Monday, October 17, 2011

Explore: Olympic Game Farm in Sequim!!!

Haven't you always wanted to come THIS close to wild animals? Face to face, and stare straight into the eyes of a buffalo? 
If this sounds like your kind of fun family trip, then you better hightail it over to the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim, WA!  It's on the Olympic Peninsula, kind of in the middle of nowhere, and wow, such a hidden gem of a place!  I have been to a lot of different Zoos in my life and honestly never did anything as cool as this.  It's a complete RIOT and your kids will have a blast!
So you drive your vehicle into the Game Farm, and tell your kids all the animals are going to come right up to the windows and they can help feed them!  You can buy loaves of bread right where you buy your entrance tickets for $2 a loaf, or you can come prepared with lots of even cheaper bread from the grocery store.  Bring more than you think you will need!  Trust me, these animals LOVE bread!  {If you do bring your own, make sure it's wheat bread.  White bread isn't allowed}.

You can't get out of your vehicle while you're in the park (for obvious reasons!), but we quickly realized that the real fun comes when you let your kids sit on your laps in the front seat and help you feed the animals.  Their reactions are priceless!  And you're moving sooooo slow through the park, so the kids are safe.  Natalie was squealing and laughing and had the best time ever feeding the animals bread! 


You get to feed all kinds of animals!  Mostly llamas, deer, elk, caribou, yak, and buffalo.  We even got to feed zebras! 

And you can feed their BEARS too!  The bears don't come up to your windows, but they actually do tricks for you to get the bread!  I read online that the bears do tricks, but wasn't sure if I believed it.  They really do!  It was so cool!  Just hold up the bread and wait for a minute, and they'll do tricks for you!

So if you're squeamish, you'll want to sit in the backseat with the windows rolled up.  These animals are NOT shy and will shove their noses in your windows as far as you'll let them!  We kept our windows about halfway up so they couldn't get their entire heads inside the car!  Yes, their noses are slippery and you will get slobber all over your car.  Prepare to drive through a car wash afterwards.  :)



Now get ready for the most disgusting part of the day... the buffalo's long, black tongue, which he will stretch into your car to grab the bread.  Gross!  Kirsten was scared of the buffalo and retreated to the back of the van and even Stephen was disturbed, but I thought it was hilarious!

The buffalo baby was a bit cuter though...

After you pay the entrance fee ($12 per person, and kids 5 and under are free) you can stay in the park as long as you want and drive through as many times as you want.  We kept going until we ran out of bread! 



It was amazing to pet and feed such beautiful animals!  Seriously, where else do you get to do something like this???  And it's only a few hours' drive away from Seattle!


The Olympic Game Farm also has a big cats section you can drive through with tigers, lions, cougars, etc.  The cages are a little sad, since the animals really don't have a lot of space to roam around.  And then they have another area you can walk around in with a big aquarium, some goats and sheep you can pet, and some cute caged raccoons.  My kids loved being able to stretch their legs after driving around so long, and they were mesmerized by the fish!
 
 
It was an unforgettable and completely unique experience!  You need to take your family and GO!  Any animal lover would have a great time there, but it's especially fun with kids!

12 comments:

  1. Whoa! How very fun!! I can see how a giant black tongue could make Kirsten nervous! ;) Still, I'd love a "zoo" like that!

    Carla

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  2. I haven't been since we had kids but it would be a fun place to go sometime with them. Ah one of these weekends I should go!

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  3. This looks like SO much fun! The bears look so cute doing their tricks. I love that they even got to feed a zebra! Who gets to do that?! Wish we had this closer to us.

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  4. Oh my goodness, that is awesome!!!!!!! How fun, I bet the kids loved that! And what a cute bear that is...I wanna cuddle him!

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  5. Eww, that tongue IS disgusting haha! Can't wait to have a family day there.

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  6. Wow! That looks like a lot of fun. I think I'd be worried about damage to our car, though.

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  7. We went there over labor day and it was so fun. Our kids were rolling laughing at me and we had buffalo slobber all over my side of the car and I swear the more I scrubbed it, the slimyer it got. Finally I was able to windex it and get it off with that but it was pretty funny. We actually went there in the morning, left and ate lunch in Sequim and then went back in the afternoon because the kids loved it so much :)

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  8. the images are beautiful (: i want to visit a zoo that can feed the animals (:

    CMPang x
    http://maisecrets.blogspot.com/

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  9. ASHLEYYY! I have missed youuuuuuuuu! and your Veater Family Adventures!!!!
    Look at your babies! they are getting so big now!!!!!! my goodness gracious!!!!
    i love these pictures! they are awesome!!

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  10. That looks so awesome! wow next time I'm in Seattle we should go there! :)

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  11. Wow, how cool! I would love to do something like this. When I was little once, I was in the car in upstate NY with my parents, sister, and grandparents, and a deer stuck her head in our car window and wouldn't leave until we fed it something. We didn't have any food, which meant I got to feed her tic tacs from my grandma's purse out of my hand.

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