Out of Africa is located on Hwy 260 just off I-17 between Phoenix and Flagstaff, about 20 minutes from Thousand Trails Verde Valley. We got to the park around 9:45 am and used a $5 discount coupon to reduce our entry fee to $62 for the both of us. The park is 160 acres of privately owned land. Entry is very straight forward and we were soon on an open air tram into the center of the park. There is a wide assortment of animals here. Lions, tigers, jaguar, mountain lion, panther, rhinoceros, giraffe, eland, wolves, hyena, reptiles, grizzly and black bear, etc. The list goes on and on. There is a definite open air atmosphere here with many photo platforms offering excellent, unobstructed views of the animals. We were free to walk about or take the trams. Our favourite events were Tiger Splash, African Bush Safari and Predator Feed.

Check out their website by clicking on the title of this entry. This is a completely privately run wildlife preserve and it survives mainly from ticket sales. The staff go out of their way to make you feel welcome and are very knowledgeable about the animals. The star attraction is Boom Boom, a 38 year old, 5000 lb, white rhinoceros. What a sweety!

Photos were taken with my new Canon EOS 1D Mk IV and a 70-200mm lens. I am very impressed with the mk IV. The focusing is awesome. I shot about 200 pictures while there and still had over 60% of my battery remaining. Most shots were taken at 200 ISO, f 2.8 and shutter speeds ranging from 1/1000 – 1/4000 sec. More photos are available on my Smugmug account. Just click in the slide show and you should be redirected to my Smugmug home page.

This was a super fabulous day all around and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. Out of Africa is definitely a must see attraction.