If you are ever even close to the Fort Worth, Texas area, one place you do not want to miss is Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose. I have been to Fossil Rim once before when I was about 8 or 9 and it made a huge impact on me then...and it did again today.
Fossil Rim is more than a drive through, feed the animals, get pecked by a crazy ostrich tourist trap. Much, much more. The landscape is gorgeous with amazing views of some great Texas hill country and I can not say it any better than their own philosophy as it states the following.
"Modern culture, with its emphasis on economic and technological values, tends to threaten the quality and integrity of nature. Fossil Rim strives to provide a model and stimulus for alternative ways of experiencing and relating to animals and nature as a whole."
I left Fossil Rim with such a different feeling than I did from the last zoo trip in Chicago. Several times today I caught myself thinking, now if I were an (insert animal name here), I would certainly want to live here. There was just so much room for these animals to roam. Too bad all zoos can't have 1,500 acres to roam freely. Too bad all children can't witness antelopes jumping in play and a wildebeast heard running at full speed like we did. It was breathtaking.
Read more about how they are helping many species like the black rhino, the prairie chicken and the grey wolf return from the brink of extinction. And if you homeschool and live in the area, they have some really great programs for homeschool families that I would sign up for in a NY minute if we lived here all of the time.
It is an amazing place and one I will want to go to again. And a little side note, if you do like crazy ostriches who poke their heads right into your car and peck at your steering wheel while you are desperately trying to throw some feed pellets out the window and hit the up button to roll up the window...well, about 3/4 of the way through, your guy is waiting for you.