Northwest Trek Wildlife Park

We deliberately chose to stay at the Outback RV Park so that we could drive to the Northwest Trek Wildlife Park in Eatonville, WA. We started seeing commercials for Northwest Trek after Melissa had visited. We would have loved to have taken her to this wonderful facility. Today was the day we went to the park. On the way to the park, we got a view of Mt. Rainier. Unfortunately the pictures we took were hazy so I did not include them here.

Northwest Trek ia a facility of Metro Parks Tacoma. For your $15 per adult admission, you get a narrated tram tour in the free-roaming area, walking tour on forested pathways with animals in large natural exhibits, and can participate in trailside encounters.

At long last, we were able to get pictures of a pair of American Bald Eagles. The pair are here because they were hit by cars and could no longer survive in the wild.

These are immature Golden Eagles. They, too, also had run in with cars.

These cute little guy is a snowy owl. His partner recently passed away at the ripe old age of 18.

Great Horned Owls
Barn owls. These guys really did not look real.
Mountain goat
Yes, I finally found Bullwinkle! Isn't he cute?

Roosevelt Elk herd. This big guy is already surrounding himself with the cows and rutting season has yet to begin. See the young bull in the background? Once the hormones kick in, he will be kicked out. We were told that during rutting season, the buck has two things on his mind . . . his cows and fighting the other bucks. The bulls are usually are so busy attending to both that they don't eat a lot. In the wild where they have to contend with predators (like Grizzly Bears) the predators take advantage of their weakened state.

Speaking of grizzlies, here is one. Life is tough for this guy. His big left paw was scratching his belly. The other grizzly in the exhibit was bigger than this one but was more lazy than this one because this guy actually got up and walked around.

Remember the 70's and the big hoopla over the Spotted Owl. Well, here is one of those guys. Unfortunately, he also had a run-in with a car. We were told that they only live in old growth forests and eat flying squirrels and some kind of moth. This guy, however, has had to learn to eat other things but that he still was a picky eater. He only weighs 1 1/2 pounds . . . his bones are hollow and he is mostly feathers. We also learned that before any bird flies off, the last thing they do is poop.

We also saw a darling Screech Owl that weighed only 6 ounces. He did not screech but rather cooed like a dove. Unfortunately, our picture of him turned out fuzzy but he was darling. He came to the park at the age of two pretty undernourished. His problem is that he is an owl who doesn't like to fly. He can but he chooses not to. It was amazing that he survived two years in the wild.

Here is a beautiful wolf.

A majestic cougar, puma or mountain lion (whatever you want to call them) that can leap up to 20 feet in the air. These felines can be found in North America, Central America, and South America.

John finally got to see his Big Horn Sheep . . . rams, ewes, and darling lambs.

This park has only animals that are native to North America. They have many more animals than represented here but I didn't want to overwhelm you with pictures of them. This park does a wonderful job in their presentation. We would highly recommend everyone to visit this fabulous animal park.