Zoo Day, Part 2: Tautphaus Park

After two weeks on the road, my beloved Outback was a mess. Covered with dust, mud, grime and dead insects, it desperately needed a bath. I found a car wash in Idaho Falls, and it's clean and shiny now! My fun destination of the morning was the Tautphaus Park Zoo in Idaho Falls. Like yesterday's Hogle Zoo, it's a small facility but the biggest of its kind in Idaho. They have many nice animals, and they breed rare and endangered species. Because of the colder weather, some animals were moved inside, or had the option of being indoors. I checked out the primate house first, and was impressed by their large group of ring-tailed lemurs.

In the South American section. they had a couple of guanaco...they are related to llamas...and Patagonian mara or cavy. And, the snow leopard representing Asia was beautiful!

In the Africa section, there was a wonderful lion family, which included two playful cubs. It was a joy watching them frolic with each other...and with Mom!

After lunch, I drove north for two and a half hours, crossing into Montana. I visited Bannack State Park just west of Dillon. This park preserves the old mining town, which in 1862 was Montana's first territorial capital.

It's also considered a ghost town and there have been paranormal investigators looking for spirits, including the Ghost Adventures TV show. Of course, I was thinking ghosts as I walked through some of the buildings. It was a bit creepy, and after hearing creaking in the hotel, I was pretty much done going inside the structures.

As I was getting ready to walk back to the parking lot, I spotted a female deer looking at me. She was all by herself, and after eyeballing each other, she bound across the main street and up the hill overlooking the town.

Tomorrow, I continue driving back to my home state. It's supposed to rain for part of the day, so I might have to look for something to do indoors.