Reptile Gardens, South
Dakota
My wife and I embarked on a
journey, shortly after we were married, to visit Reptile
Gardens in South Dakota. Unfortunately, we only made it as far
as Casper, WY, where our car decided to throw a piston. After
a grueling couple of days, we were picked up by my in-laws,
although we had to return a few days later to tow our car
back. What a big mess all around and it wasn't until 13 years
later that we were able to try again. This time, we had 5 kids
in tow and we made a family vacation out of it. The Gardens
were fantastic and my friend Terry gave us the royal tour. One
of the main reasons, aside from visiting Terry, was to see the
roughscaled pythons (Morelia
carinata) and we were not disappointed. Terry was the
first person outside of Australia to breed this amazing and
rare species and he had several specimens on and off display.
We saw an amazing array of venomous and nonvenomous snakes.
Another of my favorite reptiles, the perentie (Varanus giganteus) was
also kept at the Gardens. Our family had a great time and
Reptile Gardens was a highlight, especially after Mt Rushmore
was completely clouded over.
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Excited family!
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Maniac
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Checking out the Komodo
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Mossy tree frog
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Rhinocerous viper
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Green and Blue tree monitors
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Black Mamba
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Perenties are so cool!
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My favorite reptile
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Trying to be the keeper
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Olive python
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Water python
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Heidi with the torts
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Little tort
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Cute little gal with a cute
little tort
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Even our baby liked them
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More fun in the tortoise house
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Handling a roughie!
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Rough-scale display
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WDB
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Southern pacific
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Black-tail rattlesnake
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Cool cobra morph
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Terry sure could handle vens
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Family with a cobra
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A Suphan cobra
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Display from the rack
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Cool monocled cobra
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A baby cobra
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A Snorkle nosed viper
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Taipan
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Inland taipan
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Nice bredli
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Lizards in the dome
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Red phase king brown
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Kids and their favorite snakes
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Cool head on the Rough-scale
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Albino prairie
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Closeup of the albino
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Cool rhino
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Love the pattern on this viper
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Protobothrops cornutus
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Coral cobra
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One of the nicest venomous
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Vipera raddei kurdistanica
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Jumping viper
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Big old cottonmouth
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Bushmaster!
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Nice Tiger snake
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Hanging with the black mamba
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Indian spectacled cobra
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Getting closer
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Playing with a cobra
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Death adder
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Samar cobra (Naja samarensis)
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King cobra! |
