Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Jeff's back is still hurting him, so we left him to rest and get some work done while the three of us went to check out the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  They advertise themselves as the country's only mountain zoo.  Locally, I've heard it called the "workout zoo" because of its mountain location and hills.

The drive to the zoo was really nice.  We went through a nice neighborhood at the foot of the mountains and saw the Colorado Springs Country Club.

We got to the zoo a few minutes after it opened at 9:00 a.m.  I picked up a $2.00 off coupon at the Air Force Academy, which saved us $6.00.  I had hoped that they'd accept our National Zoo membership and let us in free or heavily discounted, but they don't participate. 

At this zoo, you really have to read the map to figure out what you're doing.  It's spread out and broken up into colored sections on the map.  We still had trouble finding our way around, but eventually figured it out - sometimes by accident.

The first exhibit we came to was the Giraffe area.  Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has more giraffes than any other zoo I've seen.  They also let you feed them.  Ruth and Henry bought some lettuce to feed them and really enjoyed it.  They also got to pet them when they came close.  It was great to see them up so close, although their really long, black tongues are a bit icky.

Since we had a 2:40 p.m. reservation on the Pikes Peak Cog Train, I told the kids that we had to keep this visit to the zoo pretty short, and to focus on the things we can't see in our zoo at home.  They did a great job moving from exhibit to exhibit so we could get in and out in about two and a half hours.  It wasn't ideal, but I knew we could do it.

One of the highlights of the zoo, according to the kids were the grizzly bears.  There were two bears, and one played in the water and then the two wrestled for a bit.  They were very active.  They also liked seeing a porcupine, the mountain lions, moose, tapir, hippos, meerkats, and red hogs (they look like warthogs).

In addition to feeding the giraffes, the kids also got to pet a baby wallaby.  They really liked that.

It's a very nice zoo, especially in the early morning when it's not as hot.  We would definitely go there again.