Here are some great images of some of the critters from the Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland...by many accounts, one of the "most missed" extinct attractions. First up is this photo, which is full of fun details! A bunch of wild pigs have cornered a bobcat, who has taken refuge at the top of a saguaro cactus. ..."he's in kind of a sticky situation."
Next is a nice photo of a coyote howling (or yipping!)..."the voice of the desert". You'd see him just as you entered the "tumbling rocks" portion of the ride.
And lastly, here's a menacing mountain lion...he was visible above the entrance to Rainbow Caverns. "Yuh know, last trip a mountain lion showed up right over that tunnel... Oh... there's one now, so yuh better all be real quiet."
"Now to find the exit, folks, just head right fer the front of the train. And if yuh got a mountain lion sittin' next to yuh, don't feed him... just tell 'em to hop out, 'n hightail it back to his own stompin' ground! Heh, heh."
Thanks once again to the Graziano family for sharing these photos. Heh heh!
Great pics. I really enjoy your blog. Especially the days that I get to see pictures of an attraction that I was never able to visit.
ReplyDeleteThanks for finding such amazing pictures and sharing them with the rest of us.
For the record, the bobcat atop cactus is *the oldest* surviving audio-animatronics figure, and can be seen at Big Thunder Mountain in Orlando. Yes, *the oldest*, I guess it's older than its' other surviving Nature's Wonderland figures by several years and the boars were replaced at some point.
ReplyDeleteCertainly the ride is missed by me...I operated the trains from time to time in the early-mid 70's.
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