No, we cannot get enough of bears. Sure, we saw a couple back in Glacier, but when we were driving through the Black Hills of South Dakota and saw a sign for Bear Country USA, there was little question what we were doing next.
Bear Country USA is a safari style zoo. Elk, reindeer, antelope, mountain goats, wolves, bears, and other wild animals are housed in wide gated fields across 200 acres. Visitors drive themselves along the winding 3 mile road at their own pace or, at least, within the realms of courtesy. It is is one lane road and there are other cars that may not want to spend as much time staring at mountain goats as you. I might wonder why, then, they came to a wildlife park, but that is their own issue.
Baby Land
Along with the drive through portion of Bear Country USA, there is also Baby Land, a more conventional zoo section where smaller animals were in sunken pens so that visitors could easily observe them. I don’t quite know what inspired the zoo to include skunks in their display but I just wish I could have gotten a better view of the otters. There really is only one reason that this section of Bear Country USA is called Baby Land. The real draw to this section is the baby black bear pen where I’m taking bets on how many baby black bears can fit in one tree. So far, I’ve counted 5 at one time.
