My tiny guy likes pointing at animals and declaring their names aloud. “Bear!” “Dahg!” (dog) “E-phan!” (elephant). Well, there’s no better place to test his animal names than the zoo!
Cape May is an hour or so ride from us, and on this August day we figured we would make the trip down to explore the popular zoo. I was there once as a kid but didn't really remember it, and my husband have never been. All three of us were up for an adventure.
The Cape May Zoo is nestled into the Cape May County Park which is pretty big. On a cooler day, we might have planned to stay longer and explore the park and try out the playground and carousel (yes! Right in the middle of the park!), but it was August and the temperature didn’t encourage us to do any extras. The Zoo seemed busy that day, and it felt like we parked way in the back woods. We got out of our car and literally had NO CLUE where to go. There wasn’t a lot of clear signage. Then we found a map on a stand at a trail head with huge groups of people headed in one direction and assumed it must be the zoo and just followed along. Lucky for us, that was correct!
The walk actually wasn’t that bad– it was pretty nice and completely shaded by big beautiful trees! You pass by a tree zipline course that is probably a boatload of fun with older kids. Soon after, we found the park entrance near to the carousel, bathrooms and a few stands with souvenirs and snacks.
Now here is the amazing part about this zoo– IT IS DONATION ONLY! What a blessing to families on a budget! And even better– you’d never know it by how beautiful and well maintained the grounds were! We left a great donation at the door and walked through the gates to be greeted by the loudest monkeys on planet earth…. Or so it seemed!
When you first enter, there is a petting zoo area with goats and a cow. There’s a feed station so bring quarters so you can make friends (bring the baby wipes out of the car if you plan to do this!). Then you move along through the different exhibits. A lot of this zoo is in the shade which was appreciated on this August day.
Our favorites were the elephants, giraffes and bears! We enjoyed watching a bear plant himself in front of a sprinkler to cool off. It was pretty hilarious–and relatable! Plenty of animals to see here and I enjoyed how the paths were laid out, some of which on raised boardwalks which were pretty cool.
We couldn’t leave without a souvenir, and bought an overpriced Bear stuffie at the request of our little guy which he snuggled the whole way home as he slept. Always great to time naptime with long rides home.
We loved our day here! What a great place! We saw lots of families having summer fun here. We’ll definitely be back to enjoy it again. You can't beat a great zoo when planning a great outting for your kiddos!