As you might have noticed, between my day job, the Delta Strain of Covid, and general life stuff, I haven’t posted in a while. I finally escaped on an actual, real vacation.
I decided to take the whole week of Thanksgiving off and go to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It might seem like a weird destination to some, but I love the climate, scenery, and people here.
We came in on Monday but we were too tired from driving to do much on Monday.
Tuesday morning we woke up and wanted to go somewhere we could walk around a lot to make up for hours in the car. We let Ava choose, and she wanted to go to the zoo.
ABQ Biopark is actually a whole complex with a zoo, aquarium, and botanical garden. We bought our tickets online ($49.50 for 3 adults and 1 kid. Adult means over 12 here), and made the short drive to the zoo. The Biopark is located on the west side of Downtown, near the Rio Grande, so it’s a pretty quick drive from any of the downtown hotels. Also, if you drive an electric car or plug-in hybrid, they have free ChargePoint car chargers in the parking lot. Score!
I really had no idea what to expect from the Biopark zoo, as I’ve never been here before or even really heard much about it. It was a very nice experience though. Everyone was very friendly and they had a wide variety of exhibits. I’m just gonna spam some of my better pics here.
All of the exhibits were honestly pretty good. Ava REALLY liked the flamingos and the giraffes. I was impressed by the Rhinos. Daisy spent entirely too much time watching monkeys.
All the enclosures were large and well maintained and all the animals seemed happy, which is a plus. Going to a shitty zoo where animals are clearly in distress is a huge bummer. Luckily none of that here.
If I lived anywhere remotely close to here, I would have just bought a membership. Tickets for 3 adults and a kid ran about $50. Parking was free and so was the car charger. Looks like a family membership runs $99 a year which is a much better deal if you live in the region.
I’m really looking forward to going to the botanical gardens and the aquarium when we come back. If you’re traveling through ABQ and the weather is nice or your kids have been in the car for hours and need to walk out some energy, the Zoo is a great idea. Check it out, you won’t regret it.
