Overall Rating
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo located in Colorado Springs, CO was opened in 1926. The Mountain Zoo is 140 acres with approx. 170+ species. Within the 170+ species is approx. 750+ animals. The Zoo is a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. They also participate in an AZA program called the Species Survival Plan.
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Website: www.cmzoo.org
Hours: 9:00am-5:00pm Daily
Holiday Hours:
Christmas Eve: 9:00am-3:00pm
Christmas Day: 9:00am-3:00pm
New Year’s Eve: 9:00am-3:00pm
New Year’s Day: 9:00am-3:00pm
Ticket Pricing:
Regular Days (March-November non peak)
Adults (12-64)-$19.75
Seniors (65+)-$17.75
Kids (3-11)-$14.75
Military Adult-$16.75
Military Kids-$11.75
Kids 2 & under-$.75
Value Days (December-February)
Adults (12-64)-$14.75
Seniors (65+)-$12.75
Kids (3-11)-$10.75
Military Adult-$11.75
Military Kid-$7.75
Kids 2 & under-$.75
Peak Days (June-September)
Adults (12-64)-$24.75
Seniors (65+)-$22.75
Kids (3-11)-$19.75
Military Adult-$21.75
Military Kid-$16.75
Kids 2 & under-$.75
Parking:Free
Pet Daycare:
Not available. Service dog are welcome.
With any extra service provided I would always call ahead for any information.
Restaurants:
There is 1 restaurant open year round and 2 seasonal restaurant/concessions available seasonally.
Animal Habitats
Education
Cultural Immersion
Navigation
Food Variety
For more information on our category ratings click here.
Our Zoo Experience
NOTE: We recently revisited this Zoo. We are working on an update to our story. Check back in the coming days for those updates.
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs is one of my favorite zoos we have visited. We visited the zoo the last week in April.
We thought this would be the perfect time not too hot and not too cold. Boy we were mistaken. The night we arrived at our hotel, La Quinta Inn-Garden of the Gods, it snowed four inches.
We were worried the zoo would close, fortunately for us they were open and very few people were there.
It was truly like we had the whole zoo to ourselves. One really cool feature about this zoo is they have indoor viewing areas for most of their animals.
Did you know that Giraffe cannot go outside if the temperature is below 45 degrees or above 110 degrees? We were able to see the Giraffe (even feed them).
The African Elephants and Black Rhino were inside the Elephant barn. You have to walk past their outside habitat Encounter Africa and down a long boardwalk to get to the barn. When you walk into the barn you are actually above the animals.
The African Lions were also in their indoor viewing area. The African Lion indoor viewing area is in between the African Rift Valley and the Encounter Africa exhibits at the zoo.
Unfortunately for us the African Lion indoor viewing area is just indoor for them. We had to stand outside, I guess you don’t really want to mix people and deadly predators.
Here is how the African Lion viewing worked. The Lions were in a room with a giant window as one of the walls. The giant window was on an outside wall, so we stood in a breeze way and could view the Lions as they went about their day napping and watching for keepers.
The zoo is an all day visit, we really enjoyed seeing and learning about the animals there. Be prepared to do a little hiking, it is on a mountain after all. The zoo is fairly easy to navigate, it basically has a bunch of loops.
The zoo is divided up into zones. Each zone has a color and the paths correspond with the colors. The yellow zone is the African Rift Valley. Here is where you can encounter Giraffe, Elephant, Rhino, Zebra, Meerkat, Okapi, and African Lions to name a few.
The Orange zone is made up of three exhibits. The Aquatics, Primate World, and Rocky Cliffs. The Aquatics exhibit houses most anything to do with water including the Nile River Hippo.
We were there in 2016. I’ve kept up with the zoo through social media and they have been working on a new Aquatic Center for the Hippos, Penguins, and American Beaver.
The zoos Primate World is a bit of a trek to get to, however, you can encounter Lowland Gorillas, Orangutans (both Bornean and Sumatran), and Siamang to name a few.
The Rocky Cliffs are a unique exhibit because it is almost a vertical cliff face, home to Rocky Mountain Goats. It is amazing how they can stand on the smallest of ledges and be perfectly stable.
The Blue zone is divided into two parts, The Asia Highlands and the Rocky Mountain Wildlife. A few of my favorite animals can be found in the Asia Highlands exhibit of the zoo. These include the Amur Leopard, Amur Tiger, Pallas Cat, and Snow Leopard.
Here we encountered one of the friendliest tigers on any of our zoo trips. She came down to the fence and chuffed at me while I chuffed back at her. It was her way of telling me she was comfortable with me and I was her friend.
One unique animal in Asia that was loving the snow was the Mountain Tapir or Wooly Tapir. He was loving playing in the snow.
In the Rocky Mountain Wildlife exhibits there are animals we have never encountered before this visit. One animal is the biggest land mammal in North America, the mighty Moose. They also have Canadian Lynx, Mountain Lions, and Mexican Grey Wolves.
The most exciting encounter in the Rocky Mountain Wildlife exhibits was the North American River Otters. They were up and extremely active and they liked the snow.
They were swimming and would push off the glass right in front of where you were standing. The Otters were also chattering, very talkative little things.
In order to get to the Grizzly Bears you have to either take the stairs up or an elevator up. Then you walk along a boardwalk. They have a wonderful habitat and visitor viewing.
While we were up there visiting the Grizzly’s one of the bears decided he needed to play with a stick. It was his stick.
The Green zones at the zoo represent the Australian Walkabout and their very unique herpetarium. In the Australian Walkabout they also have indoor viewing for those cold unexpected snow days.
Here in the Australian Walkabout you can see a very unique one of a kind species called Matschie’s Tree Kangaroo. Unlike their other kangaroo cousins, the tree kangaroo spends the majority of its life in the trees, hence the name.
The zoo’s herpetarium is the only one I’ve seen done this way. The reptile’s exhibits look like art. I still don’t know how I feel about it.
The Purple zone located in the center of the zoo contains the Bear Grottos, The Loft, Monkey Pavilion, and My Big Back Yard. The Bear Grottos is where you can see the Asiatic and Andean Bear exhibits.
The Loft is a building right below the Moose habitat. In The Loft visitors can see and interact with various species. Some of those animals are Black-footed Ferrets, Different Invertebrates, Prairie Dogs, Skunk, Snakes of certain species, Three-banded Armadillo, and Chinchilla. A real neat hands on learning experience.
Monkey Pavilion is exactly what it sounds like. It is a building with a circular path where you can see different species of monkeys. You can find Lemurs, Howler Monkeys, Gibbons, and Marmosets in this building.
The really cool part of this building is they have a Sloth just hanging out (ha ha pun) above the path. The sloth can pretty much go anywhere in the building. Don’t be too disappointed though if the Sloth is nowhere to be found and not moving around when you visit. They sleep almost all the time.
The exhibit of My Big Back Yard is the Children’s Zoo. That’s it for the animals, but there is still one thing I want to share with you, the food. OMG, some of the best zoo food I have had to date. I highly recommend going to the Grizzly Grill and trying the Asian offerings.
Check out the Zoo Food page to see the dish I ate there. The great thing about the Grizzly Grill is if you’re not in the mood for Asian there are two other cuisines you can choose from.
All in all I can’t wait to visit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo again, hopefully no snow next time.
Disclaimer: during our visit to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo we had not yet realized the full potential for The Zoo Review website. Unfortunately for me, and you, I did not practice good picture taking behavior. We fully intend to revisit Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in the near future.