I had never heard of Varysburg, and now I’ve been there twice in one week. Even when I was researching places in NYS for There Are No Buffalo in Buffalo, did I come upon it. Turns out Varysburg is southwest of Batavia at the intersection of Rtes. 98 and 20A. It’s the home of Hidden Valley Animal Park, and Robyn and  I took the kids there recently.

The park has a brand new lodge with a sit-down restaurant. In keeping with the theme, when you walk in, you’re greeted by a couple of real stuffed bears standing on their hind legs. The rest of the park is a bit more rustic. There’s a very large petting zoo with big animals you don’t usually find in a petting zoo. The day we were there a fawn had to be rescued because a donkey scared it into jumping a fence. By the way, baby elk look just like baby deer, spots and everything. We kept the kids in strollers so they didn’t step in anything brown and mushy. That worked great. By putting pet food on their trays, the animals came right up to them, and they were not afraid.

The main attraction at Hidden Valley is a wagon ride that takes you to see more large animals which are spread out over 63 acres. The wagon makes about 6 stops. At each stop you may feed whatever animals approach the wagon. On this ride we were able to pet zebras and camels. We also saw both bison and water buffalo. The animals that  most of us consider buffalo are actually bison. So, while there may not be any buffalo in Buffalo, there are some in Varysburg. Did I mention that you can eat bison meat in the restaurant or take some home? We decided that our photos were momentos enough, and didn’t come home with any meat.