Discovery Wildlife Park is a great option for the top of your road trip list, and just an hour or so away from Edmonton, in Innisfail. New last year, they offered camping It’s a unique opportunity to spend the night and camp in the zoo, and get up close and personal with the animals.
There are no fire-pits allowed in the park, but you can rent a propane fire pit while you are there. Since we were only spending one night, and had the outdoor kitchen to cook with, we easily made dinner while we were there.
The cool thing about the camping experience at Discovery Wildlife Park is that it’s a newer option for camping in the area, and not many people know about it yet. It’s one of those experiences that the kids are going to remember (that time we got to camp in a zoo) and even more memorable, with the fun add-on options for campers. For this reason, getting in and out of the space designed for camping was simple – the easiest time we’ve had parking the RV!
After Hours Animal Tours
Camping in the zoo is cool enough, but there are experiences you can add on to your camping trip, to take part in after the zoo has closed – including meeting bears, tigers and feeding a camel. For the reasonable price of $20/person, we were given the opportunity to have an after-hours, up close and personal experience with tigers, and for an extra $5/person, we had the opportunity to meet the camel, hear the story of how the camel came to Discovery Wildlife Park, and feed him.
We booked the ‘big cat’ experience where we had an after-hours tour, getting up close and personal with the tigers, lions and jaguars. For the price of $20/person, we got to learn more about the cats, pet the tigers and learn more about their habits, their history, and experience the cats at one of their most active times of the day.
After we had our experience with the big cats, we experienced feeding Kumar the Camel. Armed with a container full of carrots, we all had so much fun getting up close and personal with him, the kids were instantly enamoured, and I’m not going to lie, so was I.
Before heading back to our camp site where the kids ran around until bedtime with other kids at the campground, had snacks and we didn’t actually miss the campfire at all. For a short term camping trip, one or two nights, it was a great way to experience the park – without the crowds, and with an afterhours VIP experience, it was actually quite an affordable weekend experience.
Find Discovery Wildlife Park at www.discoverywildlifepark.com. Want to fill your quest for adventure? Make sure you’re following along with This Big Adventure, where you’ll find all the inspiration you need to explore Alberta.