Visiting the Denver Zoo in the Rain

This is a guest post from my sister-in-law Sarah from MrsSpiffy.com

We were in Denver visiting my brother and his family for a couple days. We had several attractions we wanted to visit. His family has annual passes to the Denver Zoo and they told us such great things about it we decided it was a must see.

We were short on time because we had just spent half the day at the Denver Downtown Aquarium. My brother recommended we visit the zoo in the afternoon because the weather tends to cool off which is opposite of what we’re used to in Phoenix. Cool off it did! While we were in Denver we got rain every day in the late afternoon. Usually we would get a little rain and then it would stay nice and cool, but this particular day it just kept raining!

The rain may have slowed us down a little but there were definitely some advantages to visiting the zoo during the rain.

1. As we entered the zoo the crowd was leaving
2. The rain added to the adventure. We had to strategically choose which exhibits to visit depending on the heaviness of the rain. Several exhibits were indoors and that is where is spent much of our time.
3. The kids loved playing in the rain!!! Who doesn’t? We had a blast!

There were several baby animals and they were darling. We all oooo-ed and aaww-ed at them, even our 20 month old loved to see them. We were pretty close and could see them well which made for a really nice zoo experience.

The tigers were HUGE! Again, we were able to see them really close both inside and outside.

 

I love how a zoo can make you feel like you are out in the wild but then at times you get a glimpse of the surrounding city as a reminder of how different the wild is from modern civilization.

The giraffes had an indoor enclosure where we could hang out and watch them eat their dinner. This was one of our favorite areas. We watched them eat and move around a little and then one put on a real show and laid down. I am still amazed at that process.

The Sea Lion and Seal Tank had a covered area where the kids tested their lung capacity against that of a seal.  Did you know some seals can hold their breath for almost 2 hours! Pretty pitiful, we were barely making it to 14 seconds!

The cute little Zebra blends in with the adult Zebra on the left of this picture but we were excited to see the baby Zebra out after the rain let up.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see even half of the zoo! It was getting late and the rain continued to come and go. When traveling and exploring with young children we’ve learned to be careful how far we push them and just remember that it is okay if we don’t see everything. The most important thing is that we get out together and experience something different than watching television or playing video games. We will always remember our adventure together at the beautiful Denver zoo, it was well worth the visit!

 

Mrs Spiffy (aka Sarah) is a guest writer for CleverHousewife.com. She is a stay-at-home mom to four kids. Sarah enjoys cooking, crafts and family travel.  She loves to try new recipes and share them on her blog.  With a degree in Recreation Management she knows how to organize fun family activities.