Are you a Mainer looking for a fun day trip with your family? Visiting Maine soon and looking for a great way to enjoy the day? Add the Maine Wildlife Park to your list!
I had heard about the Maine Wildlife Park in Grey for many years but hadn’t had the chance to make the trip. This past may our homeschool group offered up a trip we jumped on the chance. My boys and I loaded up sunblock, lunch and water bottles and drove over. When we pulled into the huge parking lot there were several buses. Mr1 said “oh man, it’s going to be packed with all of these buses here.” I had to laugh at his very homeschooler statement. It turned out it was all fine. The park is large and spread out enough that you don’t feel the number of guests even if they were at full capacity.
We started the day with a presentation about turtles under one of the pavilions. The park ranger shared about different kinds of turtles and where they live, how we can help endangered turtles. She also shared how we in Maine can help care for turtles if and when we see them trying to cross the road . There were some to see right up close as well as some other items to help us learn about turtles.
After the presentation we gobbled our lunches and then ventured out to see the animals. We had a map and Mr2 was an eager navigator. We headed down the path and first saw the porcupines, beavers, racoons and deer. The dear habitat is quite large so you had to look close but we saw them enjoying the shade. They have an albino deer and racoon living at the park which was quite a rare sighting. After we enjoyed the first leg of the park we moved on to the fox and cat habitats. The bob cats were beautifully camouflaged and were so cute hanging up in a tree just like a house cat.
We continued to venture through and saw the coyotes, ducks, and bears. Be sure to bring your quarters to the park for the bubble gum style machine and get a small handful of food for the bears. The day we visited the bears were taking a nap and the food didn’t even rouse them so we only saw their backs but it was still fun to see.
Next was probably my favorite animals to see, the moose. They seemed to be modeling for us right next to the fence so we could get lots of pics and really enjoy seeing to of the park’s largest animals.
The bird habitats were really great with the owls, eagles, and hawks. The peacock put on a beautiful show for us as it strutted around several turkeys.
After the birds we went to a part of the park that actually looked like it wasn’t for visitors (but it was), the fish hatchery. It was a really long building with different spots to see the fish. At the very end was a large space for the fish and a dispenser to buy fish food. When you toss it into the water all the fish swarm for it. It was really cool to see a the work being done right up close.
When we left for the day the boys were all saying who they thought would enjoy the park and that we should take a Trail Life Field trip there. Id say it was a huge success! Have you been to the Maine Wildlife Park? If not I’d definitely put it on your Maine To Do List! Go to https://www.maine.gov/ifw/wildlife-park/index.html for more information.
This likes a really fun park! We live in New York and have been wanting to visit Maine one day. Glad I found your blog!
We recently went to a wildlife conservation park in Alaska and the porcupines were our favorite! Such interesting animals!