Looking for something to do this afternoon, we all piled into the truck, and headed to Lone Elk to see the bison. Sio had never seen them before, and the day was just barely nice enough to go looking.

After a nice lunch in Eureka, we headed on over to the park. When we got there, we noticed the World Bird Sanctuary was open, and decided to drop in. I’m glad we did!

In their weathering area, they had all kinds of birds of prey — hawks and owls. They were tethered, and almost close enough to touch. We all had a great time watching them preen, spead their wings, and stare back at us like we were the exhibit.

At the visitors center, Sio got to pet a twelve-feet albino burmese python — beautiful white and yellow creature. I was amazed at how soft the skin was — I can see why folks make leather goods out of snakes.

The coolest thing, though, were our encounters with the elk in the park. Right off, we saw a male and female. The male had a huge rack! We had a couple of additional sightings, and then ran across the herd.

The herd had 10-12 elk, just roaming down the road, and in and out of the stopped cars. We were all gawking at the majesty and beauty of these massive creatures. They meandered on down the road and went off down a hill.

No bison, but nature at its finest, nonetheless!