California Living Museum — Attraction in Bakersfield

I came back to this place for the first time in about 20 years and visited over multiple days. There’s definitely a lot to appreciate while at the same time a lot that could be improved. First, the staff are absolutely wonderful. From the friendly zookeepers and helpful docents to the train engineers, everyone was kind, welcoming, and clearly passionate about the animals.

There are some real positives: a nice variety of California native animals, tons of space, plenty of mature trees offering shade, picnic areas, a playground, and the touch tank. It’s clear this place has heart, and I genuinely enjoyed seeing the animals. And yeah, Holiday Lights is awesome, of course.

However, walking the grounds over a few days made me reflect on how much more potential this place has. Many exhibits feel outdated or empty, and there’s very limited interactivity. Aside from the touch tank and some farm animals that mostly wandered around dirt pens, there wasn’t much to engage visitors, especially kids. The train is cool...but it circles 90% dirt that's disconnected from the zoo instead of going around the exhibits. The desert tortoises have an awesome, large enclosure...but then they're the only things in there even though it has tall netting for birds. Some enclosures also raised concerns: the bald eagle stared at the condors and didn’t move at all over multiple days, the condors don’t seem to have space to fly, the woodpecker was alone in a tiny cage tucked in an odd corner, the badger slept in a dog crate cooled by an indoor fan, and the deer just paced along the fence in their dirt enclosure. The reptile house looks awesome from the outside, but inside it’s quite bare-bones.

I did take the time to read through CALM’s master plan after visiting, and to their credit, it directly addresses almost every single concern I had. They have ambitious plans for improvements like a walk-through aviary, expanded habitats for animals like the bear and even wolves, a larger rehab area, more kid-friendly learning features, and a more inviting entrance and parking area to replace the current setup that feels a bit like a roadside stop. Whoever worked on that plan understands their short-comings very well and has a well thought-out vision.

Overall, I think CALM is a unique and valuable part of Bakersfield. It’s full of potential, and I really hope the funding and community support come through so it can grow into something even more special over the...

This was a really cool place to learn about CA's native wildlife, as UK visitors we found it way more interesting than another zoo with the same selection of animals. I had been trying to find a decent website to learn about all the native wildlife with pictures etc but couldn't find one so finding this was really cool. A shame about the beaver as we haven't seen one in real life before. CA wildlife is really cool and it was awesome seeing them close up. Didn't get to see the bear as he was being a lazy boy in his little cave but that's okay.

I would recommend visiting off peak as there were so many children screaming in the reptile areas and indoor areas, and the outdoor areas too, unless you're used to that, it seems to be the norm here to have kids hollering in your ear while you're trying to read something or appreciate wildlife. Felt a bit bad for the animals, it would be nice if there was a staff member anywhere near the enclosures to keep an eye on stuff and also ask as I did have some questions about the animals but couldn't see anyone to ask.

Also don't buy the railway tickets they offer you with admission if it isn't for a child, they asked us if we wanted it added so we agreed thinking it would be to get across the park, our local zoo has a mini train which gets you across the fat side of the park. This was just a little kids train that goes in a circle so I have no idea why we were offered.

The gift shop was cool also, the souvenirs are personalised to the place, many places here we have seen just generic 'made in china' stuff loosely related to the place but this has CALM merchandise which is nice to see.

Also there were hand dipped corn dogs which were really good and like 4...

Growing up in Kern County calm zoo is always been a favorite growing up as kids we love to go see the lights at the holiday event. A lot of animals are sleeping and sometimes hard to find during the day so if you can go in the winter time and the early evening it's a good time to see a lot of the animals and their little bit more active but more recently (December 16 2017) we attended the holiday lights. My grandfather is recently been placed in a wheelchair and has a hard time walking but we wanted him not to miss out on this wonderful event so we decided to take him anyways expecting there to be wheelchair accessible ramps and walk paths. Although most of the Park was accessible there was quite a few things that really took a team effort there is a huge dirt zigzag path that is almost impossible to get someone in a wheelchair up unless you have two or three strong men with you. Luckily we had my brother and my husband with us so we were able to take the path but it made me wonder about all the other people and children that might be missing the beautiful display because of this small misfortune. Also the train didn't have any access ramps or open karts where where wheelchairs could fit and be secured I think this would be a wonderful addition to the park and just spread so much joy especially to the ones that...