Arizona Wildlife World

A few weeks ago, Nick and I visited the coolest. zoo. ever. Seriously, I have never been to one place with so many animals. And they had amusement park rides!

Arizona Wildlife World is located about 40 minutes north of Phoenix. We had a blessed buy one ticket, get one free ticket, because admission is quite steep ($40 per adult). We arrived not quite sure what to expect, but started off walking one side of the zoo, and two hours later, realized we hadn't even made it through 1/4th of the place! We started off by looking at a variety of exotic birds, followed by the monkeys and gibbons. Oh, the little gibbons were SO cute! They came right up to you and stuck their hands out, reaching for a branch. Also, a few of them liked to perform for a crowd, and would race back and forth with their long arms and legs, hanging off the cage ceiling in ways I could only dream of.

After taking nearly 2 hours to do 1/4 of the zoo, we started to hustle. We viewed the reptile exhibit, then moved on to the African animals. You can take a tram through the exhibit, but we decided to walk it. Oh, I also didn't mention that they have a train and a carousel in this part of the zoo. Anyway, we walked through the African safari exhibit, passing the roller coaster, Tower of Terror drop, and other rides.

We had the best fun at the Giraffe feeding. The zoo has a platform built high enough that you are eye (and mouth) level with the giraffes. And you can feed them! The giraffes come right up, and you drop the food in their mouth. So fun!

Also, we loved the many water ponds and islands that they had around the zoo. The lemers live on the islands! We saw canoes on the edges of the ponds, so we're pretty sure that's how someone gets out to feed them haha

It was dark by the time we made it to the end of the zoo and our last stop was the aquarium. The aquarium stays open an hour later than the zoo, which was awesome! They have penguins, and when we went by, they had a trainer in with them playing with them. They also have a stingray petting/feeding station.

What we wished we had done was the log ride. Very similar to Splash Mountain, this ride takes you through part of the aquarium exhibits you can't just see by walking around. SO cool! (Next time)

Oh, and did we mention there are peacocks walking around that get up close and personal :D

Highly recommend if in the Greater Phoenix area! 5/5 Stars!