Thanks for uploading so many photos of African Elephant Crossing, and this plaza area appears to offer up close viewing angles of the elephants as well as having created a large space where crowds can congregate in the summer. Many of your photos show a relatively barren space in terms of the actual exhibit, but it being winter must mean that the ground is lacking vegetation and fairly hard.
Aside from the area up the incline by the trees, the exhibit is extremely barren even in the summer. The exhibit space is also rather small being a brand new elephant exhibit. Overall kind of disappointing, however it is probably the nicest exhibit at the Cleveland Zoo. It has been quite a hit though to the average zoo visitor ignorant of exhibit design.
Now thinking back on it, I am actually a fan of this exhibit. It is certainly not the most effective design and not the largest, but it encourages the elephants to move around a lot and we definitely have a very active herd. The exhibit is not actually that barren in the summer time, and the elephants do have a grassy area at the top of the hill. There is a lot of different substrates rather than just grass, and our herd of elephants love mudding and there is definitely a lot of mud. Overall, I would sum up African Elephant Crossing as a great experience for visitors and elephants alike with average exhibit design. Definitely a great exhibit though especially if you like to see elephants up close.
This elephant exhibit is on par with Denver and Kansas City for me. Excellent proximity and mobility for the pachyderms and solid if not the most naturalistic. In the northern half of the country only Indianapolis, Saint Louis, Oregon and National are unquestionably better.
