Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

The weather was incredibly nice last week, so we headed over to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. I grew up going here, and Mac and I stopped on our Washington-to-Oklahoma trip back in 2009. We both really like it, so we bought a zoo membership. With the military discount, we paid under $60 for the whole year (for comparison: a non-member adult admission is $17 per trip). Buying a membership also gets you free admission to fun events like Moonlight on the Mountain and the Electric Safari. You can also visit the Shrine of the Sun, a memorial dedicated to Will Rogers when it opened a few years after he died.

We had some great animal interactions and managed to avoid the annoying children enough to have a good time. The elevation at the zoo entrance is about 7400 feet, and it only goes higher from there. If you’ve never been, pace yourself and take it easy on the hills. As you can see behind us in this photo, you do have to climb stairs to access one part of the zoo from this point. You can also take the elevator or ride the Sky Ride to the top and walk down. Be sure to feed the giraffes at their exhibit. The platform is built so that you can reach out and feed them easily. While I’m genuinely weirded out by giraffe tongues, everybody else who has done it enjoys it.

Have you ever visited Cheyenne Mountain Zoo?