Utah's Hoogle Zoo, photos and a mommy review.

FIRST, ....

THANK YOU for your replies to my last post on raising my girls. Thank you for all your advice and kind words. They lifted me up so much! hugs to you all! 

****************************************************

Utah's Hoogle Zoo!

Our last week of school for the year brought us to a Zoo Field Trip. Believe it or not this was our 1st time to the zoo here in Utah. We got in at a great field trip price. Under three was free. My school age girls were free and I paid a whopping $4.50 to get in. How awesome was that?! 

We had a blast! I have posted tons of pics.

At the end I posted a few thoughts, and my own personal review of what I thought about the zoo from our 1st time there.(By myself with 5 kids, ages 9,7,5,2,7mos.!) YIKES. That was brave. But worth it!

Enjoy!

at the entrance. :)

I let her be in charge. She had the map and we went wherever she said we needed to go. It actually was a nice break to not have to think about it. She did awesome! It did however take all day. We were there from 10:30 to 5pm!  It was worth it though.

She wanted to stop and take photos on or with every sculpture we came across.

This was Sophies first time at a zoo, EVER. This tiger was napping int he sun right under our window ledge. It was the best! We had great sight of his teeth and many times his HUGE paws, and strength as he stretched from time to time.

Top right corner you can see another Tigers BIG face in his shade hut. We wished he would decide to go swimming.

My favorite display! I love Butterflies. These were absolutely amazing. God is so good. All of his creations are amazing. There were moths the size of books!

Again, I loved seeing Sophie see these animals in real life. So sweet.

We had to take a little train ride. I thought it was so pretty!

Tobin and Sophies 1st "choo-choo" train ride. He looks thrilled, right?

All Aboard!

I loved the Giraffes! This building was so nice and cool we spent a half hour inside while I fed Tobin a bottle. It was great shade and we were so happy the Giraffe decided to come in for water just as we got there. craziness!

My little clan.

playing in the playground area and me playing around on Instagram taking creative photos.

Oles trying to get our of her shell. :)

Ok. crazy thing. This Peacock was loud and showed off for about 20 min for us. Strutting around in circles so we all could see. As I took pics Sophie escaped from her stroller straps and chased a rooster away from us. It was very scary when I realized she was 400 yards away in a "employee only" zone chasing a rooster! Luckily, an employee on a golf cart stopped to help. yikes!

All Sophie said was how messy his room was."HooHoo's room a mess!Itsa mess mess!" (she calls Monkeys "hooHoo's) I actually did not enjoy this part of the zoo AT ALL. I was sad to see this beautiful HUGE gorilla in such a small room painted like his natural habitat. I am sure he had some outside play area to hang in as well but we never saw where. I have a hard time with zoos anyways, this just made me mad.

The gorilla was just staring at us eating a huge celery stalk like a little kid picking at a banana.He watched us intently but looked ever so bored.Almost looked fake. I felt bad for him but the girls were pretty excited.

AT the gift shop of course. The girls begged for these HUGE stuffed toys. Why, Yes, only $49.95. or something close to that. lol I got them each a small stuffed animal instead since we never buy them stuffed animals these days. I have a strict rule on that. Can't stand them.They take up space and never get played with. This time I made an exception and they were SO SO EXCITED!!!!

As far as Zoos go, Hoogle Zoo was by far my favorite. I have been to Atlanta Zoo, The Bronx Zoo, and Albuquerque NM Zoo before. I loved Utahs Hoogle Zoo because it was smaller and we got more interaction (if you could call it that) with the animals. They were just so close to us all the time.

However, I did have a hard time seeing these majestic AMAZING powerful animals in such small living habitats. 

Utahs Hoogle Zoo had plenty of air conditioned spots to sit and rest.Deep into the park with restrooms was an actual nursing lounge! Big enough to bring a stroller and a few kids in to feed a baby. There were also many places to sit and rest. Also near food stands there was some shade with overhead fans. 

As far as concessions, I thought the cafe by the main entrance was super nice and the food was awesome. Pricey but yummy. Everything was so clean and tidy. The chefs were super nice and customer service reminded me of a hotel restaurant. I did not feel like I was at a zoo. I loved it. Kids had pizza which were HUGE slices. They happily cut them in 1/2 for us. I had a gourmet burger made to order right in front of me with some fries. 

We were told and read online a no outside food policy except once there I saw SO many people picnicking with their coolers and lunches from home. We will probably do that next time to save $. There was also fun concessions through out the park selling cold treats, drinks, cotton candy and other snack foods. They happily refilled my large cup with ice water whenever I needed for free.

Unfortunately we were there two days before they opened their new exhibit "Rocky Shores" with polar bears, sea lions, otters, seals and more! I want to get a yearly family pass and go often with the kids. It was so comfortable even on a hot day we stayed from 10:30 to 5pm! Only around 4pm did we get super hot and tired. 

So, that's it for our first zoo experience at Utahs Hoogle Zoo! 

Hope you enjoyed the photos! Have you been to this zoo before? Did you love it?  What is your favorite zoo that you have been to so far and why? I'd love to know about more great places to stop in and visit if we are ever near it.