheraton Suites, we went into nap mode only to
be rudely awakened by the alarm of my cell phone as a reminder to meet
my mother again. We stumbled out and went to her room, hatching a plan
just to walk around the block. Remembering that New England has yet to
see Chipotle appear, that ended up becoming our dinner. The two of
them really enjoyed their massive burrito, and while its kind of old
hat to us, look; Chipotle represents part of the massive change in
food service that's taken place in the last decade. People know you
can get better food quick service, and they've demanded it, as its
success indicates. Sure, its a chain, but its a chain of good food.
Surf Dance Chris
May 29, 2012, 7:27:16 PM5/29/12
to
Some out of the way places are actually pretty neat, and this sounds
like one of them. I'd like to visit more places like this.
Wolf
Jun 5, 2012, 1:52:57 AM6/5/12
to
"GodsOnSafari" <godson...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:61292ee7-5a1c-4714...@vy7g2000pbc.googlegroups.com...
> Two stops occur during the safari. One occurs early on at a rest area
> at which water can be purchased or a visit to portable toilets made up
> on a hillside. You can descend the hill and go down to the water front
> to feed fish and, in our case, watch as Sichuan Takin (a sort of
> chinese water buffalo) enjoy a dip. The second occurs with a visit to
> the more heavily fortified mid-size carnivore area. There's some wild
> dogs and Cheetah held here in very, very sizable pen. On some level, I
> kinda like the idea of a whitetail deer sneaking its way in to provide
> them some excitement, but you can see why they'd not be too excited
> about it. When the tours conclude, they drop you off at the gift shop/
> restaurant, from which point you can take another bus back down to the
> parking area.
There's also the non-zero chance of a deer killing or maiming the predators.
Deer kill a couple of wolves every year, and are fully capable of staving
their skulls in.
--
|\-/|
<0 0>
=(o)=
-Deer
news:61292ee7-5a1c-4714...@vy7g2000pbc.googlegroups.com...
> Two stops occur during the safari. One occurs early on at a rest area
> at which water can be purchased or a visit to portable toilets made up
> on a hillside. You can descend the hill and go down to the water front
> to feed fish and, in our case, watch as Sichuan Takin (a sort of
> chinese water buffalo) enjoy a dip. The second occurs with a visit to
> the more heavily fortified mid-size carnivore area. There's some wild
> dogs and Cheetah held here in very, very sizable pen. On some level, I
> kinda like the idea of a whitetail deer sneaking its way in to provide
> them some excitement, but you can see why they'd not be too excited
> about it. When the tours conclude, they drop you off at the gift shop/
> restaurant, from which point you can take another bus back down to the
> parking area.
Deer kill a couple of wolves every year, and are fully capable of staving
their skulls in.
--
|\-/|
<0 0>
=(o)=
-Deer
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