Lynchburg Series: Virginia Safari Park
Our next day during our stay in Lynchburg was a visit back to Natural Bridge, VA. We still had our ticket to the Natural Bridge Caverns, and then also wanted to make a visit to the Virginia Safari Park that was right down the road.
When we arrived back in Natural Bridge, we thought we’d visit the caverns first. They start their tours at the top of every hour, so we planned our drive down to arrive for the 12:00 tour. Unfortunately, they were busier than usual and had to turn us away for the 12:00 tour, suggesting we come back for the 1:00 tour about 20 minutes early. We thought this would be a good time to go visit the Virginia Safari Park while we waited, and decided to aim for the 2:00 tour instead to give us some extra time to visit the safari and eat lunch before our tour in the caverns.
The Virginia Safari Park is a drive-thru attraction that lets you drive through the park while the animals roam and will walk right up to your car. They offer feeding baskets, so you are welcome to feed the animals, though we opted to just do the drive-through without the food. There were many animals waiting right at the entrance to greet us!
Some of my favorite friends early on in the safari were this pig taking a mud bath and the zebra! This zebra hung out by my window for a while… we were fast besties! It was really fun being able to just roll down the window and actually reach out and pet the animals… something you don’t get to do when you visit the zoo!
There were a lot of different types of animals I wasn’t expecting to see. We though it was interesting that both the Natural Bridge Zoo and the Virginia Safari Park were right down the road and so close by to each other - so many animals in such a small town.
Towards the end of the safari drive-thru pathway, we came across some different types of bison, buffalo, and cattle. They were so big and cool looking. One even got really close and personal with my husband.
As we neared the end of the tour, I realized we still had yet to see the giraffes. When we looked back over to the beginning of the tour, we noticed the giraffes had come out, and learned that we had just missed them since they weren’t out when we had driven by the area that they live in the park. We didn’t have time to make another loop on the drive-thru safari tour, so I just snapped one last photo across the way… pics or it didn’t happen, right?!
After we were done hanging with all the safari animals, it was time to head back to to caverns so we could make our 2:00 tour! We checked in to secure our spot in the tour, then ate a leisurely lunch in the air conditioned car while we waited for the tour to start.
We missed the rush from the 12:00 tour and had a relatively small group with us. I wasn’t sure what to expect inside, so I decided to leave my camera in the car and only used my phone to take photos inside the caverns. It was a pretty fun tour, and wanted to include some of those photos on the blog as well. iPhone pics from the tour below!
Our tour at the Natural Bridge Caverns was really interesting and a lot of fun! I highly recommend taking advantage of the multi-pass and hitting up all three attractions right in the heart of Natural Bridge. Next up, we make some more stops to check off some places recommended in my PhotoSecrets Blue Ridge Parkway Virginia book! Keep reading!
