For our last day of summer, I wanted to surprise Tim with a day on the Oly peninsula. A few months ago he found a brochure for the Olympic Game Farm on the ferry and has literally been asking to go on every free weekend. So we headed NW towards Sequim with a loaf of bread and no idea what we were getting ourselves into...
The farm was used exclusively by Walt Disney Studios for many of their nature-themed movies, including Grizzly Adams and The Bear (a movie that scared Tim so much as a child that he had to leave the theater)! In the 70's, the owners finally started opening it up to the public to meet the animal actors and see the grounds. You can click on the next picture for some more history...
STAY IN THE CAR!
The animals hang out in the middle of the road...to make sure you stop and feed them. They are very crafty like that.
Tim was hesitant at first...
But the people in front of us were more than happy to let the llamas into their car for a meal...
There were some animals in pens that you couldn't feed, but just admire from the comfort of your vehicle.
And then more animals would stand in your way to get food...
They
expect you to feed them and will follow the car for several feet until you do.
And then we got to the bears...
(See I was there!)
This was a massive Kodiak bear that came right to the fence to see us. I swear he knew I was taking pictures (I have quite a few) and was ready and willing to pose. I love animal actors. :-)
This guy was hanging out in the shade...
And this one was cooling off in the pond...
We rolled up the windows to avoid getting wet...
And then we headed into the predator area, which was the home of all the big cats and wolves...
Once we made it through those, it was back into the plains...this is what a Bison Kiss looks like:
The deer were pretty cute...
And this raccoon was so funny...he saw me taking pictures and got into this little pose for a good minute while I snapped away! Animal Actors = Best Poses Ever.
After our driving tour was over, we headed into the mini-walking tour area and saw the petting zoo...
and more raccoons. Um, I want a raccoon.
These little guys were brought to the game farm after being abandoned by their mother. The man who was playing with them had raised them from 2 weeks old, so they were going crazy playing around. These little guys were about 6 months old and will likely live at the game farm forever, because in WA state, it is illegal to return animals raised in captivity to the wild.
And then it was time for a tour of the studio barn. This is the imprint of one of their most famous Kodiak bears...it was used to create the wall in the petting area (
see above), by leading the bear on a walk through this plaster with a twinkie attached to a fishing pole
.
There were some small sets in the barn and a lot of little props from the different things they had done there.
They also had these skulls...can you guess what happened?
These two animals had died when they locked their horns together during a fight and couldn't get untangled. They still can't get them untangled!
Like I said before, 95% of the Grizzly Adams movie & series was filmed at the game farm. He even pointed out where Grizzly's cabin had been located (right outside the barn).
And I have to include the movie poster for Tim's favorite childhood memory... :-)
And when we walked out of the barn, they had brought out one the little raccoons to meet the kids. It was, seriously, on the cutest things ever. (
Warning: Do not try this at home!)
I later asked if they still train these animals for a life in the movies and I guess they recently hired out their bear and wolf team for a recent movie (we don't remember which) and Nissan hired one of their bears for a commercial not too long ago. He said that the use of CGI technology has greatly decreased the need for live animals.
