Williams Reindeer Farm

Riggs and I made a spontaneous trip (via bike) on Saturday to Williams Reindeer Farm, right at the base of the Butte outside of Palmer. They close at 6pm every day, and it was 5:30 when we got there. They had great customer service and the sweet girl who checked us in (and would later be our tour guide!) was very friendly and said it was no problem to squeeze us in. Yay! I have only been to the Farm once before, for their Fall Festival and Pumpkin Patch event, which was set up very different from their day-to-day operations.

First, you check in at the gift shop to pay - $7 for adults, $5 for children, kids 3 and under are free!

There was a tour already in progress when we arrived so we had to wait a few minutes to start our tour. We were guided to this nice little bunny/chicken pen to play while we waited. Riggs loves bunnies so much, so I was excited to see that they had some very cute and friendly bunnies for us to visit with. They were so gentle and sweet, letting me pick them up and hopping right into Riggs' lap!

When it's time for your tour you head into this little cabin to hear the rules of the Farm. There are loaner rubber boots here too for if the Reindeer Pen is muddy, which I thought was very nice! Riggs wasn't sure about the antler bench I made him sit on. Probably because there were about 50 bees buzzing loudly around the hanging basket over his head...

We went to see Denali-the-moose first. Denali was abandoned by his mother (why you should never pet a newborn moose - or any wild animal - their mothers don't recognize their scent and they abandon them!) when he was a newborn and was hand raised by staff-members at the farm every since. He is very, very tame - he came when he was called and gave our sweet tour-guide a 'kiss' by eating a carrot right out of her mouth! She offered to let us get a 'kiss' but we passed. I pet him on the nose but Riggs was not getting near him. Good instincts! ha.

The we went to check out the Reindeer, which were much more tolerable in Riggs' opinion. He even fed and petted the babies (the adults with antlers were a little bit too intimidating for him). Then after he got used to them, he even wanted to get down and walk around by himself, which I thought was very brave. It was very fun and we were lucky to have a private tour with a very friendly and baby/toddler-loving tour guide. I wish I would have caught her name! 

It was a great visit and I would highly recommend it to everyone with kids of all ages. So fun! I love that it's so close for us, we can just bike over. Plus there weren't many bugs for some reason and it was a great way for Riggs to get out and stretch his legs and spend some time outside. If you live in Alaska you need to go to the Reindeer Farm! Like them on Facebook too so that you can see when they have special events going on, like the Fall Festival. I think they also do something for Christmas too, which we will definitely watch for this winter!