cheyenne mountain zoo.

the weather in colorado springs has been a bit unseasonal while we’ve been here. some snow. cold. a bit unpredictable for hiking and other outdoor activities. so, when the weekend rolled around, we were pleasantly surprised when it warm(ish) and sunny, so we opted for a trip to the cheyenne mountain zoo.

i will say, we are pretty spoiled by a great zoo in north carolina, but the zoo-on-the-side-of-a-mountain-coolness-factor certainly made this zoo a close second. the first exhibit we came upon was the giraffes.

giraffes are our favorite.

the viewing area for the giraffes is raised up, so you can come face to face with them, which is way cool. we dropped some cash (i mean, supported the zoo) on some leafs of lettuce, and set out for some feeding adventures. hazel thought it was sort of cool….

…as long as the friendly giraffes kept their distance.

anna hearts all animals.

(in case you’re wondering, isaac was not interested in giraffe feeding.)

giraffe selfie.

when our lettuce was gone, we moved on to the rest of the zoo. ho hum. this weird part zebra, part horse, part something else creature was actually an endangered okapi.

the meerkats were fun little guys. they raced over to check us out.

lions.

zebras.

some sort of sad primate that i felt bad for.

black bears. anna loved taking pictures of all the animals with her ipad.

as we wound through the zoo, up the mountain, we came to the backyard section, which had a chicken coop. our resident chicken whisperer jumped at the chance to feed them.

she was in heaven and it made me miss our chickens.

the lizard room.

break time. snacks. charting our course.

my second favorite. the moose, who also happened to be celebrating a birthday. unfortunately, he was pretty tucked away and we didn’t get a great view of him. her? it.

mountain lions. there were a lot of creative viewing experiences. the mountain lions could actually walk over us and we could see them through a window.

there were several spots to stop and view the colorado springs area. and/or take a family photo.

brown bears. or grizzlies. or maybe they are the same thing. i don’t know.

more family photos at the zoo.

this was another favorite. i think he was a tree kangaroo. and he just hung there, looking sad. hazel did a lot of impressions of him.

another cool spot. we came around the corner and there were some wallabies just hanging around.

a friendly zookeeper nearby told us that we could pet them if they came to us, but the tiny people couldn’t reach them, so we stretched the requirements a bit.

our last animal viewing was the elephants. there were only two out, and only this guy was close enough to really get a look at. (we later discovered the rest of them, inside, in a sad building, where they seemed sad and i was sad.)

our last bit of zoo adventure was to ride a ski lift up to a spot that can only be reached by ski lift (and car, but where’s the fun in that?). i rode with the girls.

we took a quick pic at the top, looking out over the springs.

and then hit the playground. derek and isaac were a few lift chairs behind us, so we had the place to ourselves for a bit (except for a few moments when a pack of wild and unsupervised tweens rolled in, loud and obnoxious, as wild and unsupervised tweens are wont to be).

we didn’t stay long at the top. there wasn’t much to it and we were tired out. so back down the ski lift.

then we spent a small fortune in the gift shop. anna bought a mama and baby giraffe stuffed animal. hazel picked out a giraffe beanie baby. and isaac went with a tube of pucker powder. and we left. and then we went back. to the lost and found. to recover a pair of anna’s sweatpants from when she changed in the bathroom. and then we left again. and our cheyenne mountain zoo adventure was concluded. the end.