The alligator farm over on the Knotts thread got me thinking about other places we visited on family vacations to southern California. Lion Country Safari was one of them. I'm not even sure if that was the right name for the place. Or where it was located. I remember that it seemed to take forever to get there from DL (but this is from an 8 y/o's perspective) and it was HOT. I remember that you'd have to stay in the car, with the windows barely cracked, and no a/c. You'd drive around for what seemed like hours looking at (or for) animals. Does anybody remember this place and is it still around? I need to share the joy of it with my kids. :D

I use to love that place! It closed around the mid '80s. It was in Irvine on the land that is now used for the Raging Waters park (or is it Wild Rivers, I always confuse the two) next to the Irvine Spectrum. It does get quite hot there!

I loved that place too. Frazier the Sensuous Lion (could they get away with that now?) and Bubbles the Hippo that escaped and ran wild in Laguna Niguel. I miss drive-thru parks and having an ostrich stick a head in the car and peck at my Mom. Good times!

Ostriches in the window? Is that all?

Heck, we had a rhino try to tip over our station wagon once.

And a giraffe peed on us another time.

And still another time, a lion cub--maybe about 6 months old, about the size of a German shepherd--climbed up on the hood, then up the windshield--padded around and around for about 10 minutes--then a terrible stench, which wouldn't go away!--and when we got to the parking lot, we discovered that the roof of the station wagon had been used as a litter box.

We sold that car about a month later...

That place was AWESOME. It closed, we were told, because SoCal went thru a drought that made it impossible to keep enough water available to the animal habitat.

Anyone know the real reason???

I remember going to Lion Country Safari, but that closed a long time ago, I believe Wild Rivers is there now. They do have a Lion Country Safari in Florida, in the West Palm Beach area. Haven't been to that one, though.

I actually went to the Florida one years ago (I was probably around 6 or 7 at the time and my memory of it is very fuzzy), but had never been to the California one. I had figured that the Florida was long gone as well. It hadn't even occurred to me that it might still be open.

To be honest, I'm pretty surprised that they have managed to stay in business. I figured the insurance rates for operating a park where dangerous animals could walk right up to a car would be prohibitive today.

The Florida park does have a website (http://www.lioncountrysafari.com) if anyone is interested. It looks like the drive through portion is still there, plus they have expanded to include an extensive walk-through park as well. I may have to consider a side trip out there during some future trip to Florida.

-Jeff

Originally posted by bossysheryl
It closed, we were told, because SoCal went thru a drought that made it impossible to keep enough water available to the animal habitat.

Anyone know the real reason???

I heard it was due to insurance reasons. One to many kids getting mauled by the Lions while trying to feed them. I don't know if that is true, but there were always bites and maulings going on because of it.

I swear there are a ton of theories on why the Irvine one closed... I don't know either but I heard that like animals would escape and then get killed or just never be seen again. I have heard that there is stuff from the park still just sitting there slowly rusting away. The sign use to be there for a long time, big fake tusks holding up the logo.