The Denver Zoo

So the first weekend of November Brooke and I went to the Denver Zoo.  Now I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a big zoo guy.  I love a good Sea World but really, looking at giraffes is only so much fun.  Well I have to say, I was very happy we went, it was a great time.  The Denver Zoo does free days late in the season here.  Normally it’s snowed and it’s a lot colder.  Well we went on Sunday and it was in the 70s.  In fact, we were a little warm in jeans and t-shirts.

While the zoo isn’t all that expensive nothing beats free.  Well I guess every other “Denverite” agreed with that sentiment.  The place was mobbed.  A word of advice, get there a bit before it opens.  The line moves quick but the parking fills up fast.  When the gates open, you just stroll right in.  There is nothing to do.  Grab a map and plan your assault of Mother Nature’s playground.  We made a counter-clockwise loop around and made it in time for the sea lion demo.

After sea lions we wandered around some more.  We came the elephant exhibit where they were talking about their diets.  The two elephants lost like 800 (360 kg) pounds each.  On was just shy of 8,000 (3,600 kg) pounds and the other was around 10,000 (4,500 kg) pounds.  I knew they were massive obviously but I was taken a back by the size.  It was amazing, they can move enormous amounts of weight and are able to pick a blade of grass with their trunks.

After elephants it was monkeys and gorillas.  The monkeys are pretty fun but the gorillas were boring. There was one orangutan that grabbed his celery, walked to the other side of his enclosure, but a burlap blanket over his head and went to sleep.  It was hilarious!

All in all the Denver Zoo was a great time and I’d recommend free days but also pay days.  Support your local zoo, they really do good work and they help educate those knuckle-dragging humans like me about the animals we share the planet with.  And aside from stranding a preposition there in the last sentence I’m giving you the best picture of the day.  A lazy camel.  More pictures can be found here:

http://www.brookeandmark.net/photos/main.php?g2_itemId=541