Louisville Zoo

As you may have already read, the next adventure myself and Andrea took was to the Smoky Mountains National Park back in June of 2019. The next small trip we took was to the nearby Louisville Zoo here in Kentucky the following month, at the end of July. We had threatened (or promised) to take the kids there for awhile and finally got around to it. And it was a nice day to go too.

Now, this may be the smallest zoo that we have taken the kids to so far, but that does not mean it wants for any of the basic, or normal, animals one sees at zoo’s now. They even have some penguins now. Just look at the little cuties!

Not far from Penguin Cove is the zoo’s Islands Exhibit where we met some orangutans.

And this guy followed by some crocodiles.

The zoo even has bald eagles!

And a bunch of pink flamingos.

The zoo also happens to have a favorite stopping point for the kids. An aviary where the birds can be fed.

Not far from here were some wallaby’s, but from what I remember of them there were not many and they were not exactly active either.

Our next stop was the Glacier Run area. Here, we met some seals and sea lions. Then, we got a close up glimpse of this huge guy.

We also watched a feeding/information session for a grizzly bear. Alas, I could not get a good photo of the giant bear as the reflection from the glass was too much to even make it out. It made me a sad panda.

After this it was short walk over to the giant kitty area. We saw some snow leopards napping the hot day away. Then, all by itself and pacing to and fro, was this Amur tiger.

The tiger’s area was quite fancy too.

When I came here many a time as a kid, there was nothing remotely like this at all. I thought of it as a concrete prison for many of the animals held in the zoo. Now, probably to compete with a lot of the larger zoo’s we have been to, they have spruced up their exhibits to make them look a bit fancier.

After the tiger’s we took a short respite to have a zoo staple of ours: Dippin’ Dots! I’ve always loved getting their ice cream. And here is fun fact for the locals that you may not know: Dippin’ Dots are made in Paducah, Kentucky.

We didn’t take long to devour our wonderful ice cream treats (Dippin’ Dots tend to melt quickly) so we strolled over to the next area of the zoo. Here, we met some gorilla’s!

And a pygmy hippo!

From here we followed a trail outlined by bamboo.

Where there happened to be some Colobus monkeys.

After this exciting encounter we were off to a side of the zoo that had not changed much since I was a kid. There were zebras, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, and even a lion here along with a bunch of other animals.

Takeaways

The Louisville Zoo has made a lot of improvements from when I remember going there as a kid. There are many new exhibits that look quite nice and many different animals from before. There is even a rope course and a small water park area for the kids. There are camel rides, a small train, and a carousel too. All of this is fine for this area and it is nice little place to take the kids to get out of the house for a little while.

But, if you want to go to take a weekend trip and go to an extremely nice zoo, one that has many more animals to see, one that has the animals in something similar to their natural habitat, we highly recommend going to the Columbus Zoo in Ohio. It is massive compared to the Louisville Zoo. We spent around eight hours there a few years ago and did not see all of it. On top of not only having a great and amazing zoo, there are a couple of other amusement type park areas that are next to the zoo. It really is a great place to spend the weekend for a truly fun-filled, immersive zoo experience.