Snowleopard's 2010 Road Trip

snowleopard

snowleopard

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For your reading pleasure...

This is a HUGELY AMBITIOUS SCHEDULE!!! I now have a grand total of 35 different zoos and aquariums set for this 6-week road trip, and in years past my wife and I have always ended up visiting more zoos than we originally planned. For this trip I'm expecting to maybe visit LESS: perhaps 30 zoos and aquariums with several knocked off of the current list. It will be so different now that we have an adorable 10-month-old youngster, as our daughter requires a lot of work and so if we hit 30 then I'll still be thrilled. Time will tell.

Believe it or not we are definitely leaving on Monday morning, July 12th, and I've now tossed Milwaukee, Buffalo and Roger Williams Park onto my updated itinerary. Insanity! The magic number this summer is 56. By the end of August, as long as everything goes according to plan and we survive with a baby along for the journey, we'll have seen 56 out of the top 60 zoos in America...and all of them since 2006. The four zoos that will be missing for us (according to the fantastic book "America's Best Zoos") will be Honolulu, Oakland, Lowry Park and Busch Gardens.

FINAL COPY (draft #7???):

Day 1: Drive all day
Day 2: Zoo Montana* + drive all day
Day 3: Drive all day
Day 4: Cheyenne Mountain Zoo + drive 7.5 hours
Day 5: Sedgwick County Zoo* + drive 3 hours
Day 6: Tulsa Zoo* + drive 4 hours
Day 7: Kansas City Zoo + drive 4 hours
Day 8: Saint Louis Zoo* + Gateway Arch
Day 9: Rest Day + drive 4.5 hours
Day 10: Nashville Zoo* + drive 3 hours
Day 11: Louisville Zoo* + drive 3.5 hours
Day 12: Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo* + drive 5 hours
Day 13: Milwaukee Zoo* + drive 4.5 hours
Day 14: Binder Park Zoo* + drive 4 hours
Day 15: Cleveland Zoo* + drive 3 hours
Day 16: Buffalo Zoo* + Niagara Falls
Day 17: Rest Day + drive 7.5 hours
Day 18: Roger Williams Park Zoo* + drive 5 hours
Day 19: Philadelphia Zoo* + Liberty Bell + drive 2 hours
Day 20: National Aquarium* + Maryland Zoo*
Day 21: Rest Day + drive 6.5 hours
Day 22: North Carolina Zoo* + drive 3 hours
Day 23: Riverbanks Zoo* + drive 5 hours
Day 24: Tennessee Aquarium + Chattanooga Zoo* + drive 2 hours
Day 25: Birmingham Zoo* + drive 1.5 hours
Day 26: Montgomery Zoo* + drive 5 hours
Day 27: Audubon Zoo*
Day 28: Rest Day + drive 5.5 hours
Day 29: Houston Zoo* + drive 3.5 hours
Day 30: Caldwell Zoo* + drive 2 hours + Dallas World Aquarium
Day 31: Dallas Zoo* + drive 1.5 hours
Day 32: Cameron Park Zoo* + drive 3 hours
Day 33: San Antonio Zoo* + drive 4.5 hours
Day 34: Gladys Porter Zoo* + 6 hours
Day 35: Rest Day + drive 9 hours
Day 36: Rio Grande Zoo* + Albuquerque Aquarium* + drive 3 hours
Day 37: Rest Day + drive 7 hours
Day 38: Utah’s Hogle Zoo* + drive 5 hours
Day 39: Zoo Boise* + drive 3 hours
Day 40: Drive 7 hours + Home!

Days = 42 (6 weeks)
Zoos/Aquariums = 35
* Free or Half-price Zoos/Aquariums with AZA or Woodland Park Zoo membership = 31
U.S. States = 33
 
DAY 1: Monday, July 12th

Today was a driving day, and one of epic proportions! My wife, 10 month-old daughter and I left our hometown of Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada, and drove south into the American state of Washington. We only live about 10 minutes from the international border, and after about 2.5 hours we were as far as Seattle. From there we hopped onto the I-90 (a major interstate highway that covers the northern portion of the lower 48 states) and we headed due east towards Spokane. After driving all day and well into the night without stopping, other than for a quick lunch and dinner and refueling, we drove all the way across the state of Washington, through the top of Idaho, and partway into Montana. We spent the night in Missoula, Montana, and in total we drove almost 950 km in one day. I will do 100% of the driving on this trip, and while I love to drive it was still a challenge. Whew!
 
DAY 2: Tuesday, July 13th

We left the city of Missoula and drove across the massive state of Montana, stopping to admire the green farmer fields that dot the landscape. My wife and I always play a fun game of seeing who can spot the most number of raptors as we cruise along at the 120 km (75 mile) per hour speed limit. On day one of this gigantic road trip we saw a total of 33 (most of them assorted hawks, and the total includes 2 bald eagles) while on day two we spotted a combined 29 hawks, falcons and eagles. We also saw 4 white-tailed deer and a couple of herds of pronghorn antelope totalling about 30 individuals in total. I've read before that the pronghorn is the second fastest mammal on the planet after the cheetah, and I believe it after seeing a herd scatter at the approach of a train.

ZOO/AQUARIUM REVIEW #1: Zoo Montana

Zoo Montana is the first of what will hopefully be at least 30 zoos and aquariums on this trip, and it will more than likely be the smallest of all the establishments that we visit. This should be a fairly short review, as the zoo was slight but enjoyable.

The zoo's website:

ZooMontana

Map of zoo:

http://zoomontana.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/map.jpg

The entrance area and initial few exhibits are the weakest part of the zoo, as there is an Education Center that also serves as a zoo-themed preschool. This area contains a small gift shop, a ticketing booth, washrooms, and several animal exhibits. There were enclosures for these species: pygmy marmoset, chinchilla, american mink, western screech owl, emerald tree boa, wyoming toad and green iguana. None of these enclosures are anything spectacular, and they are placed somewhat haphazardly around a central greeting area. There is also a room filled with about 18 terrariums of various shapes and sizes, containing such animals as a snapping turtle, bearded dragon, tarantula, milk snake, hognose snake, Madagascan hissing cockroaches, and a variety of other small reptiles and amphibians. That same room serves as a meeting place and mini schoolroom, so the possibility of having hands-on encounters with animals would be appealing to children.

Moving out from the entrance plaza there is an amphitheater, a sensory garden (complete with a very pretty fountain), a children's garden with animal statues, a playground that will soon be replaced, and a farm area with horses, chickens, goats, rabbits and somewhat surprisingly a turkey vulture. None of these areas are especially noteworthy, and it is rare to see a zoo that does not have some kind of spectacular exhibit towards the entrance.

The second half of the zoo is much better, but not a great deal larger. There are many attractive walking trails, 8 mammal exhibits and 3 bird exhibits. That's all folks. The bird exhibits are a small caged enclosure for a raven (the wire cage is packed with climbing structures and it used to hold a porcupine), an open-topped enclosure for two bald eagles that were injured and lost their ability to fly, and a waterfowl wetlands area with assorted geese and ducks. All 3 exhibits are average at best.

The 8 mammal enclosures are easily the best part of this small zoo, and a major attraction is the fairly new, almost 2-acre grizzly bear enclosure. A large male bear resides in what is a decent exhibit, and apparently the zoo recently took in a "problem bear" and is debating whether to have the two bears on show together in late 2010. There is a river otter exhibit with a pair of entertaining otters, but the underwater viewing area featured green, murky water that made it difficult to see the aquatic mammals. There is a wolverine exhibit that is dense and lush, a bighorn sheep enclosure that is long and narrow, and an impressively wooded 1-acre grey wolf exhibit that is home to only two wolves.

There is a lengthy walking trail through a shaded forest area to the final 3 mammal exhibits, in what is deemed an "Asia Trail" zone. A large Amur tiger exhibit (sponsored by Exxon and opened in 1995) featured a single cat that did not stop prowling around the exhibit. There was no sign of pacing, but just of constant movement past the huge viewing windows and across both sides of the enclosure. The zoo has a single Machurian sika deer that I did not see due to the overgrown grass in the enclosure, and a pair of red pandas resided in a nicely shaded exhibit with tall trees.

Overall Zoo Montana is a tiny blip on the zoological landscape of the United States, but it is one of the approximately 220 AZA accredited establishments and it proudly has AZA stickers at many of the exhibits. The tiger, bear, red panda and wolf enclosures should all be held in high regard, but the rest of the zoo ranges from average to disappointing. I chatted with the public relations employee in the gift shop, and there are ambitious plans for creating a brand new children's playground, a birds of prey area, a "secret exhibit" (seemingly half finished and yet bizarrely not unveiled yet - it even says "secret" on the map that I was given!) and a pelican exhibit. All of those improvements will not even be started for at least a year, and it may well be many years before they are all complete due to lack of financing. At the end of the day it is almost a shock to see that Montana contains a solitary zoo, as the massive state borders Yellowstone National Park and thus there is a bounty of wildlife that can be seen just by venturing outdoors.
 
OK, I'm back from my zoo vacation to the American Northwest, and one of the first things I wanted to do was check in on the SnowLeopard family! I had planned to actually visit with them on my trip, but family matters cancelled that plan. Still, I think it's interesting that on their first morning on the road, I probably passed them on the opposite side of I-5. As they drove south towards Seattle, I was driving north towards their homeland of British Columbia (I was on my way to visit the Vancouver Aquarium). Hey SnowLeopard, if you remember that silver Toyota Corolla, that was me!

Godspeed, SnowLeopard family. It will indeed be fun to follow your travels. Hopefully I'll see you all in Indiana later this month!
 
When I go on long distance zoo visits - and the distances are usually much shorter than these - I often feel rather guilty about my carbon footprint. Travelling thousands of miles, as you will be here, will you be doing anything to counterbalance the amount of petrol you will be using and the impact that will have on the environment?
 
snowleopard said:
Day 17: Rest Day + drive 7.5 hours
Day 35: Rest Day + drive 9 hours
Day 37: Rest Day + drive 7 hours
Click to expand...

Only you would consider driving 7 to 9 hours a "rest day." You are insane!!! I can't believe you are doing all the driving too. At first I assumed you and your wife would take turns so the other could sleep in the passenger seat. And then you actually find time to post that day's zoo review on this site. Unbelievable!
 
Arizona Docent said:
Only you would consider driving 7 to 9 hours a "rest day." You are insane!!! I can't believe you are doing all the driving too. At first I assumed you and your wife would take turns so the other could sleep in the passenger seat. And then you actually find time to post that day's zoo review on this site. Unbelievable!
Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly, I missed your last road trip Zooleopard so I am glad there is a 2010 version!
 
Nice review of ZooMontana snowleopard, keep em coming. (Can't wait for pictures)
 
Its finally began :) Snowleopard's epic road trip take 3 :P lol , I absolutely love all your zoo reviews and road trips, there so much fun to keep track of

Glad to hear you saw alot of raptors, among them were most likely red tailed hawk, red shouldered hawk and other varietys

Can't wait for the next review and take care
 
sooty mangabey said:
When I go on long distance zoo visits - and the distances are usually much shorter than these - I often feel rather guilty about my carbon footprint. Travelling thousands of miles, as you will be here, will you be doing anything to counterbalance the amount of petrol you will be using and the impact that will have on the environment?
Click to expand...

No offense, Sooty, but SnowLeopard need not feel any guilt! The miniscile amount of petrol he is burning is trivial. He's driving a small, high-mileage car, not an SUV. One volcano eruption puts more carbon into the atmosphere than all North American cars do in over a year. What would you expect him to do? Stay home and sulk? Or maybe he could buy some of Al Gore's carbon credits? Then Gore could use SL's hard-earned money to pay for his legal defense for his upcoming sex trial. Sorry if this sounds demeaning, but I think this is a 100% personal matter. If you feel guilty about your own carbon footprint, then you should address it personally in your own lifestyle. But you should not push your guilt off on other people.

Arizona Docent said:
Only you would consider driving 7 to 9 hours a "rest day." You are insane!!!
Click to expand...

By "rest", he means no zoo-touring for that day. Believe it or not, some of us find driving a very "restful" activity. I do. On the other hand, as much as I love it, spending 4-7 hours touring a zoo can be physically exhausting.
 
Zoogoer2000 said:
Its finally began :) Snowleopard's epic road trip take 3 :P lol , I absolutely love all your zoo reviews and road trips, there so much fun to keep track of

Glad to hear you saw alot of raptors, among them were most likely red tailed hawk, red shouldered hawk and other varietys

Can't wait for the next review and take care
Click to expand...

Not to go too far on a tangent, but red-shouldered hawks don't live in the part of the country he was traveling through, although I'm sure Swainson's hawks were to be found in abundance. :cool:
 
ANyhuis said:
No offense, Sooty, but SnowLeopard need not feel any guilt! The miniscile amount of petrol he is burning is trivial. He's driving a small, high-mileage car, not an SUV. One volcano eruption puts more carbon into the atmosphere than all North American cars do in over a year. What would you expect him to do? Stay home and sulk? Or maybe he could buy some of Al Gore's carbon credits? Then Gore could use SL's hard-earned money to pay for his legal defense for his upcoming sex trial. Sorry if this sounds demeaning, but I think this is a 100% personal matter. If you feel guilty about your own carbon footprint, then you should address it personally in your own lifestyle. But you should not push your guilt off on other people.
Click to expand...

When people start off by saying "no offense", that is usually just what they intend! Your right-wing views are nothing new to those who have read your previous postings on Zoo Chat, but I'm really not sure what that snide comment about Al Gore is doing here. I don't think it appropriate that Scott's thread should be hijacked by debate about the rights and wrongs of global warming, although it is clear where your thoughts lie on this one. I disagree with you, and believe that the "our own impact is only ever going to be small so, really, why bother?" argument is a particularly weak one. Was my refusal to buy South African fruit in the 1980s responsible for the eventual release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid? Probably not, by itself, no - but that is not to say that I should have blithely carried on eating those tainted apples. Likewise, of course, my taking a flight from London to Prague purely in order to visit some Czech zoos does not, in itself, add significantly to the environmental problems faced by the planet. But as an intelligent and concerned global citizen, the irony of my damaging the planet as I seek to visit zoos - which are, amongst other things, conservation organisations - is inescapable, and as I took that flight last week it was a matter which was on my mind. I would be surprised if other people on this forum had not similarly tried to square this particular circle, and I would be interested to hear the thoughts of one high-profile high-mileage traveler - Snow Leopard. This is not pushing my guilt off on other people, as you put it Allen, but asking a question of someone in whose opinion I am interested.

No offence, but the head-in-the-sand response you offer here, and your demeaning of those who are concerned about environmental degradation, is depressing in the extreme.
 
Ituri said:
Not to go too far on a tangent, but red-shouldered hawks don't live in the part of the country he was traveling through, although I'm sure Swainson's hawks were to be found in abundance. :cool:
Click to expand...

just looked at a range map, you are right Ituri :)
 
sooty mangabey said:
When people start off by saying "no offense", that is usually just what they intend! Your right-wing views are nothing new to those who have read your previous postings on Zoo Chat, but I'm really not sure what that snide comment about Al Gore is doing here. I don't think it appropriate that Scott's thread should be hijacked by debate about the rights and wrongs of global warming, although it is clear where your thoughts lie on this one. I disagree with you, and believe that the "our own impact is only ever going to be small so, really, why bother?" argument is a particularly weak one. Was my refusal to buy South African fruit in the 1980s responsible for the eventual release of Nelson Mandela and the end of apartheid? Probably not, by itself, no - but that is not to say that I should have blithely carried on eating those tainted apples. Likewise, of course, my taking a flight from London to Prague purely in order to visit some Czech zoos does not, in itself, add significantly to the environmental problems faced by the planet. But as an intelligent and concerned global citizen, the irony of my damaging the planet as I seek to visit zoos - which are, amongst other things, conservation organisations - is inescapable, and as I took that flight last week it was a matter which was on my mind. I would be surprised if other people on this forum had not similarly tried to square this particular circle, and I would be interested to hear the thoughts of one high-profile high-mileage traveler - Snow Leopard. This is not pushing my guilt off on other people, as you put it Allen, but asking a question of someone in whose opinion I am interested.

No offence, but the head-in-the-sand response you offer here, and your demeaning of those who are concerned about environmental degradation, is depressing in the extreme.
Click to expand...

Is this really something worth fighting over, honestly?
 
I'll be following your tour with interest!

I have 20 animal collections on my USA itinerary (2/9-2/10) and chances are that, by adding the odd minor zoo or aquarium, they will be 24-25. I guess I could visit close to 30 zoos, even without a car (will be using Greyhound, Amtrak, Southwest and United to get between cities on the East Coast, South Central and the North Central) IF I didn't want to do a bit of 'normal' tourist stuff along the way, like touring the National Mall in Washington, see Manhattan, the Alamo in San Antonio, the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, etc. Nevertheless, 20 in a month is not bad.

I hope the little girl won't mind the driving, but she's got to learn early on what she's into until she moves away from home at 18 or so! :)

One last thing: let us not take this thread into an argument about the environment please.
 
Zoogoer2000 said:
Is this really something worth fighting over, honestly?
Click to expand...

Actually, if this isn't worth debating vigorously, what is? On one hand, we have what in all scientific likelihood is the single greatest environmental challenge to the continued existence of the animals we all love to experience in zoos or the wild, and on the other a demonstration of the attitude and "world view" that seems to guarantee a lack of action to combat the challenge.

I find it inconceivable that there are individuals who spend so much time experiencing and thinking about zoos who can hold such regressive, contrarian views (creationism, climate change "denial" etc.). To me it's like an astronaut claiming to believe the world is flat...it just doesn't compute.

But I look forward to Snow Leopard's ongoing narrative, although I worry about the stretch of mediocre zoos in the Southeast midway through the trip.
 
Look forward to your Sedgwick County Zoo review. Just read about it in America's Best Zoos and it sounds very interesting.
 
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