A zoo nestled in the mountains

Today we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs - about 45 minutes south of Castle Rock and a beautiful drive. The zoo is on the smaller side, but I think it's fabulous. It's a beautiful setting - starting off at around 6800 feet above sea level and then gaining 120 feet by the time you reach the highest set of exhibits. So lots of climbing, but there was so much packed in the zoo I barely noticed it. At times, I think Aidan did (Kellen would just ask to go into his stroller when he got tired), but overall the kids had a blast.

When you first walk in you see a ton of giraffes in a setting almost as great as the what the giraffes have at the SF Zoo. There were a couple of giraffes who kept licking each other - like french kissing, don't know what that was all about, but then we noticed you could really get up close and personal with the giraffes. They would allow you to pet them, especially if you had a special giraffe cracker in hand. Here's a picture of Kellen trying to feed the giraffe. First time he just threw it at the giraffe, but that didn't work. You have to practically place it on their tongue and they curl it into their mouths. As for Aidan....not so interested in getting up close and personal with them.

After the giraffes, we then headed off to see some other animals and came across a little train. So little in fact, it only appealed to Kellen. Not exciting enough for Aidan. So once again, here's another picture of Kellen riding the train.

Next stop, "My Big Backyard" aka the children's play area. Very cute, lots of interactive things for the kids to do and see - petting zoo, play structures, climbing structures, carousel, you name it.

After playing in the kid's area for a little while we went to find some other animal exhibits and came across pony rides. Kellen really wanted to ride the pony, Aidan not so much. So here's Kellen riding the pony, very serious work. (Although we did tell him to hold on very tight and not let go.)

After the pony ride we discovered the feline section and as strange as this sounds the wallaby section. There were 4 beautiful mountain lions stretched along their cage posing to all of us who gawked at them. They truly are magnificent creatures, but one I'm not too eager to encounter in the wild. As a fellow gawker stated, "I like them behind that cage."

The Wallabies are so cute and they seem to be pretty docile. One was laying by the wires keeping us humans out, but it actually allowed us to reach in and pet it. They are very soft and did I say cute? Don't believe me, well take a look at this next picture....

We're off again in search of the hippos! I usually find hippos kind've boring. All they do is lay in the water and you hardly see them. Well not the hippos at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Those 3 hippos are pretty feisty fatsos! The started off in the water, but one of them kept "teasing" the others and opening it's mouth and making a lot of noise. Pretty exciting. Then one walked out of the water and boy are they HUGE! It's amazing they can even walk. They have these short stubby legs and kind've remind me of an obscenely overgrown weiner dog - minus the head. (Just the body shape. Okay, maybe my imagination is a little wild.) They definitely know when it's snack time because one walked into their inside pen and soon the other 3 followed to eat.

At the zoo, I'm thinking this is pretty cool. We've seen some great animals, gotten up close and personal with them, but the best is yet to come...I think. We wind our way to the primate exhibit. I always love seeing the monkeys, gorillas and orangutans. They are pretty entertaining, but we were in for a real treat today.

We walk inside a primate exhibit and notice a zookeeper laying down with a baby orangutan on it's tummy sleeping. Now how cute is that? I guess it's mother delivered the baby boy within 2 minutes so she never really bonded with him so the zookeepers divide their time playing mommy. It's not everyday you get to see baby orangutans let alone being cuddled by a human.

We finally wander off to the gorillas thinking how sweet it was to see the baby orangutan and low and behold we look up into the grasslands as a mother and it's baby start climbing along the side of the moutain. Wow! 2 baby primates in one day, pretty cool!

As you can see we had a great time at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. I actually found it more enjoyable than the Denver Zoo, but maybe we just got lucky today. I'm actually looking forward to going back to Colorado Springs to do all the other tourist stuff they have in the area. So stay tuned....