Advice on Zooing the Pacific Northwest on a Time Crunch

Kudu21

Kudu21

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Hello everyone!

Next week I will be travelling to the Pacific Northwest for the first time for a couple of days for a couple of events in my partner's home town. As of right now, we will have two days in Portland before travelling south to southern Oregon, where his family is from and where we will remain for the rest of the trip before heading back down the coast to SoCal.

Due to the nature of the trip, I will not have as much time to get in as much zooing as I would normally like to do; however, I know I will for sure have one day in Portland to myself with a car and might possibly be able to squeeze in a facility on the drive home. With that in mind, I come to you all with advice on A. how to best spend the limited time that I have in the PNW -- for those of you that are more familiar with the PNW/PNW facilities -- are there any combinations of facilities in the area that are easy enough to do in one day from Portland with having to be back in the city for a prior engagement at 7:00pm? And B. if I only have roughly a half-day for a facility on the drive back to SoCal, which facility should I prioritize versus saving for another extended trip up the California coast?

Thank you all in advance!
 
Unfortunately every zoological facility in the Northwest is a bit spread out - every other facility of note is about 2 hours away from Portland. You’ve got the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, and the Seattle Aquarium and Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. There’s also the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington, which has scalloped hammerheads among others. Never been to the Oregon Coast Aquarium personally but heard good things.
 
Here are the 11 Oregon zoos/aquariums that I know of and I've visited all of them:

Cascades Raptor Center (Eugene)
Charleston Marine Life Center (Charleston)
Great Cats World Park (Cave Junction)
Hatfield Marine Science Center (Newport)
High Desert Museum (Bend)
Oregon Coast Aquarium (Newport)
Oregon Zoo (Portland)
Seaside Aquarium (Seaside)
West Coast Game Park Safari (Bandon)
Wildlife Images Rehabilitation and Education Center (Merlin)
Wildlife Safari (Winston)

If you are going to be in Portland then it makes sense to visit the Oregon Zoo, but as you know from my recent road trip, that's approximately a 4 or 5 hour zoo and so you'd still have time on your hands. The World Forestry Center uses the same parking lot and it looks intriguing, but I've never been there. If you wish to drive back to Cali via the coast, then it's very simple to visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium and Hatfield Marine Science Center on the same day as they are literally two minutes apart. It would only take you 2.5 hours to tour both aquariums as 'Hatfield' is a 30-minute visit.

Northern California has zoos that might be easy for you to drop in on at some point in your travels, such as Turtle Bay Exploration Park (Redding, CA) with its approximately 30 species, or Ocean World (Crescent City, CA). There's also Great Cats World Park (Cave Junction, OR), or West Coast Game Park Safari (Bandon, OR) if you want to see a couple of Chimpanzees in a godawful cage. All these places are ones I've reviewed on ZooChat if you are interested in searching them up.
 
The biggest catch here is most of the notable facilities are not very close to Portland. Wildlife Safari and Northwest Trek might be doable as a full day trip if you were a determined early riser - though depending on where in Southern Oregon you're headed Wildlife Safari is right off Interstate 5. Oregon Zoo is a nice facility and worth a visit if you've not been and conveniently in Portland. Eugene Raptor Center is fairly close to Portland, though all birds of prey.
If you're heading back via the coast, there's Sequoia Park in Eureka (about an hour tops, pretty small), or maybe B. Bryan Preserve. If coming back mid-state, there's Turtle Bay in Redding (1.5-2 hours ish depending on interests) or Sacramento Zoo (2-2.5 hours or so).

snowleopard said:
Turtle Bay Exploration Park (Redding, CA) with its approximately 30 species,
Click to expand...

Not sure where that statistic is coming from - they're down a little at the present but are still around 60 species far as I'm aware.
 
Great Argus said:
Not sure where that statistic is coming from - they're down a little at the present but are still around 60 species far as I'm aware.
Click to expand...

When I visited in 2015, I counted 28 species but I didn't include any butterflies or fish. That would then bolster the numbers, but either way it's a facility that can be toured in two hours max. (as you point out).
 
snowleopard said:
When I visited in 2015, I counted 28 species but I didn't include any butterflies or fish. That would then bolster the numbers, but either way it's a facility that can be toured in two hours max. (as you point out).
Click to expand...

I checked my records for summer 2015 and no less than 38 species were on exhibit plus another 8 either easily viewable during the daily animal program or held bts. This number excludes fish, butterflies, the semi-managed honey bee colony, and ignores the Rainbow Lorikeet split as it wasn't widely accepted yet. I think it's missing a species or two as well.
 
@Crotalus, @Great Argus, and @snowleopard -- Thank you all for your contributions and advice! I really appreciate it. It is a shame to hear that not much in the area is within a combinable distance :( It looks like I will probably spend my one "free" day at the Oregon Zoo, then, and see what else I can find to do with whatever leftover time I have. Hopefully, I can make it back up to the area soon because I'd love to do the Washington facilities, as well. I might try to swing by Wildlife Safari while I am in southern Oregon because it is close to where we will be visiting. I believe we will be heading back down the coast, so I might see if we can squeeze in a visit to Sequoia Park then, too!
 
Oregon Zoo is still a great facility, and in my opinion is tied for the best (with Northwest Trek) in Oregon and Washington alike. I’m not well versed in Oregon Zoo’s rarities but they do have lampreys which are always a neat animal to see. This way you’ll get to take your time and fully explore the zoo as well.
 
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