Yellowstone Bear World Review

We must say that every Utahan must go to Idaho….. that is at least Yellowstone Bear World as they are passing through Idaho to Yellowstone National Park!

We had a recent visit to Yellowstone Bear World and this has been a place that we have wanted to go for a very long time. We finally had the opportunity and can’t believe we didn’t go before now!

Cassie was most excited as bears are her favorite animal.  Also, as Human Microphone sleeps with his “brown bear,” these creatures hold a special place in his heart too!

But it wasn’t just those two that were excited and it wasn’t just bears that we saw.  It was an up close, personal and quick mini-Yellowstone- at least in terms of the animal sightings that we were all excited to experience!

Bear World is located between Rigby and Rexburg Idaho, near Idaho Falls, ID and on U.S. Highway 20 heading out to the West Yellowstone park entrance.

First, you will pay an entrance fee to just enter into the parking lot.  Why? Well because your ticket costs gets you and your family into almost all of the sights and the sights begin as soon as you enter. We thought the cost was more than worth the experience. I guess growing up around Yellowstone and have been there dozens of times and really yet to see a bear officially makes it quite nice to finally say we saw a “Yellowstone” bear – the price was worth it!

Here are the prices to enter into Yellowstone Bear World:

• Adults $15.95
• Seniors $14.95
• Children 3-10 years $9.95
• Children 0-2 FREE
• Car load $55 (Best Value for a family!)

Here’s what your fee covers:

• Drive through park viewing of the animals
• Amusement rides
• Petting zoo with the usual suspects and with deer!!)
• Up close views of the bear cubs playing in their pens

You are guaranteed to see a bear, or two, or a dozen!

In fact, you will see animals up close and personal in their natural habitats just as if you were in Yellowstone.  We have heard about Yellowstone Bear World for many years, but really had no idea that they had many animals there!

The wildlife that you will see are:

• Rocky Mountain Elk
• Bison
• Mountain Goats
• Mule Deer
• White-Tail Deer
• Moose
• American Black Bears
• Grizzly Bears
• Gray Wolves

To see the wildlife, you will drive along a paved road and encounter each of the wildlife in their “areas” of the park.  The first wildlife that we saw were the Mountain Goats.  Shortly after, you will come up on the Rocky Mountain Elk.

The Elk viewing was a sweet surprise as Yellowstone Bear World is home to a couple of rare White Rocky Mountain Elk (1:6,000,000) and they were very beautiful creatures and so amazing to see!

We did see all of the animals above, which was very cool, but…….. after seeing the goats, elk, bison, deer…. you enter a gated area where you are strictly required to keep your car windows up and restrain your temptation of rolling them down to get a closer view/touch of those cute adorable fuzzy things.  Why?  Well, they are bears of course! Safety comes first.

The first part of the bear habitat is where you will find the Grizzly’s.  There were three Grizzly’s living there when we went: a sister and brother (who is huge!) and the papa bear.  They are in the grassy areas behind an electric fence, so they do not walk all over the roads like you hear bears are doing at Yellowstone Bear World.

The Brother Bear was swimming and Sister and Papa Bear were just hangin’ around.

Shortly after the Grizzly habitat, you enter the American Black Bears habitat.  There are more than a dozen of these cute cuddly’s roaming the grounds.  The will walk down the road, walk across the road, lay on the road, lay on your car if you secretly planted fresh meat, swim in the little pools, attempt to climb the trees, wrestle, run, play, roll, and scratch their heads and backs with the trees around them! Jungle Book was telling the truth when it comes to those “bear necessities.”

In fact, we caught one doing just that:

And then, wouldn’t you know it….one of the curators told us that Baloo from The Jungle Book (the real deal) lives at Yellowstone Bear World and we got to see him!

They were all over the place roaming and doing what bears do.  We had one that walked in front of us slowly, then walked to the side of our vehicle about 1 ft. away.  We got several picks of him, but we liked this shot as he looked right at the camera!

And guess who it was…… Baloo! I (Cassie), just wanted to jump out and hug him!

They have an area of the drive where the bears that just left the baby pen (when they hit 2 years old) hang out that you will see on the drive.  These small American Black Bears are behind a two line electric fence to protect them from being hit by cars while they learn the ropes.  The older American Black Bears are the ones roaming the wild.

Also, keep your eyes peeled for the few resident Gray Wolves that live amongst the bears. They are right there next to you, but difficult to see as they hide in the tall grasses.

The drive is around 20-30 minutes and going at a speed of around 5 mph.  It is a very thrilling ride even at that slow pace. You can go through this drive as many times as you want with your 1 day pass. We went 4 times!

There are extra things that you can see and do at Yellowstone Bear World that are not included in your admission:

• Curator Tours $11.95 per person or  $25 for the whole family (up to 7)
• Baby Bear Feedings ($35 per individual)

You will need to make a reservation for either of the two, and they fill-up very quickly.

The Curator Tours are where you will be able to stand up in the back of a truck and feed the bears from the top of this truck! You are standing for the whole ride and they will stop so you can first feed the elk.  Then you will see the Grizzly bears from up high (but not feed them) and then you can start feeding the American Black Bears from the truck.  The price includes the ride, food to feed the bears, a picture of your family taken by them, and the narrated tour/ride by the Curator.  We loved driving the drive, but wanted to experience a family bear feeding and thought it was more than worth the $25 cost for the whole family to experience the feeding of the big bears.  They come right up to the truck and you toss the food down to them.  The Curator will also teach you how to get them to wave at you with their big bear paws for some yummy bear treats.  And don’t worry, you will not be tossing them raw meat, but dessert! Donuts and breads are a treat the bears love!

And the additonal experience that you can pay for is the Baby Bear Feeding.  Cassie had the opportunity to feed two baby bears. They were all American Black Bears.  The feeding takes place in the baby bear pens that are visible near the petting zoo and food stands. You can watch the babies playing in their habitat and with each other.  They were so adorable!

So for the feeding, they take groups of about 12 people into the baby bear pens areas.  Then each person gets in line and they will get to feed an entire bottle to a baby bear (just a regular baby bottle) which is about a 30 second to 1 minute process.  They rotate between six bears and about five bottles each. This means that the 12 people will get to feed around 2-3 bears.  While you are feeding the babies their bottles, you will be able to pet them on the head.  The whole experience is about 20 minutes.

” This was an AHAHAHmazing experience! It is quick, but quite memorable! They drink out of a regular baby bottle and each one had their own personality and feeding style.  When I was petting them, I was very surprised to find out that their fur is not as soft as you would think (based on your many Teddy Bear encounters). Their fur was almost like dried stiff grass/hay.  Not some much cuddly, but kinda prickly!” – Cassie

The $35 covers the cost of the feedings, a picture that their photographer takes and memories to last forever! If this is something you want to do, you will need to call ahead a day or two in advance as they fill-up quickly!

In addition to all of the wildlife sightings, your admission ticket includes FREE petting zoo entrance and FREE amusement rides.

The petting zoo is a fun place for the kids to get out and roam and explore.  They have many of the classic petting zoo animals: goats, hens, turkeys, pot belly pigs…. but they also had DEER. Something we haven’t seen at many petting zoos.  They had both mommies and their babies when we went.

The amusement rides were definitely geared towards younger kids.

They had five total rides;

• Train
• Kids roller coaster
• Kids high rise ride
• Kids car ride
• Spinning bear car rides

We did the rides last to end our Yellowstone Bear World adventure. The kids (and adults with around a 180-230 weight limit depending on the ride) can ride as many as they want, as many times as they want.

It was a fun way to end the day!

They do have an outdoor cafe and sno-cone stand to enjoy a treat or a snack. Here is a picture of the menu so you can budget accordingly!

We just ate at our campsite before coming and then brought a few snacks with us for a snack break when needed. We did get a sno-cone treat.  We recommend coconut for small kids as it is white and does not stain (but leaves things very sticky). Unfortunately, our sno-cones were drenched in sooo much syrup, that neither Alex or Cassie enjoyed theirs and the kids only ate a small portion of theirs, probably for the same reason! It could have just been the person that made ours that day, but it was actually gross because of it.  It would have been a perfect refreshing treat if it had 1/2 to 1/4 of the syrup. So we recommend giving the sno-cone maker directions on your sno-cone!

All-in-all, we highly recommend this pit-stop. It has ended up being one of the most fun and memorable experiences we have had has a family.  We talk about it all of the time. Someone around here is always bringing it up! We look forward to our next trip to Yellowstone Bear World!