Bearizona
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Bearizona is a place we’ve passed by many times on our way to the Grand Canyon. We’ve been interested in going, but it never worked with our time tables for our trips. Since we were staying so close to the park for a few days, we decided to finally set some time aside and actually visit it.
Bearizona is a 160-acre wildlife park in Williams, Arizona. It’s a great place to see North American animals up close! Getting to the park is quite easy. Just take a drive down Interstate 40 to Williams. Turn south towards Williams instead of heading north on Arizona Route 64 towards the Grand Canyon. Bearizona is just outside the main section of town and is easy to spot, especially with the massive arch on the way in.
Tickets are $25 for adults and $15 for children 4-12 with a ticket cap of $120 per carload. Once tickets are purchased you can either go park or go on the driving portion.
The highlight of the park is a three-mile drive through Ponderosa forest where visitors can see animals such as goats, sheep, elk, burros, wolves, bison, and, of course, bears wandering around! Each species is fenced off from the others. They seem to be given a good amount of space to roam within the forest. As you drive through the sections with wolves and bears, there are signs instructing drivers to close windows and lock doors securely to keep passengers safe.
We drove through when we first got to the park, but many of the animals were sleeping. After we walked around, we decided to drive through one last time before we left. Fortunately more of the animals were up and active, so we got to see many more the second time. Unfortunately, driving through is a single lane and leaves you at the mercy of the cars in front of you, so it can be a bit slow at times.
The first area had a mountain goat with tufts of fur all over him as he lounged in the shade. The next area had elk - one of which seemed a bit too curious of our car. He kept getting close and seemed like he was wanting to hit us so we continued to the deer area.
We then came to the two different wolf enclosures. The first was the tundra wolves followed by the arctic wolves. All of the wolves in both sections were just laying around in the shade, and they would periodically look at the cars as we drove past. They were quite beautiful with their white fur.
Next was the first bear section. When we first drove through all of them were sleeping. The second time more of them were visible and some were walking around and swimming.
The bison have a wide-open range to roam. They mostly kept clustered together in a herd. In this area and in the bear section, make sure you drive through the “loop” to get a closer look at the animals!
Then we drove through where the bighorn sheep roamed. There were quite a few of them and even a few younger ones.
The final area is the big bear section. The first time they were all sleeping, but we did see one napping on top of an observation room so it was worth it for that. Taylor particularly liked seeing some bears sleeping with their legs propped up on the trunk of a tree. On our second drive-through, more were walking around and swimming just like in the previous area.
Bearizona does have a smaller walk-around part of the wildlife park called Fort Bearizona, that features many smaller and sometimes more dangerous animals. This area is more of a traditional zoo setting. Our favorite exhibits were the otters, jaguars, and the three grizzly bear cubs!
Since it was the middle of summer most of the animals in Fort Bearizona were sleeping in the shade. The javelinas, red foxes, badgers, porcupines, and the beaver were all a challenge to spot. Unfortunately, they all never got up from their naps, so we couldn’t get really any good pictures of them.
The otters were resting in the shade as well, but we were at least able to see them poke their cute heads up and look around from time to time.
The bobcats were a bit active when we saw them. They had beautiful coats and piercing eyes that would sometimes look at the visitors.
The racoons were walking around as well, but wouldn’t turn to face us for a good picture!
Next to the cafe is the jaguar enclosure. They had a black jaguar who was sleeping in a side area and couldn’t be seen very well, and there was a spotted jaguar who was resting but could barely be seen through the window. We waited a minute and the spotted jaguar got up and seemed interested in eating a child looking at him from the other side of the glass. It’s too bad there was a bit of glare on the glass that hindered us seeing this gorgeous jaguar.
The main attraction of Fort Bearizona is their newly acquired grizzly bear cubs named Crockett, Hanna, and Sky. They’re from Montana and were rescued when their mother had to be euthanized after attacking a hiker. These cubs are so adorable. When we first saw them they were all napping together in a pile but finally started roaming around. We later returned to see the cubs swimming and then play fighting with each other for fun.
The area also has a petting zoo called the barnyard, a rescued bald eagle who can’t fly anymore after an injury, and the mineshaft (which was closed) that we assume had some reptiles in it. Since we were here during the COVID-19 pandemic, the raptor show wasn’t running.
Fort Bearizona also has a gift shop, two restaurants, an art gallery, and a picnic area for guests to enjoy.
We thought Bearizona was great and now understand why we keep seeing cars with stickers of it down in the Phoenix area. Although the traditional zoo area is a bit small, the park sets itself apart with the drive through section that really lets you see the animals in a better way. We now plan to make return trips to bring our family here, see the park when it isn’t locked down from the pandemic, and of course check up on those cute grizzly cubs.
Google Maps Link: Bearizona
