It is an interesting angle. I am looking up at the blue sky, and there are a few clouds. The glass is dirty from hundreds of others who have walked through here before me. The water, for the most part, is clean, but there is some debris floating around. A seal swims over me, and I am able to snap a picture from this unique vantage point. Never have I looked up and seen a seal swimming between me and the sky.
I took this picture at the St. Louis Zoo during our America the Beautiful summer trip. It was one of the last pictures I took on this day while we visited the animals. It made for a great departure from what started as disappointment.
The St. Louis Zoo is free. There are not many zoos in the world that are free, and even if they are, they are usually quite small and limited in the number of animals they display. All we had to do was pay for parking, which, to my surprise, was much cheaper than I had expected.
I like free.
Free is great.
Especially when it comes to a major attraction such as a zoo.
One of the things I take pride in is planning trips at a low cost. We have reduced our expenses by purchasing a hybrid vehicle, which saves us on fuel costs. We also cook our own food, pack our own lunches, sleep in campgrounds instead of hotels, and avoid overcrowded and overpriced tourist attractions. Not to say that we never pay for admission, for which we do, but rather is something that is premium priced better than something very similar that is free or cheap? There are many places to go that can be done at minimal cost. The St. Louis Zoo was as minimal as it could be.
We arrived early and found a parking spot in the lot that is too small for a place like this. Considering the zoo had not opened yet, much of the parking was already taken. We packed our bags full of water and a couple of snacks and made our way to the entrance, eager to spend time at one of our favourite destinations. I believe that zoos are best visited in the morning, before it gets too hot and the animals become too lethargic to do anything.
We walked into the zoo, checked out the restroom and the gift shop, and then walked through the doors. No admission. Absolutely impressed.
And we walked.
We walked.
We walked some more.
Where are the animals?
When we entered the zoo, we followed the path. Each time we decided to turn one way and not the other, we found that there was nothing to see. It was getting frustrating. This may be why the zoo is free, because there is nothing of interest in this place.
We walked and continued walking until we reached the place where we had started.
We saw a couple of ducks in a pond. That was good because we had never seen that type of duck before. And there were the warthogs that blended into the setting so well that it took a sharp-eyed child to point them out to us adults.
That was it.
That was it, so far.
Oddly, I had somehow chosen the pathways that had nothing on them. When we were at the beginning again, I took a different direction, and we finally started to see the very creatures we hoped to see when we arrived.
The frustration of walking around aimlessly for the best part of 30 minutes ended when we saw sleeping hippos. We stared at them for a few minutes. These massive beasts were sleeping peacefully under the water. Occasionally, a bubble would escape its nostril. I wondered if a hippo ever forgot it was underwater, and what would happen then.
Almost immediately after the hippos were the elephants. We took a video of them because they were exhibiting a behaviour that we had never witnessed before. After this, we clearly found where we were supposed to be and began seeing animals doing their thing.
Finally, we came to the seals. As always, they are pretty active and love to swim. It is peaceful watching them glide through the water with no effort. There is a section of their enclosure that allows patrons to get underneath the water and watch the seals. I took my picture, which I am so proud of. It is not the best picture, being that it is blurry and even out of focus, but I have never seen a seal swim through the sky before.
We would spend over four hours in the zoo, seeing as much as we could. Despite the summer heat, many of the animals remained visible and were not hiding. Perhaps it is us, since we’ve visited so many places that display animals, but what they had was typical of what is featured at every other zoo. Even so, we were able to see animals behaving in ways we had never seen before and even heard what some sounds like. Still, we enjoyed ourselves and appreciated that a place like this is free and accessible to everyone.
- Check out the ‘All the Places We Have Been‘ map to see where this destination, and many others, are worth visiting.
- Bring plenty of bottled water. Despite being free, the beverages they do provide are way too expensive.
- There are two parking lots. They can fill up during the busier times of year. Limited street parking is available nearby. The cost of parking is much smaller than expected.
