Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (53/80)

I, apparently, have been here before when I was quite young but had zero memory of it so I was excited to return even if it was only to feed a Giraffe. We found quite a little treasure in this zoo! Without further ado...

Amount of Animals: 4/10

      It's a fairly small zoo... and who can blame them. With the giant Denver zoo only an hour away, they don't need to be huge. However- they had EIGHTEEN Giraffes! That is the focal point so it makes sense but it was incredible to see and be so close to so many!  The official count of the animal collection includes more than 750 animals, representing nearly 150 different species, with more than 30 endangered species. We certainly did not see that many HOWEVER in their defense we did see a lot of Off Exhibits and Coming Soons which are my least favorite animals and are probably included in that count.

Type of Animals: 6/10.

       Pretty average- you have your standard elephants and hippos and tigers and bears but the experiences are pretty exceptional. (See Exhibits/Habitats for more...) There were no exotic or extravagant beasts here BUT the ones that were there certainly put on a show. The monkeys mimic you, the elephants jog and play in the dirt mounds, and the Giraffes...well... we will get into that more later...

They did seem to specialize in several native species which i think was great. the pack of mountain lions and the lynx were especially cool as was the 1,000lb moose and porcupines and wild turkeys. Great teaching opportunity for kids as far as local and native species go. The only unusual animal we saw that I don't remember seeing in any other zoo so far was the legless lizard. Yes. It's exactly what it sounds like and yes- it just looks like a snake. 

Size of the Zoo: 5/10

       It's perfect for a nice Sunday afternoon stroll. You could take 5 hours to see the zoo or you could walk the whole thing in probably less than an hour. Once you are past the Giraffes, it's a straight shot up to the Shrine of the Sun and then you weave through exhibits on the way down. Very simple and the map was very accurate.

Foliage/Landscaping: 9/10

         Being as it is one of only TWO mountain zoos in the nation... this zoo has some landscaping! There is plenty of tree coverage for shade but the VIEWS!! HOLY COW!! they were even constructing new platforms to walk out on and look at the world below you. It was truly beautiful up there and they kept the zoo true to Colorado climate. There are not strange or tropical plants trying to be grown where they shouldn't and the wild life (chipmunks, birds, hawks, etc...) use the natural landscaping for their own habitat which is super cool as well!

Exhibits/Habitats: 7/10
          Oh how I wish I could base this on a mere few exhibits, but alas it must encompass the entire experience. The giraffes are amazing. I have never see or heard of anything like it before so that is entirely incredible on its own. A few others that really stuck out to me were the mountain lions. You can walk into a sort of cave and above you is a glass feature and you can watch the lions climb the trees and areas above you. There is also a fairly cool skybridge to walk over the elephants which was interesting and they are expanding a bit so I am hopeful that the lack of seeing any lions is due to the fact that their exhibit is going to be AMAZING! They did lose a point specifically for the shrine of the sun. That was silly.

Pricing: 6/10
         Pricinging was average. About $15/adult, $10/child during off-season and then $18/adult and $12/child during peak. The unfortunate piece was that you only got one gondola ride with the admission and that is five bucks extra each time you want to do that. Fantastic pricing to feed the giraffes! It's only $2 a handful. When we went, they were serving lettuce at the time and we each got 4-5 leaves of Romaine. Buy they time we ripped it up into pieces we probably each fed the giraffes 20 times!

Entertainment: 8/10
                                           
         There was plenty of extra fun things to do at this zoo INCLUDING a fabulous play area for younger kids called MY BIG BACK YARD! There are also train rides, a carousel, pony rides, and THE MOST AWESOME PART- Feeding the Giraffes. It's incredible, folks! They boast to have the largest herd of Giraffes at any known zoo thus far. We counted 18 Giraffes on site that want fed CONSTANTLY! Seriously I would pay the admission JUST to feed those giraffes. They are so close and you can pet them while they eat! They are so gentle and just watching those tongues come at you is thrilling in itself. I can't tell you enough how AWESOME this is so you just need to go see for yourself!

                                        

Food: 8/10

             The food was awesome. It was a little expensive but nothing absurd for a zoo! They have an incredible hot dog (I know... it's just a hot dog but just wait until you have one!) that is a foot long and MASSIVE! It's cooked perfectly and served with fries and was the most delicious hot dog I have ever had in my life! They also serve unique items and my husband partook of the salmon burger. He says it was great... I will just take his word for it! The variety was impressive and the cooks- even more so! they are constantly shouting fun rhymes or tunes and calling out for people to come to their station. It's fascinating to watch and DELICIOUS! You can satisfy ANY appetite from mac n' cheese to rice bowls to fresh deli sandwiches!

       This is one of my favorite zoos right now! So impressed even though it was a bit smaller than we are accustomed to!

       My husband said, "This place is perfect for a first time Colorado visitor. I want to go to the mountains. Check. I would like to see lots of native animals. Check. And I would like to ride a ski lift. Check.

San Diego Zoo (55/80)

SAN DIEGO ZOO (April 2013) http://www.sandiegozoo.org/zoo/index.php

I have always wanted to see the San Diego zoo do to it's ENORMOUS size and the fact that they have Pandas (which is one animal I have always wanted to see but haven't). It was nice. It wasn't number 1- but it was good and we had a great time!

Amount of Animals: 6/10

Alright- the official stats for the amount of animals in this zoo is 4,000 animals of more than 800 species. I am fairly certain they are counting every fly and insect species as well because we did NOT see or find 4,000 animals. The San Diego zoo is MASSIVE and goes for miles and miles but for the amount that you walk- there was not a whole lot to see as far as animals go. Maybe we went the wrong way. Maybe we weren't going in a good flow. But it was disappointing. In addition to that- the San Diego zoo has ZERO penguins and no seals or sea lions. Now- I understand if you want to see a sea lion you can probably just walk down to the bay and go see one but still...

Type of Animals: 8/10

I had to rank them a little higher here. Reason number 1- there were Pandas. There are only 4 zoos in which you can see Giant Pandas so it is kind of a big deal. To go with this- I may be ranking them a little high because there was a BABY panda which is even better. It was only 8 months old and cuter than ever and there was a 3 year old sibling panda in the neighboring exhibit who was actually active and playing and being cute.
Reason number 2- they had a honey badger. I don't feel that I need to further explain the awesomeness of that.
They have most of your standard other animals- lions, tigers, and a crap ton of bears OH MY! (Seriously- one half of that zoo felt like it was dedicated to bear exhibits) but, as I said before, they were missing penguins and seals and that's kind of a big deal! Yes I realize Sea World is close by and that is where they probably take them when injured and all but I didn't go to Sea World... I went to the zoo.

Size of the Zoo: 7/10

If this ranking were just based on how big it is- it would get a 10. This place is ridiculously huge. But- it gets a 7 in size because I really did not feel it used it's space proportionally. It was a little frustrating to walk up this half mile, super steep, winding awful hill only to find ONE polar bear sleeping on a rock. Boooo. I highly recommend handling the size of this zoo in a couple of different ways. 1) Get tickets to do the bus tours. We didn't do this but by the 4th mountain climb with a 4 year old, we wished we had. There were various drop off places and they give you valuable information as you ride. 2) Ride the "Skyfari" gondola ride to the top to see the stuff up there and then work your way down to see the rest of the zoo. 3) Get a map and plot out the different ways to travel up and down the zoo without killing yourself in the first hour. There are moving walkways (although one was broken when we were there) that get you up to the Elephants and such as well.

Foliage/Landscaping: 9/10

It's beautiful. There are millions of trees, plants, grasses, bushes, flowers... EVERYTHING! You name it- it's probably at the San Diego zoo. It is short one point of a perfect score because it was almost too much! For example- when riding the gondola, you can't hardly see any animals or exhibits below you because they are completely blocked by trees! Often the foliage blocks viewing of animals and it also makes it difficult to see where you are and where you are heading at times.

Exhibits/Habitats: 7/10

They were average. I don't think they were super spectacular but very normal. The elephant spot was MASSIVE and took up a lot of space which made them pretty far. I am used to our elephants being so close you can nearly touch them. Now- that being said, there were several exhibits of cats (leopards, bob cats, lion, etc...) that had signs such as "Do not touch, this animal will bite" and "Caution: Lion can spray 7-10 feet" telling you that those animals were within human reach which I found very bizarre. There was no exhibit that made me go "WOW! This is AWESOME!" It all looked the same... trees, trees, bush,massive hill, cage...trees, trees, bush, massive hill, cage.

Pricing: 6/10

It's expensive, folks. Luckily we used my husband's airline discount which got all of our tickets at half price so we walked in there for $60 (that was two adults and one child admission). Admission includes the skyfari gondola which you can ride all day if you want. Anything else is an additional fee. Regular one day admission is $44 for adults and $34 for children. However- after seeing the enormity of the place and imagining the cost of upkeep and food for the animals and electricity and everything else- the price is understandable. Not sure I would ever pay full price to go again- but I would certainly go back for half price again!

Entertainment: 7/10

There were several areas that appeared to have shows that happen in them but we never saw one and the map never had a schedule of them. I have to assume they are probably pretty decent because the space for them was great! The Skyfari gondola is AWESOME. We really had a lot of fun on this thing! Our 4 year old son was enthralled and called it the "sky train" and we rode it for the last 30 minutes of our stay there. Definitely a high lite of our trip to the zoo! There is also a great "kid" area which includes and free playground AND free petting zoo. You can grab your lunch and have a little picnic by the playground to give mom and dad a rest and let kiddo go run-a-muck. There is a carousel and toddler swing ride OUTSIDE the zoo in balboa park that is another $2.50 to ride. The carousel plays music from Star Wars and we swear that thing was going 25 miles an hour. if you are sensitive to spinning rides- stay away. We did get to see the long nosed crocodiles and turtles get fed with a demonstration and that was pretty cool. The crocs didn't do a whole lots but, man! I have never seen turtles move so fast in my life! Whatever was in those little pellet things must be delicious!

Food: 5/10
We should have gotten stuff to pack a lunch. But alas. We did not. My recommendation- pack a stinkin lunch! $5 for an ice cream cone and $8 for a small hot dog and fries! The kid meal wasn't too bad. $7.50 and it included a refillable souvenir cup and re-usable lunch bag and had animal crackers and apple slices with the hot dog. It's fairly standard pricing for a zoo but- Yeowsa! Also- there were several different places to go to but not many options. Burger, hot dog, chicken sandwich. If you were by the Pandas- there was an Asian alternative and I believe I read on the map that there was a restaurant near the eagle walk that had lasagna and ravioli but if the hot dog was $8, I shutter to imagine the cost of lasagna.

All in all it was a wonderful trip and we will probably go back sometime. I think next time we would like to check out the safari park instead- but that is for another blog another day!

Rating System

This blog is dedicated to our travels to as many zoos as possible nation wide. We are fortunate enough to live in a state with an AMAZING zoo and it has been a bucket list item of mine to see every major zoo in the nation. After visiting one of the top ranked zoos recently and being a smidge disappointed, I decided to start a blog that ranks zoos based on personal family experience. Each zoo we visit will be ranked on the following... Amount of Animals Type of Animals Size of Zoo Foliage/Landscaping Exhibits/Habitats Pricing Entertainment Food These rankings will be based on a ten point scale with 10 points being excellent and 1 point being very poor. Please keep in mind that I am not a zoologist or biologist or anyone with any sort of background that would make me qualified to rate these professionally- I am just a mom who LOVES animals and LOVES going to zoos who wants to share her thoughts and opinions on our countries most popular (and perhaps un-popular) zoos. Enjoy and feel free to leave questions or feedback!