U.S. Travel Diaries - A day amidst the wild in Columbus Zoo

Columbus is the state capital of Ohio. It is in the Midwest region of the U.S. There are good number of tourist attractions in and around the city. Columbus Zoo is one of the top attractions of the city visited by many tourists. The zoo is located at 4850 West Powell Road, Powell, Ohio. It opens at 10 a.m in winter months and 9 a.m in summer months. The closing time varies which is 4 p.m in extreme winter, 5 p.m during mild winter and fall and 7 p.m in summer months. The zoo is open round the year except on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

Ticket price (subject to change) for children from 3 to 9 years of age and for senior citizens of Franklin Country - 28.98 USD while for those outside Franklin County it is 31.98 USD. For visitors between 10 to 59 years of age of Franklin County, the ticket price is $31.98, while for those outside the country, it is $36.98.

Single and double strollers with shade cover, manual wheelchairs and electric scooters (for visitors who are 18 years and above) and are available on rental basis. Personal strollers and wheelchairs are also allowed to move around in the zoo.

There is ample of parking place outside the zoo and visitors can easily get a parking lot here.

Exploring the zoo

On entering inside the zoo premises, visitors can go around exploring the zoo and enjoy seeing the variety of wild animals moving between different exhibits.

During our stay in Columbus, we visited the Zoo and spent a day amidst the wild in spring season. And you can see the beautiful and colorful tulips all around.
The grand carousel, big play area and toy train are a great attraction for the children. Of course elders too enjoy a train ride round the zoo. There are other fun rides and attractions like 4 D theater, pony ride, boat ride in dinosaur island and polar play ground.
Tickets for the train ride can be bought at the counter for $2 (subject to change). Children get excited as the train puffs on the tracks with whistles. You can see them waiving their hands to the visitors waiting at the level crossing.
It's a real fun for the children moving around the zoo in the toy train listing to the whistles at level crossing and waving hands to the visitors standing at the crossing.

Besides the rides there are other zones / exhibits which include the Asia Quest zone where there are Asian elephants in the conservation station and the two horned rhino in the yard.
As visitors walk along, they can see the animals in different zones. In the Heart of Africa zone, one can see the big cats. During our visit to the zone we were surprised to see the lion sleeping / relaxing on its back.
And the tigers playing and then relaxing in the shade.
From here visitors walk to the North America zone where they can watch the ice bear / polar bear at the Ice Bear Outpost.
There are different zones in the zoo like the Asia Quest, Australia & Islands, Congo Expedition, Heart of Africa and few more. Besides toy train ride, there are other rides like carousel, pony / horse ride, camel ride etc for children to enjoy.

In one of the exhibits there is gibbon and it interests the visitors to watch this animal doing feats.
That was quite interesting to watch the feats of the gibbon for sometime. Visitors also get delighted watching the pinkish orange flamingos.
These beautifully colored birds make a peculiar sound. We stood at this place for a while enjoying the birds.

There are long walks inside the zoo and it is a bit tiresome during summer. However, this is a nice place for family visits with children who enjoy spending some time in the wild.