Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

A Monday off of work while on travel is a beautiful thing, unless there's a nasty storm approaching. The cool thing about Colorado Springs is that you can see the storms coming, and when it's just coming over the peak like this you still have a good 2-4 hours before it hits where you are.


2-4 hours turned out to be exactly the time I needed to make a trip to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (and I mean literally exactly, because as I finished up my tour and got to the car, it started to rain). I was one of only maybe a dozen other crazy people that actually visited the zoo that day, so it was really empty and quiet.

The zoo is actually on the mountain, and the view of the city is pretty spectacular.


Warning: From here on out there will be a lot of photos and not much writing. I go shutter-happy when I'm at a zoo. Or an aquarium. Or...okay, so just about anywhere.

The giraffes were having a field day slurping on their wooden railings (I could and did reach out and pet them- they were very friendly). This guy's tongue is just obscenely long.




I have developed a new love of meerkats- they're just so darned cute!! I think I'm going to have to pick up a season or two of Meerkat Manor on DVD and watch it.






They had just fed the hippos when I arrived at the exhibit, so I got to watch this guy crunch through a big ball of ice with apples (or pears?) frozen into it. Then his mate joined him in vacuuming (literally) all the good stuff off of the floor.




The little guy on the right is only 8 months old, and he was really active and playful.




Hmmm...is someone in time-out?


I think this little guy- a tiger cub- was bored and lonely. He was the only animal in his pen, and since the zoo was empty there was nobody else around. I looked at him and took a few photos and started to walk away, and he got up and gave me a tiger meow- I think he wanted me to stick around and keep him company.




The elephants were being fed behind their pen, so they didn't want to come out for photographs. Thank goodness for zoom!



If I could have a lynx as a pet, I think I would. They're such beautiful cats.