Turtle Back Zoo

Wanting a new place for Hunter to explore, I pulled up the map on my phone, typed “zoo” in the search bar, and started zooming and dragging until something popped up.

After battling to get off of Long Island and into New Jersey, we finally arrived at the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange, where parking was free and a ticket was a reasonably priced $22 for an adult.

I feel like I’ve been to a lot of zoos through no want of my own, and I can tell you what a good zoo is and what a bad zoo is — and this medium-sized zoo is spot on!!! The theming is beyond gorgeous. Like, really stellar… I mean, better than San Diego and the Bronx — really anything I’ve seen. Their setup is truly clever and inviting.

The turtle rehabilitation and the stingrays are done in a coastal Carolina setting, the bears are in a log cabin-type area, and the Caribbean flamingos are literally done in a Caribbean setting with Adirondack chairs painted in island pastels awaiting you to lounge and just watch the flamingos flaminging.

They have a train, a carousel, a playground, zookeeper talks, pony rides, stingray feeding, a really amazing aviary. And for five dollars, you got two pieces of romaine lettuce to feed the giraffes. So… Hunter fed the giraffes, because his mother is a sucker.

But the thing that really blew me away was they have an actual hospital — like, a legit veterinarian hospital — with an outdoor viewing gallery where you can watch the doctors operate. Not that I would, because … gross, but if you were so inclined, you could totally do that! I mean, amazing. Really and truly, absolutely ridiculously amazing.

And let me tell you about their layout and flow of traffic. I really appreciate any place that can get me in and out easily, wind my way through, not get me lost, and lead me to the next thing naturally. They do not provide paper maps, and everything is done digitally on your phone, which I can’t see because I’m old, lol. But seriously, between my reading glasses, the sun, my sunglasses, and Hunter not having technology, the phone just became too much. So we really just wound our way, barely using the map, and were able to find everything.

My only complaint was the lack of gender neutral or family bathrooms, but I did find them in the hospital which a staff member didn’t even know about.!

Ohhhhhhh…and next summer, there will be lemurs.

So, enjoy the photo dump of this amazing zoo!