We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary in early November. Usually we celebrate with a small trip, but this year we needed to be both budget and covid conscious, so we decided to spend the day at The Denver Zoo. We love animals, and although we have lived in Colorado for nearly a year, this was our first time at the zoo.

Due to Covid, we had to purchase advanced tickets with a timed entry. We went at 10am ( zoo opening) on a Monday morning. When we arrived, we were among only a handful of cars in the parking lot. It was a ghost town.

We arrived about thirty minutes early, so we just enjoyed the crisp morning air and the exhibits at the zoo entrance. I really love the alligator sculpture.

Masks were mandatory and social distancing reminders were everywhere. The zoo also had one-way traffic, so we had to complete a big circle. Since it was our first visit, this worked well and we really didn’t notice a problem with other visitors bunching up at the same exhibits. It was very easy to social distance. The only problem with the one-way traffic is there were a few areas where we had to choose a path, so we know that we missed a few animals, including our favorite, the capybara. The loop took us about three hours at a leisurely pace.

During the spring, when the zoo was shut-down due to Covid, local artists came to paint and beautify the zoo.

I also learned that The Denver Zoo is historic for its use of naturalistic habitats back in 1918. Having worked with behavioral research at The Greater Los Angeles Zoo, I could really appreciate the significance and importance of “Bear Mountain.”

One of the highlights of our visit was seeing the baby rhino cuddling with its mother.

The other big surprise was seeing a herd of elephants crossing a bridge above us. We just caught them at the right moment and it was magical.

Dan got some amazing shots of the alpha male mandrill.

The most entertaining and loudest animals were the seal lions. Seal Lions are the clowns of the zoo world.

We took a break at Gidget’s Ice Cream Parlor where I was delighted to discover that they sold Dole Whip. I absolutely love Dole Whip, but I’ve never eaten it outside of a Disney park or the Dole Plantation in Oahu. It has been years since I have eaten this creamy pineapple treat and I was in heaven.

Continuing our day, we came across “Bird World” which I assume is an indoor aviary. It was closed due to Covid, but I had to snap a picture, as it looked like it was straight out of Jurassic Park.

The reptile house/aquarium building was open. It was themed to feel like a tropical forest. It also had a cool bat exhibit.

We saw so many animals, and since we visited in the morning on a quiet day, a majority of them were very active. It was the perfect zoo experience.

And of course, we saw Flamingos…

The Denver Zoo is filled with cute animal sculptures made from lego bricks. The park was also still decorated for Halloween, which had just happened a few days earlier. They were starting the transition from Halloween to Christmas decorations.

Visiting The Denver Zoo was the ideal way to spend our anniversary. I wish the zoo was closer to our house, so that we could justify getting year passes. I would also love to work at a zoo again. I miss it!