Zoo Road Trip

moose&moosey

moose&moosey

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My wife and I are going to do a zoo road trip for our 3rd wedding anniversary this October and I would like any tips or advice on how to make it memorable.

We live in Rochester, MN and are planning to head west to the Great Plains Zoo in Sioux Falls, SD then south to Henry Doorly in Omaha, NE, Kansas City Zoo in Kansas City, MO, and then the Sedgwick County Zoo and Tanganyika Wildlife Park in Wichita, KS.

I do have other Kansas zoos on the list, but we only have a week and will be driving everywhere. So if you guys have suggestions on which zoos to check out and which to maybe skip during our road trip, please share!
 
I would suggest that you spend two days at the Henry Doorly Zoo. I was just there in July and I didn't see everything in two days. Of course I don't rush through any zoo. I also go to keepers chats, feedings and maybe some extra experiences or encounters.
If you skip any zoos, I would skip the closest ones, because you could possibly go to them on weekend trips.
Tanganyika was nice, but not large and could be done in a few hours unless you go to the feedings or extra experiences.
You have opportunities to feed many animals like an Indian Rhinoceros and Pygmy Hippopotamus. Most of the feedings are included in the admission.
We also did the small carnivores encounter.
We also opted for Reptile Gardens in SD, because we were also going to Mount Rushmore.
They have a huge reptile collection.
I plan to get back up there after retirement in a few years to see some other facilities.
Take your time and enjoy your trip.
 
Thank you, Mr. Bobcat, for your response and advice! I have been thinking about spending two days at Henry Doorly Zoo. We've visited before and had a hard time seeing everything in one day. Should we also spend two days at the Kansas City Zoo too? As far as the other zoos in the eastern half of Kansas (Topeka, Sunset, Rolling Hills, and Sedgwick County) do you have any recommendations as to which ones to prioritize and which ones to save for next time?
 
Actually I didn't go to any of those facilities. Our trip started from Austin, Texas after I flew into Austin from Spartanburg, SC.
Our trip was not a zoo specific trip.
We compromised and went through the Flint Hills, The Black Hills and The Badlands along the way to Mount Rushmore. Besides the Henry Doorly Zoo, the other facilities we stopped at was Tanganyika Wildlife Park, Fort Worth Zoo, Cameron Park Zoo, Bear Country U.S.A and Reptile Gardens. We like stopping at lesser known facilities because they are usually less congested, and take less time when you only have several hours to fill. Besides you never know what to expect and can be pleasantly surprised.
On my next visit, I plan to see the others in your list.
I don't know if you get on YouTube much, but there are several individuals who go all over the country and film virtual tours. I use this to get an idea of what each facility has to offer.
Then I set my priorities on each trip to which facilities to visit.
It can be tough, but I always pick the ones I must see in case I never get back to that part of the country.
My favorite is a site called "Zoo Tours" but there are many others too.
Good luck and safe journey.
 
One other thing, Tanganyika Wildlife Park has had a lot of breeding success. Currently they have Clouded Leopard Cubs, Snow Leopard Cubs and a Pygmy Hippopotamus calf among other babies.
 
I would recommend spending at least a day and a half in Omaha to better experience everything. You should be able to see all of the Kansas City Zoo in one full day. It usually takes me about three and a half to four hours to see the whole zoo. While you’re in Kansas City, I would also stop by the Lakeside Nature Center, which is in the same park as the zoo. The nature center has an eastern mole on display, which should be the only mole on exhibit in the country. It is pretty elderly, unfortunately, so I don’t know how much longer it will last, but it was still alive and active in early June. The best time to see the mole is right when the nature center opens. The center opens half an hour before the zoo, so I typically stop there first and then head down the road to be at the zoo when it opens.

As far as zoos in eastern Kansas go, I would prioritize Sedgwick County Zoo and Topeka Zoo. Sedgwick County Zoo is large and should take a full day to see. The Topeka Zoo is much smaller, and I typically walk the Topeka Zoo twice in about two hours. I haven’t been to the Sunset Zoo, but I would personally skip the Rolling Hills Zoo if you are crunched on time. I spent about two hours at Rolling Hills, one hour each in the museum portion and the actual zoo. The zoo isn’t bad, but I didn’t find it to be all that interesting. I actually enjoyed the museum more than the zoo itself.

I don’t know how much of a priority it is for you to see the Tanganyika Wildlife Park, but in my opinion the admission price is far too expensive and not at all worth it. It was not as expensive last year when I visited, but the ticket prices seem to have skyrocketed this year. Even with the animal interactions that they offer, the price to get in is still outrageous.

While you’re in Wichita, there are a few smaller zoological attractions that may be worth checking out. The Kansas Wildlife Exhibit is a small series of native animal exhibits in a park within the city. The Wichita Reptarium is a small reptile zoo found inside a little pet store. I would also recommend visiting the Hutchinson Zoo, which is about 40 minutes away from Wichita. They have several nice exhibits for a collection of mostly native animals, and I thought this zoo was pretty well done.

The Oklahoma City Zoo is also only about two and a half hours south of Wichita and is a must-see zoo and would definitely be worth visiting. It may be worth skipping some of the smaller Kansas zoos and heading just a little further south to see it.
 
I have reviews for the South Dakota and Nebraska Zoos, as well as a few other attractions in the area, in my travels thread.

The Great Plains Zoo is fine, I guess, but not really a must-see experience. If you go to Sioux Falls at least spend an hour or so in the park downtown. It’s very nice. There’s also a reasonably nice butterfly house in the city operated by the zoo. You can easily see all of this in a day.

Henry Doorly on a second visit could probably be compressed to 1.5 days. I think with 1 you would be skipping something. There’s a cool museum in Omaha’s former railroad station. I would really recommend visiting if you can find 2-3 hours of time.

Seconding Lakeside Nature Center. I’ve walked from it to Kansas City Zoo and the only reason I wouldn’t recommend the walk is the lack of sidewalks. I got overly ambitious in hot weather and could not complete the whole thing in one day, but you certainly could if you paced yourself better and didn’t dump constitution. There’s also a cool World War 1 Memorial downtown. The aquarium downtown is easily skippable. I’m sure Kansas City Zoo’s aquarium is better than it.

Haven’t been to Kansas yet but it’s on my list. Let me know how that goes for you.
 
I would echo a lot of what @DesertTortoise has said. I would say 1.5 days at Omaha is plenty, that way it gives you a little more time to commute south to KC and relax a little bit.

The couple parts of KC Zoo that may take the longest is the extensive hike around the Africa portion of the zoo, but well worth it. The Sobela Aquarium can take a good deal of time depending on if you are searching out many of the species in there, similar to Scott Aquarium in Omaha.

I've been to all of the AZA zoos in Kansas and a couple others that are of decent quality, and I would say you are good skipping Sunset Zoo and Rolling Hills on this trip to take advantage of the bigger zoos in the area. Sunset has some ok quality there but can be done in a couple hours easily. Rolling Hills is fine and is a good place to get some exercise, but I wouldn't recommend going out of your way to get there.

Topeka is an interesting case as the moment, I would recommend it if not only for the history of the zoo and the Rain Forest Dome and possibly the last chance to see the elephants and hippo there. However, right now though there might be 1/4 of the zoo in an unfinished condition with the Kansas Predators section under construction and the old former Giraffe yards being unoccupied and in a state of flux. The zoo could easily be done on your drive from KC to Wichita though and break up the day.

I also recommend Sedgwick, it is a pretty awesome zoo that I don't feel gets discussed enough on here. I think it may be because they have a lot of really good exhibits that would be rated highly, just not the best in any thing. Top to bottom there is a lot of quality here.

I visited OKC earlier this year and that is another pretty great zoo top to bottom and has a pair of raccoon dog. Not sure if with the stops you plan to make that this can get squeezed in and give you time to drive back as it is an 11 hour drive between there and Rochester and possibly add a day to your trip. Sioux Falls (to Omaha), Omahax2 (to KC), KC, Topeka (to Wichita), Wichita is already 6 days!
 
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