Northern California Trip ideas

SwampDonkey

SwampDonkey

In the Swamp
Premium Member
5+ year member
I am planning a trip to Northern California, specifically the Bay area, next March. I am considering where to go aside from Monterey Bay Aquarium. I have a day that I can allocate for a zoo or another animal facility. Between the various zoos, what do the members here think would be the best? I have been to SF Zoo, but that was in the late 90s.
 
Here are the 15 “zoos” that I’ve visited that are all within an approximate 1.5-hour radius of the Bay Area:

Aquarium of the Bay (San Francisco)
California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco) - Steinhart Aquarium
California Raptor Center (Davis)
CuriOdyssey (San Mateo)
Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary (Folsom)
Happy Hollow Park & Zoo (San Jose)
Lindsay Wildlife Experience (Walnut Creek)
Marine Mammal Center (Sausalito)
Micke Grove Zoo (Lodi)
Oakland Zoo (Oakland)
Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo (Palo Alto)
Safari West Wildlife Preserve (Sonoma County)
San Francisco Zoo (San Francisco)
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (Vallejo)
Sulphur Creek Nature Center (Hayward)

Almost all of them are reviewed on my Snowleopard's 2017 Road Trip thread (not Oakland or Happy Hollow), when I toured 44 zoos in California. My recommendation would definitely be to visit Oakland Zoo, as I've only been once before and that was back in 2011. Since then, the zoo has doubled in size with the addition of the California Trail zone in 2018.

Snowleopard's 2017 Road Trip
 
snowleopard said:
Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary (Folsom)
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No Sacramento Zoo though? If you're going to leave the bay area go for Sacramento Zoo, Folsom City Zoo Sanctuary isn't worth that drive. Nothing particularly interesting displayed in run down exhibits.

snowleopard said:
Safari West Wildlife Preserve (Sonoma County)
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Expensive, and they lost their AZA status over animal welfare reasons.

snowleopard said:
Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (Vallejo)
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If you like rides too, then yeah sure go for it. But the animal collection has greatly downsized and there's not particularly a good reason to go just for the animals in my opinion. Still quite a few about though.
 
Yes, @Great Argus, some of those California zoos have lost their golden sheen over the past few years. Sacramento Zoo might not be there forever and is two hours from Oakland, and Safari West losing its AZA accreditation over dubious animal practices (acquisition and disposition) and without a full-time veterinarian was a bad blow. California Raptor Center, Six Flags, Lindsay Wildlife Experience and Folsom City all have many poor exhibits. Happy Hollow, CuriOdyssey and Palo Alto are basically children's zoos with exotics.

However, there is still Oakland, San Francisco (with many flaws) and California Academy of Sciences as highlights.
 
gentle lemur said:
I have just spent 2 busy days of photography at Monterey Bay Aquarium; surely that would qualify as it has many splendid exhibits and is not too far from San Francisco, although the traffic can be heavy.
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The OP stated that Monterey Bay was the primary reason for going. ;)

I hope we will be seeing some excellent photography from you soon?
 
California Academy of Sciences has many unique species in the aquarium and rain forest exhibits.

The Oakland Zoo has a massive new California exhibit complex with grizzlies, California condors, wolves, jaguars, mountain lions, bald eagles, and black bears.

Alternatively you could visit Point Lobos State Reserve in the same region as the aquarium and watch wild sea otters, sea lions, harbor seals, and sea bird species
 
Thanks for the input everyone. Right now I am looking at the below as the likely stops due to location and timing, as well as the fact that I will also be with my wife and 5 year old son. Looking at prices for hotels and the time it will take to get places (and desire to not have a car while in the SF portion of the trip), I think these are the easiest and most realistic for me to hit:
  • Monterey Bay Aquarium
  • Aquarium of the Bay
  • California Academy of Sciences
  • Point Reyes National Seashore (to see the elephant seals primarily)
  • Happy Hollow Park Zoo
  • Oakland Zoo or SF Zoo (still undecided on this)
    • I favor Oakland Zoo as I have not been there, but SF Zoo will be more convenient to our locations. Also as I have not been to SF Zoo in over 20 years it will feel new enough for me.
 
That looks like a great trip. Happy Hollow is a great choice if you have a kid with you. It is both a zoo and a high-quality mini-theme park (this is going off of memories of taking my niece and nephew there several times during the 2010s).

The San Francisco Zoo has changed little in the last 20 years, and may have even declined some. The aye-ayes are long gone. They have refashioned their old bear grottoes into a Mexican wolf exhibit. If you have never been to Oakland Zoo there is some good stuff there including a world-class children's zoo with a flying fox aviary and terrific alligator and river otter exhibits. The California exhibit is reached via a gondola system that takes you serenely over an oak forest and ends up in a completely different section of the zoo with a fantastic view of the Bay Area. That experience was quite magical.
 
DavidBrown said:
That looks like a great trip. Happy Hollow is a great choice if you have a kid with you. It is both a zoo and a high-quality mini-theme park (this is going off of memories of taking my niece and nephew there several times during the 2010s).

The San Francisco Zoo has changed little in the last 20 years, and may have even declined some. The aye-ayes are long gone. They have refashioned their old bear grottoes into a Mexican wolf exhibit. If you have never been to Oakland Zoo there is some good stuff there including a world-class children's zoo with a flying fox aviary and terrific alligator and river otter exhibits. The California exhibit is reached via a gondola system that takes you serenely over an oak forest and ends up in a completely different section of the zoo with a fantastic view of the Bay Area. That experience was quite magical.
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Thanks for the tips, that may move the scale in Oakland's favor. Apparently the light rail to the SF Zoo is currently replaced with buses, so that makes getting there a little more of a challenge. If I schedule the days right I can probably put Oakland the day we head down to San Jose for the rest of the trip.
 
DavidBrown said:
The Palo Alto zoo is a small zoo and science museum for kids in Palo Alto. They have just undergone a complete multimillion renovation of the zoo. This development has mostly escaped notice on Zoochat.

Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo
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That looks like a great place for locals, I think that Happy Hollow fits my needs a little better. But if I return to the area I could see doing this instead.
 
Monterey bay aquarium is definitely a great choice, don't miss "into the deep". The Academy of sciences is also a great choice, it has the deepest reef tank in America and many, many rarities including deep water species.

I would also suggest going birding/wildlife watching if you are into that, many very cool birds here that I don't think are present in florida especially seabirds and some other western species. Black pheobes. california scrub jay and yellow billed magpies are good examples.

Monterey bay aquarium has a deck where you can overlook the sea and you can see pigeon gulliemots, brandts and pelagic cormorants and other sea birds.
 
splendens said:
Monterey bay aquarium has a deck where you can overlook the sea and you can see pigeon gulliemots, brandts and pelagic cormorants and other sea birds.
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Also Sea Otter, Harbor Seal, and California Sea Lion, all of which are nearly guaranteed if you take a few minutes to look. Cetaceans of many types are possible if you're lucky/wait around watching.
 
Great Argus said:
The OP stated that Monterey Bay was the primary reason for going. ;)
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Oops :oops: Can I blame jet-lag for that?

Great Argus said:
I hope we will be seeing some excellent photography from you soon?
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So do I :D
I have an awful lot of photos to sort through, because I did 5 whale-watching trips with a party from England plus visits to some other California habitats, before staying on to visit the Aquarium. Many of them won't be much good ;) but I will post some of the better ones as soon as I can.
To go back to the top, in my opinion, anyone who spends time in Monterey without going to the MBA and going on a whale-watching excursion, is to be pitied.
 
I find myself again peeking into another zoochatter's trip thread to plan my own -- northern California is very likely my next trip. I am definitely hoping to hit Happy Hollow, Oakland, Sacramento, Monterey Bay and San Francisco... cool to hear more about the Aquarium of the Bay, Academy of Sciences, and and elephant seals at the Seashore, I'll have to look into them.

Look forward to your trip thread or reviews, SwampDonkey.
 
splendens said:
Monterey bay aquarium is definitely a great choice, don't miss "into the deep". The Academy of sciences is also a great choice, it has the deepest reef tank in America and many, many rarities including deep water species.

I would also suggest going birding/wildlife watching if you are into that, many very cool birds here that I don't think are present in florida especially seabirds and some other western species. Black pheobes. california scrub jay and yellow billed magpies are good examples.

Monterey bay aquarium has a deck where you can overlook the sea and you can see pigeon gulliemots, brandts and pelagic cormorants and other sea birds.
Click to expand...

Great Argus said:
Also Sea Otter, Harbor Seal, and California Sea Lion, all of which are nearly guaranteed if you take a few minutes to look. Cetaceans of many types are possible if you're lucky/wait around watching.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the tips! While I would enjoy bird watching and some time overlooking the sea...I think it is kind of a hard sell to my wife and son. However, we are at least also going to do the SF Harbor boat and a whale watching tour in Monterey, along with the elephant seals at Point Reyes.
JVM said:
I find myself again peeking into another zoochatter's trip thread to plan my own -- northern California is very likely my next trip. I am definitely hoping to hit Happy Hollow, Oakland, Sacramento, Monterey Bay and San Francisco... cool to hear more about the Aquarium of the Bay, Academy of Sciences, and and elephant seals at the Seashore, I'll have to look into them.

Look forward to your trip thread or reviews, SwampDonkey.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I am really looking forward to this trip, I will be sure to post individual reviews for each place we make it to :)
 
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