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Heading east from Bullhead City, the scenery remains spectacular
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Ooops - didn't expect to encounter that.
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REALLY didn't expect to encounter that . . . .
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This is what we came south to avoid . . . .
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Mmmmm - that's better
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The scenery along I-17 south of Flagstaff AZ is outstanding
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The view from the entrance road to our RV park is pretty neat, too
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Lots of these Quail scooting around the campground
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Lots of flowering fruit trees around . . .
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Somebody's been creative with the signage around the park
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Way up the side of the mountain is Jerome, the old mining town
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The views from Jerome of the valley below are impressive
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It's a "Storefront" . . . and it's open!
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Behind the storefront, a glassblower holds forth
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He was a quirky kind of guy . . .
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But he made nice things . . .
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He's making a glass pumpkin . . .
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An old projector graces the sidewalk outside the old movie theatre
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Jerome was a copper mine town from around 1905 to about 1950
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Many of the original buildings remain, all of them now repurposed
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Not sure where that door leads . . .
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The first of many cactus blossoms we'll see in Arizona
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This old brothel is now a quirky art gallery
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The Grand Hotel at the top of Jerome is a very popular destination
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The Haunted Hamburger claims to have the best burger in the world. We won't disagree
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So many fascinating rocks . . .
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This is why we won't take our motorhome to Jerome
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That's the Verde Valley Presbyterian Church. Nice church
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One day, we had no water in the RV Park. They had to dig to fix the leak
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The river banks have lots of huge Sycamore trees
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Some of the most popular tourist sites have plumbing . . .
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Montezuma's Castle and environs was home to a few hundred residents around 1400 AD.
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The ruins were named by early Spanish explorers who presumed they were Aztec
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The canyon wall is riddled with caves that show signs of human occupation
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Some of them have been "improved" with walls
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Until about 60 years ago, you could climb around in the ruins.
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Most of the ruins have been stabilized to ward off decay
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The walls were held together with a sandy mortar that, unfortunately, didn't hold up very well
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The ruins in the cliff are not the largest ruins at this site
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But they are the best preserved, and have been partially restored
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A cutaway model shows how the pueblo probably looked when in use
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A few miles from the Castle, ruins of a pit house date to around 700 AD
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Montezuma's Well is a spring-fed sink hole that provided a good source of water for the natives
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There were several dwellings built into the cliffs around the sink hole
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Setting a pattern for future governments, the highest form of life in the sink hole is the leech.
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The park service has built a stairway down to the water
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Judy climbed down into the sink hole
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Al stayed up on the rim . . .
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Archeologists have excavated several dwellings near the lake
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Dwellings below the sink hole rim offered a stable climate year-round
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The sink hole water is a constant 76 degrees, keeping things warm in winter, cool in summer
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Advertising, circa 1878
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The water is 56 ft deep, and naturally drains through an underground river called a "swallet"
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Early settlers often took the stones from the old dwellings for their own buildings
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Some of the cliff dwellings can best be seen from below the rim
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Judy likes the Kokopelli sign in Camp Verde . . . .
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A cane cholla in bloom. We like cacti in bloom
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Near Cottonwood, the impressive Tuzigoot Ruins sit atop a hill
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The hill contains many ruins
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Rooms averaged 16x18 ft, had ceilings at 5'6", and the doors were all in the roof
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The sycamore timbers were replaced as part of a restoration in the 1930's
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The pueblo was mysteriously abandoned in the early 1400s
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There is evidence of human activity in this area going back "several thousand" years
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When the ruins were reconstructed, they added ground level doors and made the ceilings higher
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And now you can climb stairs to the top level . . . . way up there
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The Soaptree Yucca is co-dependent on one species of moth - only that moth pollinates the yucca, only the yucca hosts that moth's eggs
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Yep - the waiters still sing at Johnny Rocket's Burger Place . . . .
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All that remains of the old ranch house at the V-Bar-V Ranch Petroglyph site
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Archeologists have dated these petroglyphs as far back as 600 AD
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They say these are sea turtles, indicative of trade with people on the coast over 1000 miles away
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We just happened to be there for the Spring Equinox
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The archeologist explains how the "calendar rocks" work to mark the equinox
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There are over 1,000 separate images on the rocks at this site
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When the sun is just right, those two protruding rocks cast shadows on the calendar rock
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About 5 minutes before the equinox, you can start to see the beam of light on the rock face
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The beam illuminates the sun symbol at the lower left of the image
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Precisely at the equinox, the bottom line of the beam touches both the bottom of the sun symbol and the top of the small circle just to the right
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And then the shadows move and the moment is passed
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This tall column will also cast a very specific shadow on the rocks at the summer solstice
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Heading into Sedona, you enter the Red Rocks area. Namesake rocks ahead!
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The sandstone formations surround Sedona and are very impressive
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Can you imagine these views every time you venture outdoors?
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Do you suppose folks get used to these views and don't notice them?
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Judging by the license plates in the scenic view pulloffs, most of the viewers were from Arizona
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It's like driving through a Roadrunner cartoon
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We saw people hiking to the top of this formation, and some climbing straight up the sides
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Red rocks are sandstone; lighter rocks are usually limestone
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Judy spotted Kokopelli in the metalwork
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The layering shows that way back when these rocks were under water
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It took quite a while to drive through Sedona, stopping all the time to take pictures
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Not all pueblos are ancient. This new one was across the valley from our RV park
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We were almost late to the movies in Sedona for taking pictures.
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We came out of the movies to this view. We can see why folks love it here
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We were very lucky to see a performance by native flutist R Carlos Nakai (from his website)
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We had never seen instruments like those madeand played b William Eaton (from his website)
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Our niece Beth and fiancee Mike stopped by on their way from California to Michigan. We had BBQ . . .
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We tried selling some surplus stuff at the RV park. Waste of a whole morning.
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Aboard the Verde Valley Wilderness Train - possibly the best scenic train ride we've ever taken
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The ride starts by passing 40 acres of copper smelter slag, waste material from the local copper smelter
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The slag came out of the furnaces in molten form. There used to be a metal wall there . . .
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Remnants of the wall that retained the slag
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They're starting to mine the slag heap for gold, silver, nickel, copper and other minerals
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Every enclosed car had access to an open-air car and a guide who pointed things out
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Remnants of an ancient cliff dwelling date to around 1400 AD
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These ruins are quite a ways from any road, and are not often visited
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About the only way to see them is to ride the train
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Some of the ruins are not as readily visible
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Sometimes we just took pictures of the cliffs and found the ruins later by zooming into the images
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There were about 15 cars plus locomotives in our train
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Our train car had been decorated . . .
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The train tracks generally followed the river
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They'd slow way down to cross some of the bridges and trestles
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We were impressed with these views, but things got much better
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That stuff that looks like rocks on the bluff across the river is prickly pear cactus
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Somebody hiked in and had a campfire!
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Even though prickly pear grows almost everywhere, it still fascinates us
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It was almost a perfect day for a train ride, just a little chilly
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As we get closer to the canyon, the rocks start to get more colorful
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The river water is generally too warm for game fish, but it does attract other wildlife, including beaver and javelina
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There are a couple of old homesteads still occupied across the river, and it looks like maybe they're doing some mining
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The green on this cottonwood tree is mostly mistletoe
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The strata are fascinating
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If you imagine properly, that rock on the right looks like a gecko, or maybe . . .
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You wonder what the ancient residents of this area thought about these views
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Can you see the turtle?
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Heading into the "other" Grand Canyon . . .
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Some of the rocks are close enough to touch, if you're dumb enough to try . . .
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Supposedly, that formation on the right is the guardian angel of the railroad.
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That cave was used to store explosives while the railroad was being constructed
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Exiting the canyon, a narrow bridge is just about 2 ft wider than the train
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The train reverses at an old ranch
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That's when we get to trade our cash for ice cream bars
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The ranch is still being used, but all roads leading there are private
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All we could do is look
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The old train station was used in the 1962 movie "How the West Was Won"
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The old water tower was blown up for the movie, and then the scene was edited out.
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Returning through the canyon, more caves arouse curiosity
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Everything looks different when the light changes later in the day
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We liked the paint job on those old locomotives
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Almost back to Clarkdale - ride's almost over
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The guide said this is a potters colony, with lots of kilns
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And the ride's over when we get back to the Clarkdale station
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We're suckers for wildlife parks. This one's just 5 miles from our RV park
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They offer a ride into an animal enclosure, and the animals get up close and personal
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We learned that only the mature male giraffe has that lump on the forehead
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Blue tongue! We fed it carrot sticks . . .
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This was the first animal we had a chance to feed
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The giraffe wasn't the only beggar we encountered
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The ostriches didn't care for carrots, but really went for other treats
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This giraffe seems to have an excess of skin . . . some shar pei blood, perhaps?
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Our driver demonstrated the Giraffe Kiss. Nobody else emulated him . . .
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Awww - kids!
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The male adult goat surveys his domain
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The park has many tigers, and most are friendly with the staff
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It's an oryx, looking for food
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The guide says these animals are not people friendly. We tucked our hands back in
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Beautiful horns . . .
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We're told these guys bite
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So only the guide interacted with them
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The guide could get the zebra to smile . . . sort of
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Meanwhile, the sneaky ostrich . . .
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You could feed a camel through a convenient hole in the fence
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Those markings are great
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As close as we got to their resident white rhino
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A rare bobcat . . .
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The Giant Snake Show featured a couple of big snakes
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The python was well fed, but still prowled
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The anaconda was more sluggish
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But folks could go in the enclosure and play with the snakes. Lots of folks refused that offer
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Judy chose to take these pictures from the other side of the fence
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We had lunch next to this fellow, who was also hungry . . .
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The park has a lot of these beautiful animals
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Most of them appear to be friendly to their handlers.
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We really like tigers
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There were a couple of young grizzlies who were very active
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They were as curious about us as we were about them
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And they were especially interested when the tigers next door were being fed
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They look so gentle . . .
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These two will soon be showing off in the pool complex
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Beautiful
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Poor crocodile didn't have any water to enjoy
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Proved we wuz there . . .
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They call it Tiger Splash. This one calls it Happy Hour
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We think there was catnip there - the tiger kept rolling in it
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This cutie was having a great time . . .
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The handlers went to great pains to show they were friends of tigers
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No, it's just nuzzling. But still . . . .
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How much do you suppose they pay him to be tiger bait?
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The tigers seemed to enjoy chasing balls and things
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They really liked bags of balloons - and the popping thereof
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Still takes courage to tease an 800 lb pussycat
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It was a most impressive performance
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Never been that close to a hyena before
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Not sure how a cougar qualifies for an African wildlife park
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But then, tigers aren't African either
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Now that's an African cat . . .
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But those are American prairie dogs . . .
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Aren't we cute!
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That's the same tiger the bus driver played with earlier
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King of the Beasts . . .
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The coatimundi pretty much ignored us . . .
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Zebras stripes get darker as they get older. Brown stripes = young
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He'd say Hello, but not much else . . .
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You just know he's waiting to spit . . . .
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Finally, the animal we didn't take home . . . .