Drive-Thru Zoo

It seems like everything in Oklahoma has a drive-thru. Once we saw a man on his horse going through the McDonald's drive-thru - of course it was captured on the iphone camera and texted to all of our friends. We also recently experienced another drive-thru event.... Drive-Thru Zoo! And snapped many photos...

This is Arbuckle Wilderness in Davis, Oklahoma (between Oklahoma City and Dallas, Texas). Let me set the stage... I did not have high expectations of this drive-thru zoo and I was quite worried that the whole event would be a flop. First of all, we had to drive about 2 hours from our house to get there. We made sure we had a movie for Emily and her friend, Kayla, to watch in the car during the drive. Appropriately, the girls picked "We Bought a Zoo." Another point of concern - many of the reviews from the internet were not very positive... claiming not enough animals, not the right kind of animals, sick-looking animals. But some friends had been to the zoo last year and they said it was good.

So we packed up and headed to Arbuckle Wilderness (I think the name is kind of funny... hahaha)


The sign is a bit deceiving... we actually didn't see any tigers or lions at this drive-thru zoo.

Some important advice before entering the wilderness (where the animals live)

This is the emu that greeted us (I think this it's an emu anyway). It stuck its head right in the window! This resulted in the first screams of the day, followed immediately by a huge erruption of laughter. It was so funny! At this moment, I knew the 2-hour drive was worth it even if we didn't see another animal all day. Oh but the fun didn't stop here... there were many more "greeters."



The Pepsi cup in Emily's hand was purchased at the shop located at the entrance of the zoo. There is a charge for driving through the zoo and also for each cup of food. We had 4 cups of food (one cup for each of us), but we easily could have used double that to feed the number of animals that came near the car.

The llamas were friendly (and hungry). Look how they just come right to the window!
Definitely some more screaming and laughing now.

This is me feeding this little animal (maybe it's a llama?)



This guy... "Hey! Excuse me! Can I get some of that snack?"

The little donkeys were so hungry.
They have very straight teeth!
They all look like they've had braces.

Here's Emily feeding one of the donkeys. This part of the zoo was a little more calm because the donkeys couldn't reach their heads into the car window... so less screaming...

These huge bison did not come near the car (thankfully)! But we kept the windows rolled up in this area just in case.

The rhinos were behind a fence but still close enough for a great photo.

The drive-thru zoo had some great views of the surrounding hills too. Who knew Oklahoma had some mini mountains?! The trees and hills were very pretty - reminded me a little of Pennsylvania.

I think this is my favorite picture. It captures the fun of this up close and personal drive-thru zoo - literally.

So if you are in Oklahoma and have a little extra time, I recommend checking out this drive-thru zoo. We didn't see any "typical" zoo animals like elephants, giraffes, tigers, lions. But interacting with the emus, ostriches, llamas, and donkeys was loads of fun.

http://www.arbucklewilderness.com/