I’m not sure why it says this place is permanently closed? It’s there. It’s lacking from my last trip in 2013 but…. COVID 🤷♀️… currently all the interactive stuff inside is gone. The reptiles are closed. Several other animal exhibits are closed for renovations… the foliage has grown up around the wolf enclosure which makes it hard to see them now. Unfortunately as a returning patron I was very disappointed.
Loved this place for the kids! One of our favorite stops. We caught the bird show at 3 and then did the drive through. By the time we made it to the bears they had a truck that was coming through feeding them (i suspect for the tour bus that was about to drive through) So we just drove in circles in the bear habitat for quite a while. Got some great video. Then we did the walking part of the zoo and the petting zoo. We stopped right as the food shack was closing up ordered the last of their corndogs and some icecream and sat and enjoyed the shade and being out of the car. Since it was a weekday it wasn't crowded at all and from 5 -7 it felt like we had the place to ourselves. The peacocks came up asking for food and ALL the staff were AMAZING.
great place to stop. the tour guide was funny and taught things, the "museum" space was very interactive so it was entertaining for the children
I feel this attraction should have a different location on the map and probably should include all the surrounding attractions under this subheading, newspaper rock, blue mesa trail, desert inn, rainbow forest etc
part of the trail for the petrified forest/painted desert. I thought the views were perhaps the most beautiful at this point.
This was a cool place to go and check out. I bought (not rented) an audio tour CD in the gift shop at the beginning of the trail. It was cool to get some extra information but not great if you have little kids in the car...I had planned an hour or so to drive through here not realizing all the stop on the trail and perhaps not realizing how long the trail was...It took 3 hours and that's without really stopping and hiking or spending a tone of time at most of the stops...
part of the "trail" through the painted desert petrified forest...It closes at 4:30! so I didn't get to see in it.
This, and all the stops around it are part of the Painted Desert Petrified Forest "Trail" This was my favorite stop on the trail but i'll note that the Inn was closed when I was doing this tour. I was able to take a picture using my phone through the viewfinders that are here to help my kids see what they needed to see... The down side to this was it was incredibly unsafe for little kids! I was traveling by myself with my three kids 11, 5, and 3 and I couldn't set my 3 year old down because I was afraid he'd walk off the edge. there is a rail but not the railing you would expect for such a drop off.
Very bummed put this on the map for our trip and got here before 9 and it was already closed! I had checked their "website" before going and it doesn't list hours so I don't know when they closed but I kind of assumed no hours listed and such a "destination" at the corner of two highways.... maybe it's 24/7...unfortunately it was not.
loved this place. the animals were great to see and the indoor "kids museum" style learning centers were neat. different kinds of antlers. making footprints in the sand. Did this instead of the cave since I was worried about how much time the cave might take and this was more self paced and much cheaper :)