San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park offers overnight camping near wildlife

“It’s cheaper than going to Africa, I’ll say that,” Christine said as she scanned a rolling savanna where giraffes, gazelles and elephants ambled within a few dozen yards of a tent she shared with her husband, Jim.

For the Claremont couple and more than 50 other safari wannabes like me who spent a chilly Saturday night in March at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park, the aptly named Roar & Snore camp out was also enlightening, fun and a little eerie. But not necessarily restful.

“Oh God, where did I put my earplugs?” my partner Wesla asked soon after bedtime, as sonorous snoring erupted from nearby tents. “That’s going to be louder than the animals.”

Not always, we would learn. More on that later, along with the truth about rhino flatulence, grisly lion treats and how to train an elephant.

But first: Why are we here? Like Christine and Jim, we couldn’t make it to Africa (or so I thought, until my editors agreed to send me; see “South Africa” article, left). Instead, for Christmas, Wesla had given me a night at the 1,800-acre park in Escondido, where countless beasts and birds fly, swim, roam and mate, many with only a moat to protect them from herds of camera-wielding bipeds. Or vice versa.

For $129 each (plus $35 for park admission), Wesla and I got a tent, dinner, breakfast, three after-hours walking tours and plenty of face time with park staff during an adults-only edition of Roar & Snore, which is also offered for youth groups and families with children.

Among our fellow campers were veteran park-goers and newbies such as Tammy and her daughter Tara of Virginia Beach, Va., visiting during Tara’s spring break from college.

“In the past we’ve cruised,” Tammy said. “We thought we’d do something different.”

That it was. Wesla’s verdict: “A really cool experience.”

After a two-hour drive from Los Angeles, Wesla and I pulled up to the park gates, checked in and by 4:45 p.m. had spread our sleeping bags across the vinyl floor of our 9-by-14-foot canvas home near Kilima Point.

We had paid an extra $20 each for a so-called vista tent overlooking the nearly 70-acre East Africa habitat; cheaper ones are off the rim.

Below us grazed a dozen hoofed -- what? After searching in vain for signage, I collared Candace, one of several perky camp guides.

“We’re a nonprofit,” she said. “We put up as many signs as we can afford.”

Then she clued me in: Those were Thomson’s gazelles, sporting dark racing stripes. And over there were reticulated giraffes, a few fringe-eared oryx, a regal-looking defassa waterbuck, several African crowned cranes and, atop distant hills, African and Asian elephants.

Closer in, near the camp’s dining patio, a couple of hulking white rhinos snuffled in the dirt.

“They’re kind of gassy,” Candace said, giggling. Something to do with inefficient digestive systems. Turns out you can get too close to nature.

Above us, swirling turkey vultures that I had mistaken for hawks cruised for roadkill. It was not the only time that night I would feel like prey.

Speaking of food: A buffet of grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, veggie burgers, barbecued beans and green beans, consumed at communal picnic tables, made for mostly happy campers, although some growled that the $8.25 mixed drinks were more mix than drink.

Just as well. We would need sharp senses and sure footing for our post-dinner forays: two brisk 90-minute hikes through the darkened park.

“Our adventure begins,” camper Christine said, grinning like an excited 5-year-old as two dozen of us trooped behind Candace down a dusky road toward predator habitats. I felt like a child sneaking into the zoo after closing.

Candace fed our fantasies.

When we passed a pacing female cheetah that glared at us with shining eyes, Candace said, “You just finished dinner. You smell like food.”

Thanks to a moat and a swath of electricity-charged grass, we were spared. Not so some visitors.

“Every once in a while, a not-so-bright bunny gets in the enclosure,” with predictable carnage ensuing, Candace said.

Lounging lions seemed less wild than mild, which they kind of were, having been trained, she said, to open their mouths for tooth inspections and tolerate sundry pokes and probes. Their favorite summer snacks, though, were chilling: frozen rabbit’s blood, which park employees dubbed “bloodsicles.”

Not all our guide’s insights were as G-rated. Hoping to give other males a chance to mate, staff had shunted a Cape buffalo to a habitat by himself, we learned.

“He’s nicknamed Longfellow, and it’s not because he likes the poet,” Candace said of the horned Lothario.

We paraded past African black rhinos, nyala antelope and more animals before returning to camp for a snack of cheesecake, cookies, hot cocoa and coffee, and then heading out on our second hike.

A highlight was the African elephant area, where we ogled a day-old calf and his mom while nearby, two researchers sat with laptops, recording his every move. The tender scene belied the power of the pachyderms, whose enclosure includes of concrete-filled steel pillars. Keepers never share the same space, Candace said.

Not that elephants are untrainable.

“These guys would do almost anything for alfalfa pellets,” Candace said. As if on cue, one of them bellowed.

“They heard the magic word,” she said.

By 11 p.m., Wesla and I had turned in for a less-than-magical sleep, disrupted by the snores next door and several drowsy treks to the bathroom about 180 paces away.

No matter. What happened shortly after 6 a.m. banished weariness. That’s when the lions started roaring.

In the still pre-dawn, their majestic chorus hollowed out the misty air, obliterating every other sound. I flinched as my nerves recalled some forgotten prehistory when humans were the hunted. It was thrilling, unsettling and unforgettable.

The rest of the morning brought an alfresco breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes, fresh fruit and, of course, Frosted Flakes with Tony the Tiger on the box; and another hike, where we viewed Sumatran tiger cubs and their mom, endangered California condors, North American porcupines, bighorn sheep and other beasts.

We had an up-close encounter with a baby alligator and heard the tale of the negligent roadrunner, who had a way with the ladies but a habit of deserting the nest. For that, the bird suffered in solitary confinement, where he raced back and forth.

“He’s looking for the female,” said Cindi, our morning guide.

The Roar & Snore ended about 9:30 a.m. after we packed up and the staff took our stuff to the parking lot. Later, we rode the park’s Journey Into Africa tram, which rolled past the same savanna we had traversed the night before and beyond to areas we hadn’t seen.

After the wake-up call by the lions, it all seemed anticlimactic. How do you follow that act?

Fellow campers Tammy and Tara, whom we encountered again that afternoon, had one answer: Disneyland.

“We’re on our way to Anaheim,” Tammy said.

I wonder if they rode the Jungle Cruise.

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jane.engle@latimes.com

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Safari sleepover

THE BEST WAY

From Los Angeles, San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park is about a two-hour drive. Take Interstate 5 south, exit at California 78 East at Oceanside and take it to Interstate 15 south. Exit at Via Rancho Parkway and follow signs to the park.

ROAR & SNORE PACKAGE

The park provides a tent, meals and guided walks. Per person prices generally start at $109 for adults and $89 for children, plus park admission, which is $35 for adults and $26 for children.

TO LEARN MORE

San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park, (800) 407-9534, www.sandiegozoo.org.

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African safari or freeway jaunt?

Spend a week in South Africa or sleep at San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park in Escondido? Both have wildlife. But there the similarities end.

*--* SOUTH AFRICA ESCONDIDO $2,429 COST $164 10,000 miles DISTANCE FROM L.A. 110 miles 30 hours TRAVEL TIME 2 hours Luxury hotels LODGING Tents Big game (but no big ANIMAL SIGHTINGS Big game, including cats) on our outings lions and cheetahs Unforgettable people, BRAGGING RIGHTS It’s California. The history, untamed animals are fenced in. wildlife, But it’s still pretty heart-stopping scenery exotic. *--*