Lincoln Park Zoo Gateway Pavilion — Attraction in Chicago

I'm shocked at the wonderful construction of this zoo. It appears to be built for viewers. The shaded areas where wildlife would sleep through humid days are easily accessible to guests. I have never been this close up with wild animals and I'm so grateful this wonderful zoo is preserving wildlife and allowing people to enjoy them. I've been to many zoo but none have astounded me quite like this one. It has a wonderful ratio of cool, indoor areas to sunny outside. I saw workers consistently checking on the animals, clearing their habitats and reconstructing their spaces. The worker vehicles may overshadow some places but we were able to find the same animals in the inside exhibits. I was so amazed with how the animals in this zoo reacted in comparison to other zoos. They seemed free-er and happier. I met one lady in the indoor bird exhibit who answered my childrens' random questions. She was just admiring the birds and providing us with wonderful knowledge of a lifetime. The food there was also great and very decently priced. It cost similarly to fast food and rated better. The chili cheese dogs were dripping with beans, onions and peppers. Workers, animals, flowers, and experience were so wonderful. Thank you for giving us wonderful memories. We are officially drawn to chicago thanks to this zoo. Sincerely, country folk.

Suggestion: We originally went on a warm Sunday and sat in traffic for hours. We could find any parking, including the paid lots. We are from Indians so the traffic is very fresh for us. We went back Monday morning and had a perfect experience. Don't go on a weekend!! We paid 28 for parking at the conservatory. Bring water as the fountains don't...

It's a nice zoo it's pretty lively full of people with a couple restaurants within the zoo. They have the usual gift shop but aside from that they have some people in carts offering ice cream,cotton candy, and popcorn amongst other snacks. The zoo itself is free to enter, parking I'm not too sure off since mee and I friend uber'ed over there but it did look like it's mostliekly paid parking if not there than at near by locations. The zoo had a couple small buildings with different types of animals within each one. Some where dedicated to to reptiles another to primates another to birds and one for gorillas and chimps. There were a couple more we weren't able to see but each one was very interesting and nice to see. Now I will say multiple exhibits were closed either for fixing or cleaning a bit disappointing but completely understandable. Over all this is a great spot for taking your family kids and having fun looking at these animals.

Some of the indor exhibits are warm for the animals sake like the birds and the reptiles.

They also had some species of plants all round the exhibits on the outside ofcourse labeled so if you like plants this also might peak your interests though it isn't anything too big with a lot of plants but it has a couple neat ones I did not take a picture of

There was also a nature broad walk linked to the zoo that's where I found the cows and a couple of the photos that I'll leave captions on. Overall very fun id come again.

Also there is I believe two entrances to the zoo minus the nature broad walk that might have more entrances.

P.s I did not aim for quality with these pictures so, sorry for the...

Wowow. I love to go to the zoo. Yes, it's sad to see animals locked up but if the zoo runs a great conservation program and provides efforts towards endangered species, I'm all for it. I was a bit skeptical coming here since it's completely free, and when we came (around 10:40am) it seemed EMPTY here (no animals, or people). However, as the sun got higher and it got a bit warmer the animals did make their ways out of the enclosures. When we first entered, the lions exhibit was the first one we saw but they were all inside. After walking around, and circling back they were out and about!

We're not locals of Illinois, and we're quite small town people so we had a rental car. We parked along the entrance of the East gate, we were there from 10:30-2:00pm, and paid about $35! Which isn't bad considering that there was no entrance fee.

I finally got to see a polar bear! The big one, looks so huge that I thought for a second it was fake! But I was pretty ecstatic seeing a polar bear. With the rise of moo deng, I also got to see the pygmy hippos! How cute??!! The only creature that hid from me was the snow leapord & the rhinoceros lol. I saw a glimpse of the rhino, and it ran back inside the enclosure! The male gorillas were also out and about as well, and quite entertaining to watch. We spent a lot of time there.

Other than that, it was a great experience. A lot do the zoo staff were so informative and you can tell they love what they do.

P.S. they make it very very easy for handicap access...