Reptile Gardens

We went back to downtown Rapid City today. We wanted to see more of the president's statues and check out a couple more stores. Then we had lunch and went to Reptile Gardens. We were there many years ago and it was not even close to what it is now. It is huge and we walked until we were exhausted. We did sit down for the Reptilian Show. It was entertaining to see a young man walk among those huge alligators and crocodiles. He even fed them. Then he showed how to sit on one and hold it's mouth shut. I have no plans of ever doing that but I listened just in case.

I zoomed in too much but you can still see the young man sitting on a 'gator

They have a snake show, too, but there is no way I was going to sit through that one. I had a hard enough time going through the building with the snake displays. I did look at two pythons and was absolutely mortified. They were big enough to swallow a very large animal. So gross. Next we went to the center of the atrium building that has birds, flowers and lizards all in the "wild". The birds and flowers were beautiful. I was not fond of the lizard that crawled across the path.

The orchids were beautiful.

The birds were pretty, too.

We came back through a beautiful canyon. It was a much longer drive than taking the interstate but to see such beauty made it worth while. It was a beautiful day though tiring, however, we'd be happy to repeat the day if we had time.