Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

America'S Only Mountain Zoo, Built Into The Side Of Cheyenne Mountain At Around 6,800 Feet. Founded In 1926 Out Of Spencer Penrose'S Private Menagerie And Home To The Most Prolific Giraffe Breeding Herd In The World. · Colorado Springs, Colorado

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is built up the side of a mountain, which is the first thing anyone notices and the reason it calls itself America's only mountain zoo. It starts at around 6,800 feet and climbs from there on switchback paths, so the visit is a hike with animals in it, and the reward is that half the enclosures have a hundred miles of Colorado behind them. It began in 1926 as Spencer Penrose's private menagerie - the same Penrose who built the Broadmoor below it - and its modern distinction is giraffes: more than two hundred calves born here, the most prolific breeding herd in the world, and a feeding platform where you buy a handful of lettuce and a giraffe takes it from your fingers. Admission also includes the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, the stone tower further up the mountain where Penrose is buried - and which is included with zoo admission, a fact most visitors never discover. The catch is the gradient: this is a zoo you climb, and at 6,800 feet that is harder work than it sounds.

4250 Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Road, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80906, United States

Open daily year-round during daytime hours, with extended summer hours and the Electric Safari light event through December evenings. THE ZOO IS ENTIRELY ON A HILLSIDE and some paths are steep. The Mountaineer Sky Ride chairlift and some animal experiences carry additional charges and can close in weather. Admission includes the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun further up the mountain road, which many visitors do not realise. Parking is on terraced lots that fill on summer mornings.

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