435-Acre Enclosure - Tram Tour

April 28th, 2012. There is a 55-minute tram tour through this massive enclosure, which is a gigantic 435 acres of meadows, thick forests and two small lakes. All of the animals have free rein of the entire area, and they can only be seen from the tour. There are 7 species of hoofstock in the enclosure: woodland caribou, roosevelt elk, blacktail deer, rocky mountain goat, bighorn sheep, bison and moose.

That's an impressive herd of Bighorn Sheep.

snowleopard said:

April 28th, 2012. There is a 55-minute tram tour through this massive enclosure, which is a gigantic 435 acres of meadows, thick forests and two small lakes. All of the animals have free rein of the entire area, and they can only be seen from the tour. There are 7 species of hoofstock in the enclosure: woodland caribou, roosevelt elk, blacktail deer, rocky mountain goat, bighorn sheep, bison and moose.

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@snowleopard: I know that you are not a big fan of tram tours because it limits the amount of time that you can watch the animals. Do you feel the same way about this tram tour, or are you also able to see the animals along walking paths as well?

I am never a fan of being moved along past animals, and whether that is via tram, bus, monorail, jeep or train there is consistently the feeling that not enough time is being spent simply sitting and watching the animals. It is possible to walk down to the Tram Tour Station and perhaps see some animals across the lake and off in the distance, but realistically the only way to see the 7 species of hoofstock at the park is to take the hour-long tour.

Sadly many families don't take the tour as understandably keeping young children amused for an entire hour without a potty break is an exercise in futility. The nice thing about this tour is that in all 4 of my visits to Northwest Trek I've always seen at least one moose and one Rocky Mountain goat even though the park only has 3 of each in 435 acres, and the other hoofstock are in large herds. The animals are either encouraged to approach the road via food being left in piles (which I've seen occur once) or the naturalist guides have eagle eyes!

Probably the most enjoyable tram/safari bus tour I have experienced.