We recently took our first family trip to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Growing up outside of Denver, I had always heard about it but never had a chance to visit. I’m glad my first experience of the zoo was with my husband and two daughters.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is very interactive with close-up animal experiences and feedings. I will share how we planned for and enjoyed our day at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in this post.

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Planning for the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is located at 4250 Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Rd, Colorado Springs, CO 80906. It is just south of The Broadmoor, a Colorado Springs luxury hotel. It is about an hour and 20-minute drive from Denver. Colorado Springs has a variety of hotels to if you’re looking for a great place to stay. Check out this Colorado Springs itinerary for other things to do in the area!

Buy Tickets Ahead of Time

Advanced tickets are required at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  According to the Zoo FAQs, popular days and times may become sold out. Choose a time slot for arrival when purchasing tickets. You have 30 minutes after that time slot to enter the zoo.

We visited the zoo in April, which is before their peak season. However, we saw signs that they were sold out for the day when we got there. I was glad I got our tickets ahead of time!

Visit the Website to Plan Your Zoo Visit

Along with purchasing tickets in advance, I suggest exploring the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo website ahead of time to plan your visit. If this is your first time visiting, you will find that it is a very interactive zoo. You can feed the giraffes, elephants, rhino, and other animals. I suggest that you bring cash for animal feedings when you visit.

Our Experience at the Zoo

Our family spent about 3 hours at the zoo. We also met up with our cousins who live in Colorado Springs. It was jacket weather when we first arrived until the afternoon when the weather got much warmer.

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Food

We arrived at the zoo at 11:30 to grab lunch at the Grizzly Grill first before walking around. They have great food selections at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, including pizza, sandwiches, salads, burgers, and snacks. I ate a delicious chicken salad sandwich, and my husband and daughter had the pizza and garlic knots.

Giraffe Feeding

After lunch, we headed to the Giraffe Feeding exhibit, located in the African Rift Valley near the zoo’s main entrance. The giraffes were at eye level as we walked right up to them on an elevated boardwalk. We purchased two lettuce bundles for $5 (pricing is $3 for one bundle, 2 for $5) to feed the giraffes. Feeding the giraffes was like nothing I had experienced before. It was truly remarkable being so close to them and feeling a sense of their gentle demeanor.

Elephant Feeding

We also got to feed Lucky the Elephant at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Lucky is in the Encounter Africa exhibit, and feeding times are from 11-11:30 am and 2:30-3 pm. The cost for elephant snack time is $10 for one (carrot or cucumber) or $15 for two. There was just one elephant for feeding time, so we waited in a short line to feed Lucky. Although six African elephants live together at the zoo, you feed one at a time during the feeding experience. This was different from the giraffe feeding experience, where dozens of giraffes were available to feed. My daughter kept talking about feeding the elephant at the zoo, so this was a memorable experience for her.

Zoo Layout and Other Animal Exhibits

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is designed on the side of a mountain. What is unique about the zoo is that you can take an elevator up to a higher area and look at the animal exhibits below. They also have a Mountaineer Sky Ride, a chairlift that takes you above the zoo. With our girls being so young, we couldn’t take the sky ride, but we have this on our bucket list to do in the future!

We saw many other animal exhibits throughout the zoo. We saw lions, monkeys, bears, alligators, hippos, emus, reptiles, birds, and the tiger. The animals were grouped by world locations and species. There was plenty of room for the animals to run, swim, or fly around.

We also got to enjoy a budgie buddies bird feeding experience. They gave us popsicle sticks with food to feed them. The cost was $1 per stick of food.

End of the Day Ice Cream Treat

Toward the end of our zoo trip, we enjoyed an ice cream cone at The Express Carousel Sweets stand. It was the perfect treat after an adventurous day. We enjoyed sitting down for a bit to enjoy the nice weather and soak in our day. This was one of the spots where my daughter talked about how much she enjoyed feeding the elephant.  

Animal Conservation

At the exit of the zoo was a spot to donate to animal conservation. There was information displayed throughout the zoo about wildlife preservation and how you can support conservation for different species. At the end of our zoo trip, we donated to various animal species, including elephants. This was a unique feature that I had not seen at other zoos. I can appreciate their efforts in protecting animal species.

Our experience at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo was overall a great experience. Now that we have visited it once, we will be sure to see it again when visiting Colorado Springs. It is just over an hour from Denver, making it a perfect getaway for the family.

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*Disclaimer: We received tickets to the zoo in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.

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Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed reading this post, you might also enjoy reading about our date night at Colorado National Speedway or our family road trip to Oklahoma.