Blank Park Zoo

May 21, 2023

Brandy and I took a trip to the Blank Park Zoo in Des Moines way back in May. It certainly isn’t the ABQ BioPark Zoo, but I still enjoyed it.

Brandy was outside pretty much all day the Friday before and most of the day that Saturday and, as pale as she naturally is, she of course came out of the first part of the weekend with a sunburn.

Late Start

I’d wanted to get to the zoo early to try to beat the heat as much as we could with the zoo not opening until 10:00. After a night of drinking though, an early start wasn’t in the cards. I woke up at my normal pre-sunrise time and, with some time to kill, made myself a breakfast of waffles, bacon and scrambled eggs.

I watched the CBS News Sunday Morning before Brandy woke up at 8:30. After serving her a quick breakfast, she got ready and we shortly left, each of us carrying our hiking backpacks. We made the hour and a half drive to Des Moines uneventfully, arriving at around 11:00.

The main parking lot was pretty full so we pulled into a dirt auxiliary lot just before entering the main lot. We made the short walk to the entrance and thus began our journey through the zoo.

Blank Park Zoo

The Blank Park Zoo originally opened in 1966. It was initially targeted towards children, centered around a fairy tale theme with castles and moats, a petting zoo and a miniature railroad. By 1981, it was in a state of disrepair, so it was purchased by a group of investors and starting in 1982 underwent a four-year rehabilitation. The zoo reopened in 1986, then in 1995, expanded by over 25 acres, and has seen minor improvements and renovations since.

It currently sits at about 49 acres at the site of decommissioned Fort Des Moines.

(By way of comparison, the ABQ BioPark Zoo is 64 acres, plus the 36 acre botanical gardens and the 285,000 gallon aquarium.)

Wild Lights

Apparently, the zoo has an annual Wild Lights Festival. This year’s display was of large Chinese-style paper lanterns fashioned after underwater creatures and other flora and fauna. As we entered the zoo, we were greeted with large sculptures of butterflies, fish, a panda and much more.

We paid the $18 per person admission and entered the Discovery Center.

Discovery Center

By the time we got to the zoo, it was starting to warm up but was still very tolerable with relatively low humidity, however as we approached the entrance to the Discovery Center, we noticed a marked increase in the moisture in the air. We entered the room and found that it was patterned after a rain forest, so it was intentionally kept moist. We wandered through, peeking in at the various creatures on exhibit in this area, then exited the building. The path took us around to the backside of a waterfall then back through into another small exhibit area before exiting the Discovery Center for good.

The first exhibit we saw after leaving the Discovery Center was a familiar first exhibit for me- flamingos. (Flamingos are the first animals you encounter at ABQ as well.)

Australia Adventure

We made a right through a double security door type situation into the Australia Adventure exhibit. The double door setup usually indicates uncaged animals ahead. My past experiences with this has invariably involved birds or butterflies. Imagine then my surprise when we went through the second set of double doors to see a wallaby hopping by right in front of us.

As we wandered through the Australia exhibit, I realized there were several uncaged wallabies. Most of them kept close to the walls, far off the paths that visitors are meant to stick to, however there were a couple sunbathing in the middle of a small field within the exhibit.

Other animals on display in the Australia Adventure exhibit included kookaburra, cassowary and black swans.

We crossed a short bridge over a lake in the exhibit and exited the Australia Adventure before happening on the last display in Australia- tortoises.

Great Cats

We started heading toward the Great Cat exhibit, stopping along the way to see a handful of Magellan penguins swimming in a pool near the tortoises. After that, we paused a moment to watch the sea lions playing. There was a pair racing around the moat-shaped pool, periodically popping their heads up out of the water for a breath before quickly diving again to race through the water like bullets.

There was a small area where you could observe the creatures from below the water’s surface. I watched them zoom by a couple times before moving on.

We finally got to the Great Cat exhibit. The first cat we saw was the African Lions, two females napping in one area of their enclosure and a male and what I presume was another female in another part. (The second lion in that half was largely obscured by the rock upon which the male was dozing.)

Before moving on to the rest of the felines, we took a detour to the petting zoo area. There were several small goats behind a small fence where children could pet them and feed them from cups of feed for sale nearby. I took the opportunity to reach over the fence and pet a couple of them and was quickly reminded of how coarse their fur is, and how dirty I felt after touching them. Luckily, Brandy had some hand sanitizer in her backpack so I was able to get them cleaned right after.

We headed back to the big cat exhibit where we finally happened upon the biggest draw for me, the Siberian Tiger.

I absolutely adore tigers. The Siberians, the Bengals, the Malay, doesn’t matter. They’re just so powerful and majestic.

After spending some time watching the one that was visible in the enclosure, we moved on, passing an enclosure that oddly contained white-handed gibbons and vultures. We watched the gibbons as one of them swung through the enclosure with immense ease and grace, then moved on to our stop for lunch.

Lunch Break

Just beyond the Great Cat exhibit stood a large Chinese-style drum that was part of the Wild Lights event. It was a functioning drum that we heard being played as we approached. Just beyond that was the Hy-Vee Safari Grill, the only place to get food in the zoo. Brandy went and staked out a seat while I stayed behind in a somewhat long line that terminated right in front of the drum.

The sticks for the drum were left dangling by strings in front of it, allowing anyone that wandered by to pick them up and play the percussive instrument.

And of course, every. Single. Kid. That passed by wanted to stop and bang the drum.

Now look, I wouldn’t have minded if there was someone with a modicum of talent playing something rhythmic and that made sense, but with kids coming by and just BANGING on the drum head, it was rather cacophonous.

Making matters worse is the line crept along at an absolute snail’s pace. I did not move for the first 5 or 6 minutes I was in line.

finally, the queue started forward, inching ever closer to the window and, more importantly, away from that cursed drum.

I finally got to the window and ordered our lunches. The food was pre-prepared and sitting on a warming shelf right behind the cashier. The longest part of my transaction was waiting for her to fill our fountain drinks. Everyone in front of me ordered bottled drinks, so why in the world did it take so long to get to the front of the line?!

Normally I wouldn’t have cared, if not for that damned drum…

anyway, enough bitching about the drum and the speed of the line to get food.

I tracked Brandy down and we sat and ate lunch, watching the gibbons in their nearby enclosure and warming up under the sun.

Jamaa Kwa Africa

After finishing lunch, we continued on to what would be the last major exhibit in the zoo, the Jamaa Kwa Africa exhibit.

The boardwalk into the Africa exhibit was decorated with astounding sea flora and fauna lanterns for Wild Nights. We passed starfish and coral and under manta rays and clown fish during the walk to the first enclosure, the giraffes.

There were several giraffes roaming freely in their enclosure, one eating from a feeder mere feet from the path.

In the enclosure with the giraffes were slender horned gazelles and addaxes, with their distinct, corkscrewed horns.

We continued on the path around the giraffe enclosure where we happened upon an enclosure containing a yellow-backed duiker and an okapi, with a couple of what I’ve independently identified as blue heron (based on my interaction with one on our cold-weather camping trip in Villanueva, NM.)

We made our way down the backside of the giraffe enclosure before happening upon the black rhinos and red river hogs. A few steps later and we were out of the Africa exhibit.

We stopped to look at the Japanese macaques, the pair of bald eagles and the red panda before finding ourselves in the gift shop picking up a couple of trinkets, a magnet for Brandy and a keychain and sticker for me. We made the trudge back to the car and made the 90 minute drive back home.

Final Thoughts

The Blank Park Zoo is pretty small but has a pretty diverse selection of animals on exhibit. I do think $18 is a bit steep for what you get but with an annual $89 per person, or $124 family membership, you could get in for free, and enjoy free or discounted admission to other zoos throughout the country (including the ABQ BioPark!)

As this zoo is an hour and a half away, I can’t see making frequent enough trips to warrant that kind of expense. I probably will go back at some point and pay the $18 per person, and will probably complain about it then too.

As always, pictures from this journey can be found on my Photo Diary page.

I leave Tuesday for my four day trip to Verona, WI, then begins the next Two Months of Chaos.

Stay tuned for more!

Until then, as always, thanks for stopping by. I appreciate you!

-Phil