Take ride on the WILD side...

Ohio is home to some pretty incredible zoos (Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland) but there is one place to go in Ohio where the animals roam free and the visitor is locked up! Roaming across 9,000 acres in southeastern Ohio's Meigs County, The WILDS is a twist on a zoo that shouldn't be missed. It's a place where the wildlife roams freely about the landscape while the visitor safari's around in a bus to view them (see right, click to enlarge).

Billed as the nation's largest animal conservatory, The Wilds opened to public viewing in the mid 1990's, offering a multiple-hour tour around several gated habitats where a handful of animals ranged free. The land in use was reclaimed after AEP had stripped-mine the area for coal and donated to the Wilds. There are rolling, grass covered hills, a few small bands of forest and many small lakes that dot the landscape.

Among the first white settlers to these hilltops were the Lett family, which became a mixed-race family whose descendants held many honored positions in Ohio and included several African-American soldiers in the Civil War serving in colored regiments. An Ohio historical marker notes this near the Overlook cafe and gift shop (see right, click to enlarge), but strangely this bit of historical context does not make any of the guided tour narration.

This is one destination where you have to get off the Interstate to reach, but it is easily found south of I-70 and west of I-77 about 35 minutes southeast of Zanesville and about 20 minutes south (and slightly west) of Cambridge. Mileage and/or Google maps will easily fool you, as your route winds you through some hilly countryside and you will not be able sit on your cruise control once off the highway!

The most common entrance to the Wilds leads along Zion Ridge Road, which as the name implies, is a unlined road that runs along the top of a hill and gives you sweeping views of the area. Once you reach the Wilds parking lot, a shuttle bus takes you from the parking lot to the visitor center. Whether you choose to tour the Wilds or not, parking and shuttle is separate cost of $3.

There are several touring options for the facility, the most common being a multi-hour, air-conditioned, closed shuttle bus (seating about 15) for $20 per adult. Small sliding window panels above the large picture windows allow for smudge, streak and glare free photography. Visitors will view all of the habitat zones while having a chance to visit three different off-the-bus experiences too. You can spend as long or as little as you want at each of these three stops.

A second, and nearly as popular, touring option is an open-air "safari" bus (see left, click to enlarge). This vehicle looks like a school bus that was turned into a rag-top convertible. There are no windows, which allows for great photo opportunities, but a canvas top that protects from the sun. This second, more expensive option at $27 per person, has less flexibility for the visitor to choose how long to visit each step-off site, but you will have the same guide the entire time. Each step-off site will have a narrated visit, whereas the smaller enclosed bus will drop you off for perusing on your own.

These stops are thoughtfully places along the tour as to give a nice variety to the experience. Visitng about 10 years ago, these options did not exist and it was a lengthy afternoon of being cooped up in a bus touring animals.

The first step-off experience is a prairie that edges up to the biggest lake on the property, nestled at the bottom of a pair of ridges (see left, click to enlarge). A few different habitats touch this lake and you can view, although at a considerable distance, different animals. While along the lakes edge, where you can feed the swans and catfish (the only feeding location in the park), we could spy at the waters edge on the opposite shore the Sichuan Takin (pronounced Sesh-wan Talk-in). An unusal breed that looks like a cross between a goat, antelope and... guinea pig. High-powered binoculars, which can be rented at the visitor center, or long-lens photography would be the only way to view these animals at that distance.

The smaller bus option has a guide who drives and talks as you drive through each habitat. The driver will stop along the route at optimum viewing angles for the animals. What makes The Wilds so unique, is that the animals are frequently on the move. It also means you just don't know what to expect (including the driver!). The first habitat we came across the guide sensed our excitement as we spotted a few Rhinoceroses between a grove of trees (see right, click to enlarge) and stopped for several minutes for us to gawk and snap photos even though she couldn't spot them from her seat.

The habitats are set up so that competing animals won't be prowling the pen for prey. Some of the more curious, or perhaps attidue-laden, animals like to come up to the busses. Unlike some animal situations involving visitors, feeding them is not one of them. So the animals are not coming to the vehicles looking for some goodies. The guides are sensitive to the animals and if they plop themselves in front of the vehicle you'll have a few minutes (or more!) wait until the animal decides to scoot along.

The second stop to disembark at was the Mid-sized Carnivore Center. This is the one area that more closely resembles a zoo, as you can walk along a path to a building that overlooks three different pens where hyena, a fox species and cheetahs are penned. Each area is significantly bigger than a typical zoo's displaying area, but they are still constricted in their range. The building also serves as a nice snack stop, offering light-fare (sandwhiches, chips, drinks, ice cream) and ample and modern restroom facilities. The other two step-off sites offer only porta-potties in comparison.

This stop on the day of visiting also was offering face-painting for kids. The fencing around the pens, and throughout the Wilds, is elecrified and it allowed the visitor to get very close to a few snoozing cheetahs. As we moved to catch the next shuttle bus at the Carnivore Center, a cheetah broke out in a gallop as it heard a staff vehicle approaching near its gate and assumed (unfortunately and incorrectly) it was dinner time (see right, click to enlarge).

The final step-off experience is a shorter one, located among the habitat for the white rhino and zebras (see left, click to enlarge). As we entered the habitat you could see the rhino near the enclosure where we would get off the bus, but by the time we were about halfway to the enclosure (about 5 minutes later), they had wandered 200 yards beyond it. Upon arriving (15 minutes after entering the habitat zone) the rhinos had moved another few hundred yards to the edge of the road where we had just been. This enclosure (called The Outpost) gives a sweeping view of the southern end of the Wilds and has several horns and skulls of animals and a brief narration by the guide. Upon leaving the zone, the rhino had moved several hundred yards again, far beyond the road.

Weaving around to the final habitat, you pass a narrow but long lake known as "Lake T". This was an artifical creation left behind from strip mining. The lake was dug by a behemoth of a crane, known as the Big Muskie. Created for strip mining operations, cranes like the Big Muskie were used to dig deep to unearth the coal in the hills (see right, click to enlarge). At a "mere" 27 million pounds, the Big Muskie would dig 185 feet down with each scoop of its 220 cubic yard bucket. The remaining lake was courtesy of Big Muskie, which today resides about 15 miles down Ohio route 83 as a historic/tourist destination in Reinersville, Ohio (map, web, YouTube).

The Wilds has continued to expand options for those interested in visiting. Newly built cabins near the visitor center with a grand view of the region can be rented for overnight or weekend stays. There are several of summer camp options for families and kids that involve the park and the staff. There is even a sunset tour where a catered buffet dinner preceds an open-safari bus tour of the complex.

Due the nature of this twist on nature, visits to The Wilds will offer different experiences each time. As the guide pointed out, each time they drive through a habitat the animals can be doing something different or be in a completely different part of the pen from the previous trip earlier in the day. Sometimes you get an up-close and personal view, as we did with camels and giraffes (see left and right, click to enlarge). But sometimes you might not see them at all, which was the case with the Sichuan Takins stayed along the water line and far from the road

The Wilds offers an experience quite unique to those zoo-goers and an experience unlike many you can find anywhere in the country. But you can see it on a quick jaunt within the Wilds of Ohio.

- J.