USA Travel Guide has been all around this great land of ours, but it’s sad to say our humble blog has never once stopped in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, Minnesota. Well, loyal readers, our careless neglect ends today.
Welcome to the Como Park Zoo & Conservatory in St. Paul, Minnesota, an AZA-accredited animal park rife with charm, personality and, of course, top-notch exhibits. It’s an older place: the Zoological Building (a bit of a local landmark) was commissioned in 1936. We like it that way. Even with the bulk of the newer exhibits built since the 1980’s, the Como Zoo has a nostalgic feel, a historic ambiance that helps to zoo add up to more than the sum of its parts.
Not that there’s anything wrong with the parts. Devoid of unnecessary flash, the animals are definitely the stars of this show. Favorites include black-footed penguins, polar bears, sea lions, Siberian tigers, snow leopards, reindeer, western lowland gorillas, spider monkeys, leafcutter ants and gray wolves. The animals are joined by the zoo’s famous artwork, a series of commissioned sculptures to be found throughout the grounds.
The zoo is smallish, you can see it all in just a couple hours depending on your pacing, but not to worry, the zoo isn’t half of what Como Park has to offer. After all, this is Como Park Zoo and Conservatory. The adjacent conservatory features eight incredible gardens, including the peaceful, reflective Como Ordway Memorial Japanese Garden, the popular fern room, and my favorite, the stately Sunken Garden. It can be a fairly brief stroll through the gardens, so no reason not to see them all.
Both the Como Park Zoo and the Conservatory are free to enter all through the year, though a visitor donation of $2 per adult, $1 per child is recommended (and if you skip it, your mother will know). Parking is also free, and it’s conveniently located at the park right next to the entrance. No hassle at all. Learn more about the Como Park Zoo & Conservatory.
It’s a bit beside the point, something we’ll probably come back to in a future post, but also located at Como Park is a free-to-enter 18-ride amusement park called Como Town. Rides are available for tickets, or you can purchase an unlimited ride pass. Learn more about Como Town.
For hotels in St. Paul, MN, we’ve had great luck with the Crowne Plaza St. Paul – Riverfront Hotel. It’s just a few miles from Como Park for starters, and we’re always a fan of Crowne Plaza’s rooms.
Have fun!
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4 Comments
This zoo is clearly much smaller and less modern that the nearby massive Minnesota Zoo. But it does have some attractive animals that can’t be seen at the MZ, such as gorillas, orangutans, elephants, lions, and others.
Allen Nyhuis
Coauthor, Americas Best Zoos
Of course! We’re fans of the Minnesota zoo as well, and surely we’ll feature it sometime in the future. It’s true that Como Park is not as modern, but that’s not really a selling point for us anyway. Como Park’s got personality and loads of it.
Not to mention everything else there is to do at the park. The botanical gardens, theme park, fishing, mini-golf, you name it.
This is a nice and educational site for kids and adults as well. I would like to visit the place one of these days.
i was in tears for two hours yesterday when i saw the reindeer panting in the dust with no water in sight. i asked the visitor center about this and the reply was that. “the reindeer have to press a bar to get water” and are acclimated to that method.
it was a horrifif sight in the 90 degree heat, with all of them laying in the sun, no grass or water even in the bowls i could see. their entire bodies were panting with the strain.
also, the lion and lioness in the glass-walled cemet-floored small space was horrid, as was the smaller cage for the monkeys, all staring out with lost- eyes.
the orangutangs were scaveging around the small grassed-in area which is way too small, apearing bored and daunted, picking-over the same grass every day of their lives.
mostly, the lone gorilla stared at all the humans, stolid like a statue of budda. this is what was devastating. — my thought was that an animal so human-like, so intelligent, should not be unfree, as was the case for all the animals. the gorilla had more dignity than the humans talking inanely about him, making silly remarks to entertain their children.
why are zoos even in existence? why are they not free in their own habitat?
my thought was that it is cruel beyond belief to house reindeer and polar bears who were not made to live in a hot climate as is the case in the midwest. they can not adapt.
my thought would be: put all the humans in cages and let the animals all watch.
we should, as a society on the brink of self-destruction from greed, ban zoos entirely and allow “nature as will” predominate, not the corporate structure which makes money on slavery of animals. of couarse, notwithstanding, that we as the human race have destroyed their homes in the wild around the globe– with the case of the gorillas, only to blow-up mines near which they live to make our cell phone batteries.
This has to be the most unconscionable sight of misery next to the wars and murders we do to ourselves in our corrupt nature.
i was told they are bred in captivity and “know no different.”
does this seem righteous towards another life form?