If you like recharging in the outdoors, getting up close with bison and camels, and need a quick getaway, you might want to check into the Exotic Resort Zoo in Johnson City, Texas.
With only eight cabins, an outdoor swimming pool and your own personal fishing lake amid 137 sprawling wooded acres, it might be just what an El Paso family needs after a year of coronavirus-pandemic fueled isolation.
After all, the only crowd around might be the wild animals that are roaming the property and come up to vehicles on self-guided or tractor-pulled tours.
The exotic ranch is almost eight hours of driving time east of El Paso, and just past Fredericksburg, Texas, which is also a great spot to spend a day during any weekend or three-to four-day trip.
Amid a difficult year, where we lived a shut-in lifestyle — aside from two essential jobs and grocery store runs — our family found the ranch in Johnson City a place to get away from the city but also feel safe amid the pandemic.
The ranch has eight different themed cabins, from four to eight people occupancy, all in one general area of the resort. Cabins cost anywhere from $150 to $250 a night.
We stayed in the Catfish Hole cabin, which has one queen bed as soon as you walk into the cabin and two more queen beds in another bedroom. It also has one and a half baths and a kitchenette with a variety of pans, pots, silverware and dishes.
For a three-night stay, we took easy breakfast items to make on the stove but had plans to eat at some nearby Fredericksburg restaurants. The cabins each have a grill outside, but there is also a good-size fire pit where my four grown children, former Scouts, enjoyed making s’mores and a quiet evening with only the sound of a crackling fire.
What makes the cabin feel like safari living are a couple of deer that can squeeze around gates and walk around the cabins. There is also a small private petting zoo area where you can walk in and make new friends among more deer, geese and ducks.
We enjoyed sitting on benches in front of the zoo and watching the sun go down, as well as watching the natural movements of some wallabies in a separate pen.
Near the cabins is a spacious swimming pool, which was cold during the time we visited. That led to one 18-year-old accepting a polar bear plunge dare before rushing into a hot shower.
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The sun sets on a lake at the Exotic Resort Zoo in Johnson City, Texas. It is a good respite from city life. (Photo: Maria Cortes Gonzalez/El Paso Times)
In the evenings, the young adults also enjoyed playing pool in a patio game room. We also took cards and board games and made them interact with their parents for a couple of hours at least.
Visitors who stay in the cabins can schedule a guided tour of the property, which has animals including bison, camels, deer, emus, zebras and oryx roaming freely in six different pastures. Some animals such as gazelles and certain types of antelope are penned because of their special diets.
You can purchase a bag of feed and take turns feeding the 60 species of animals. There’s nothing like feeding a bison, a gentle giant with a big slobbery tongue, or dodging a more forward ostrich who wants his pellets promptly!
On our guided tour, there was only one other family and everyone wore face masks, and the driver offered hand sanitizer afterward.
Guided tours with a day pass have been reinstated full-time. Drive-through, self-guided tours are offered on a limited basis.
On the drive-thru tours, enjoyed by cabin visitors to their hearts’ content, it is quite an experience to have a big wet camel tongue swipe your hand as it gets the pellets through your car window or see a zebra open wide, in anticipation of some yummy food. Zoo employees will advise you to throw the pellets on the ground for zebras and birds because they can bite.
It’s a fun way to get the kids to put down their phones and get this cool exposure to wild animals. It’s not a sight they see every day.
The majority of the animals were probably born and raised on the property. The original animals were native to other continents like Africa, Asia and Europe.
After a couple of days of hanging out with the animals and at the gift shop, we decided to make a day of it in Fredericksburg, a small city with unique German flavor.
After a hearty breakfast at El Agave Restaurant,1651 Carl D Silver Parkway, we strolled through the historic district and all its shops, from Christmas-themed and specialty treats like popcorn, baked goods and candy, to traditional souvenir ones.
The souvenir stores have everything from T-shirts and traditional items to pretty jeweled boxes, wallets and whimsical fun items like miniature plastic hands.
For lunch we stopped at Sozial Haus, at 107 S. Llano, where we enjoyed some tasty pepperoni and vegetarian pizzas. There is outdoor seating and when we went, businesses were good about following social distancing.
A three-night stay was just what our family needed to recharge and see something different from the same walls in our home in El Paso. And it might just be what your family needs if you are still unsure of hitting the traditional, crowded vacation spots as they begin to open up.
With a little respect, animals always make good company.
More fun travel: New Mexico state parks welcome Texas visitors once again; camping by reservation only
María Cortés González may be reached at 915-546-6150; [email protected]; @EPTMaria on Twitter.
If you go
What: Exotic Resort Zoo
Where: 235 Zoo Trail, Johnson City, Texas
How much: Cabins range from $150 to $250 per night with a two-night minimum stay. Day visits with the animals are $16.95 for adults, $13.95 for children 12 and younger and $15.95 for seniors. Tickets can be purchased online. When you rent a cabin, you get one free guided tour on the tractor per person, but you can ride along the trail in your car as much as you want while staying there. A private petting zoo is just for those staying in cabins, but there also is another one near the gift shop for day visitors.
Details: Sacks of feed are $6 extra.
Information: https://www.zooexotics.com; 830-868-4357
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