Yup.... The Saint Louis Zoological Park
My day at the St. Louis Zoo should have been the last in my adventure... but things didn't end up that way... I only had enough time at the zoo to see the major areas and sadly, not enough time to ride the train... Or explore the rest of the massive Forest Park area (in the end, I had a huge delay at the airport and could have spent
hours more at the zoo and forest park.......) The zoo opened in 1904 and was part of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904 World's Fair) and the 1904 Summer Olympics as well. Forest Park is also home to the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Missouri History Museum, and the St. Louis Science Center, as well as large areas of park land. From 1896 to 1963 there was even an amusement park located within Forest Park with a pretty fun looking
coaster.
Anyways.... uh, photos from the Saint Louis Zoological Park.
Woo, not only is the zoo AZA accredited... its FREE!
And incredibly classy.
The zoo is very large and split into six sections.
River's Edge, The Wild, Discovery Corner, Historic Hill, Red Rocks, and Lakeside Crossing
It also has a large Chance C. P. Huntington train with four stations... and it runs multiple trains! But due to time issues, I was unable to ride it :( (next time for sure!)
As soon as I entered the park and checked the massive map.. I made my way to the left
(hippo...hippo...hippo!)
Passing a rather large under construction area... That once open will feature bears!
(Guess I was too early, booo)
But that's ok, because just past it was....
The Hungry, Hungry Hippos!!!
(hippo hippo...hippo!)
Oh, and this terrible women... Who while standing NEXT TO the sign saying "Welcome to the Anheuser-Busch Hippo Harbor" kept telling her child "LOOK AT THE RHINO! DO YOU SEE THE RHINO?! LOOK! THE RHINO IS SWIMMING!!!" I was ready to slap her... but I just walked away.
Walking down to the Elephant area you walk along side this neat little stream.
The zoo has lots of water features... Ponds, fountains, waterfalls. Its very impressive.
At the bottom of the hill is the Elephant Overlook... And yeah, you can see Elephants there.
Who knew?
I made a quick pass by the Butterfly Pavilion. Yup.
and... I was able to get to the outdoor viewing area
for the penguins.
They also have an indoor penguin viewing area with puffins as well but it wasn't open during my visit, I believe an entire section of this area in the zoo was under refurbishment at the time.
((Polar Bears were listed as "coming soon"... but I was sooner than them :( ))
Most zoo's seem to be getting in on this Carousel trend. More than half of the zoo's I've visited in the past few years seem to have them. This is the Mary Ann Lee Conservation Carousel. Although unlike most zoo's their carousel represents animals found within the zoo itself.
Oh!
And its across the patchway from the duck pond!!
QUACK QUACK!
Fragile Forest features orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas. The area is split half indoors half outdoors and the areas open and close with the seasons.
In the 'back' (or, I guess.. far right side) are the Red Rock Territories and Historic Hill areas of the zoo, Historic Hill being the oldest area, dating back to 1904. Sadly, these were the areas I was only able to spend minimal time at :(
But I did happen upon this sleepy Hyena.
I was unable to spot any of the big cats in the zoo :(
No Lions, Leopards, Tigers, or Jaguars for me....
I almost missed the lemur house all together...
in my race to the exit.
After leaving the zoo I made my way back to the airport with a stop for a quick lunch... Knowing Jeff gets mad at me for eating at chains when I'm in new cities... I found a place on my GPS down the road from the zoo called My Daddy's Cheesecake Bakery & Cafe... and I checked it out. I ended up getting a super yummy veggie wrap.. and well, cheesecake. Tragically, I was unable to pick just one kind to try and ended up getting two <3 :D
Once full of yummy cakes.. I continued onto the airport where I found my flight was to be delayed by hours... So I walked by some trendy camp store filled with custom and wonderful looking rubber ducks, fearing I'd be walking out with 15 of them... I just got myself a panda bear suction-cup and quickly exited... While sitting at the gate waiting to fly from STL to ATL to MCO we were informed our flight was going to be delayed more and that you could call Delta for more info or rebookings... I jumped at the chance to book a later flight out of Atlanta.. I sent Deka a whole bunch of texts and booked myself a flight out of Atlanta the next night. Woo, Six Flags Over Georgia.... here I come!
At some point the flight did leave St. Louis, getting me into Atlanta around 10pm. Deka picked me up at the airport and we headed off to her place but stopping at a Waffle House along the way for some numnums.
In the end, the St. Louis Zoo is pretty amazing. I'd put it in my top 5 zoo's for sure. Not really sure where at but after Omaha (my #1)... and maybe before the National Zoo (unless they bring their hippos back)
Bonus photos via twitter -
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363733758727319552
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363842265430515712
Bonus random tweets -
https://twitter.com/CanobieFan/status/363693300382834689
