sharkarosa wildlife ranch

This is a fun little place, that I didn't even know exhisted, even though it's only 30 minutes from my house. I got a Groupon that gave us half off, and it was a fun, cheap little trip. We rode the barrel train, got to see the zorses, and got to feed some animals. We also took a safari bus ride, and got to pet a camel. They even have a little restaurant, tho we ran out of time so we didn't get to go in.

We had a group of 12 go here. There are a lot of animals, a petting zoo, a little barrel train ride, and around the whole park. You can get pictures taken with animals or snakes. We had a picture with a baby lemur. There are also 2 rescued bears. We ate pizza cooked at the Bears Den Restaurant which has windows that look out at the bears. This was a lot of fun for young and old. We will definitely go again, now that the weather has cooled off. You can usually find a deal on groupon, too.

We took two kindergarten age kids to this awesome place. They were very friendly and engaging. The many different species of animals was impressive they are all living amongst each other right in our back yards! The animals were well taken care of as far as we could tell... They even had favorite employees. There was a tram ride that was guided and lead by way of a tractor that allowed us to get up close and personal with the camels, horses, zebras, & other animals we could see from a distance. They are very informative while providing information on each animal while on the tram. There was also kangaroos, wallabies & lemurs. They offer pony rides for $5 and all proceeds go straight back to donation to the animals. There is a restaurant on site but we could not check it out as there was a wedding taking place.

This was my first time visiting and I have to say this is an awesome place to take your kids. You get to pet the horses, donkies, zebras, cammels, you can get up close with the kangeroos, zoth, cobras, ponies, bears, etc. We loved this place. Will definitely visit this place in the future.

Sharkarosa is a great place for the younger kids. They can enjoy themselves with a good bit of freedom. Our three year old loves the place and can occupy herself for a couple of hours. We've been back several times and continues to captivate our grandchildren.

We came here after going to Fossil Rim and were disappointed. While it is a nice place and there are many more "close contact" animals here - you ride a tram out to three fields and back again which takes about 20 minutes. Horses, Zebras, Giraffes. There is a covered place to eat, and stations to wash hands. Bathrooms are outhouses.

The tour ride was the highlight. You can touch the horses, camels and few others. Interesting mixed breeds, we saw donkey/zebra and hourse/zebra, beautiful animals. Our instructor was awesome, he educated us along with answering all of our questions. Our 19 mos old enjoyed this so much and we did too! Would love to visit again. One thing to keep in mind....if you buy from a website that advertises, call the establishment first and most likely will match the price and so 100% of the proceeds will go towards the animals.

I had actually never heard of this place until I found a groupon for it. My sister and her family were coming to visit during Memorial Day weekend so I bought a groupon for us to go. We were glad we did. The safari tram was the best part. You take a bus basically that is open on the sides through areas with zebras, zorses, zonkeys, emus and camels. Although you cant pet the zebras or emus because they are wild, you can pet the zonkeys, zorses and camels. There is also a petting zoo area that the kids can go pet smaller animals. And theres a small monkey, kangaroo and bear area as well. The bathroom consists of port-o-potties, which really sucks. The gift shop is tiny. And I know there is some place to eat but we didn't try it. This place is pretty small so it won't take you long to go through it. We were done in a couple of hours. But it was nice to entertain the kids for a couple of hours and then get home since it is so close.

My family and I tried to go during the week in the summer! Guess what it is CLOSED!!! You can only go on the weekend. We had driven with my parents from NM and our kids because it is SUMMER!! Best time to be open. They only allow for daycare kids to see the animals during the week. HUGE Disappointment!!

My family and I had a great time at Sharkarosa. It is a little smaller than I expected, but we have never been able to get that up close and personal with the animals. My 7 year old daughter had a blast. The pizza restaurant was great! And the bear sitting at the picnic table was such a site to see.

We got a Groupon to come here for my 34th birthday. We were looking for something fun we could do with our two year olds, and since we all love animals we decided to give this a shot.What a great experience! They have lemurs, camels, monkeys,snakes, deer, kangaroos, sloths, goats, pigs, a capybara, bears, zebras, and even a moose,which had been recently brought in from Montana.The absolute highlight for us were the zorse (zebra and horse cross), and the zedonk (zebra and donkey cross).Very informative, fun day trip for the entire family! Would go back again...

Thanks to Groupon we found out about this little gem! Cute little petting zoo, a few enclosed area to see monkeys & Kangaroos. Then to the tram, for a safari ride, yes the animal's do come right up! The hardest part is waiting in line for the ride, kids got restless, so I'd advise doing that first. The area to wait is covered, so the shade was a relief. As your going to be out in the HOT Texas weather, if you attend in Summer/Spring. There is also a black bear area next to the little cafe,with an outdoor play area for kids. 2 hrs is about the time it took us to, see everything. ××××there are only port-a-potty so use before you get there×××

We decided to try this out for the first time on a groupon. We really enjoyed seeing all the animals and riding on the zebra tram too. My kids especially loved seeing the baby animals and the hybrid animals. The presentations on various animals were both interesting and interactive. Although I would most certainly recommend visiting here, I can't recommend the restaurant on site. None of the 4 of us liked our pizzas. Very disappointing. So eat before you go or pack a picnic. Bring a camera for sure!

We bought a groupon to this location thinking it couldn't be that bad for a short day trip with the kids, WRONG! So we showed up and ate pizza at the Bears Den after hearing it was yummy.....it was not, should have eaten at home first. No Biggie! We then went to board the tram (the only real attraction at this place) Which is the vehicle people pile into to go drive through the ranch to view the animals as they come up to the vehicle. We get in line and after about 15 minutes, the first tram comes and scoops most of the line, we are thinking this is awesome, and not to long of a wait. The announcer says the next tram will be here in 15 minutes. Ugh, its hot and I am 8 months pregnant and there are no chairs, but I am pretty sure I can hang in there for another 15 minutes. 30 minutes pass and the next tram comes, not even close to 15 minutes, but I made it, the line starts moving, but this tram is not even half the size of the last one, so not even half the people file out of the line. We are the very first ones who DONT get to get on...My half glass full 6 year old was happy we were at least first in line now. Again told we had about 10-15 more minutes to wait for the other tram to get back, at this point I had to run off to the bathroom and buy a water as I almost had a heat stroke (remember Im preggers, trying not to complain that now we have been waiting for 45 minutes, another 15 to go. So I get back from getting a drink and the tram has not arrived yet, but does about 5 minutes later (15 minutes, as they had stated before) except when they show up, the drive exits and tells us he will not take any riders as he now has to go to a presentaton somewhere else in the park (there are people everywhere that work here, yet no one else can come drive the ONLY attraction) The driver tells us we will have to wait for the OTHER tram that left only 15 minutes ago, so we know from the last time it left that it will not be back for another 30 minutes. My childrens cheeks are bright red by now, I am about to fall out, no way we can sit here another 30 minutes, my poor kids were SO good this entire time, but I needed to get them and myself cooled off. We convinced them we could walk to the snow cone stand and get them one as the next tram was not going to be back for a long time, and that I could not stand anymore :( We get in line at the snow cone place, just to see the driver walking back eating pizza and drinking a coke, he walks back to the tram and starts letting people board. This is almost infuriating as if we had known he was just gonna grab a quick bite and a drink (which I completely understand, it was HOT!!) We would have waited the 5 more minutes, however we were told 30, next tram!!!! We have now been at this place for almost 3 hours, and we have ONLY eaten pizza and stood in line. We immediately left and went to a snow cone place off site, as this place was going to earn NO more of our money. What a WASTE of our day, our afternoon, last day with my daughter before she goes on vacation for the summer, and I thought this would be a fun trip, except we left without seeing even one animal! WILL NOT go back to this place, even if it were a free place!!

It's amazing how you can live in a place for a long while and somehow not discover some of the wonderful attractions in the area. Such was our reaction after a recent visit to Sharkarosa Wildlife Ranch! Since all of us live in such a fast-paced, digital time, this was an opportunity to take it slow, re-learn, and exclaim: "Wow!". Maybe it was the time of year (lucky us) since we were treated to baby camels (one white, one brown) and itty-bitty baby lemurs. Take your kids there and be a kid yourself. It's worth your time.