After our bike ride on the George S. Mickelson Trail and Amaya's nap, our next stop was Bear Country. Since Amaya still wasn't quite feeling herself, we decided this might be the easiest thing to do. She could relax in her carseat and check out all the wildlife. We were instructed NOT to open our windows or get out of the car because the animals literally come right up to your car. Both the wolves and bears were right near our car on the road. The pictures are a little fuzzy because I took them through the window. This first picture is of the reindeer. We saw about 3-4 of them and Amaya learned how to say deer. (Throughout the remainder of our stay in South Dakota we told her to look for deer out her window - and she did see several!)
This is a picture of the wolves - there was a den very close to the road, so we caught a lot of action! This little guy walked right behind our car onto the road.
BEARS! Boy, there must have been 15-20 bears around! We were hoping just to be able to see ONE! Amaya was really excited about the bears.
At the end of the scenic drive through Bear Country, there is a small area to walk through to see other animals behind cages. We liked this "pile of bears" sleeping.
A great picture of Steve and Amaya right in front of the Bear Country Sign. They had a nice gift shop where I bought a wind-chime with bears on it and Amaya got a couple of the postcards. Amaya didn't want to take home any of the stuffed animals which surprised me. She would give them a kiss and then say, "no" and hand them back to Steve or me to put back. Guess I don't have to worry about her blowing our budget on stuffed animals.
Later that evening, we went back to our cabin and had an awesome fire. We roasted hot dogs for supper and smores for dessert. Relaxing by the campfire was probably Steve and my favorite thing to do and Amaya enjoyed it too. If you ask Amaya to say "fire", she says, "HOT!" She did very well around the fire and wasn't too curious about it. Soon enough, she'll be wanting her own fire stick to poke around in the fire like Steve does. :-)
This is a picture of the wolves - there was a den very close to the road, so we caught a lot of action! This little guy walked right behind our car onto the road.
BEARS! Boy, there must have been 15-20 bears around! We were hoping just to be able to see ONE! Amaya was really excited about the bears.
At the end of the scenic drive through Bear Country, there is a small area to walk through to see other animals behind cages. We liked this "pile of bears" sleeping.
A great picture of Steve and Amaya right in front of the Bear Country Sign. They had a nice gift shop where I bought a wind-chime with bears on it and Amaya got a couple of the postcards. Amaya didn't want to take home any of the stuffed animals which surprised me. She would give them a kiss and then say, "no" and hand them back to Steve or me to put back. Guess I don't have to worry about her blowing our budget on stuffed animals.
Later that evening, we went back to our cabin and had an awesome fire. We roasted hot dogs for supper and smores for dessert. Relaxing by the campfire was probably Steve and my favorite thing to do and Amaya enjoyed it too. If you ask Amaya to say "fire", she says, "HOT!" She did very well around the fire and wasn't too curious about it. Soon enough, she'll be wanting her own fire stick to poke around in the fire like Steve does. :-)