The Henry Doorly Zoo is remarkably large. By comparison to North Texas attractions, you could argue that the Omaha Zoo is the Dallas Zoo, Fort Worth Zoo, Dallas World Aquarium and Texas Butterfly Gardens: COMBINED. I was truly shocked at the size, scale and scope of the Omaha Zoo. It’s nearly outrageous.

The first surprise was that many of the major attractions were actually indoors. This negated the issue of cold weather and my lack of clothing preparation. The first structure we visited was as the “Desert Dome” which was inside of a massive glass structure. The desert was fully built to 1:1 scale and had a variety of animals and birds. A massive mountain in the middle was the centerpiece. We made our way around this climate controlled structure on a one way path, and finally reached was I assumed was the end. Rather than conclude, we now entered into a new area that was inside the mountain, featuring animals who live in the dark or in caves. As this experience unfolded we were eventually even below that, in an underground area.

The Omaha Zoo has the world’s largest artificial indoor swamp.

Inside this manmade bayou, we walked across creaking boards over water pits filled with alligators, saw inside a beavers lodge, and even came face to face with snapping turtles. And this was just the first building.

Finally out of this first structure, we walked to the next building which was an aquarium.

I wasn’t expecting much, but this aquarium was every bit on the same level or better than the Dallas World Aquarium. My immediate thought was that the Omaha Zoo was offering the experience of multiple ticketed attractions in DFW on the other side of a single gate. Amazing.

The details are too much to share, but the aquarium building featured twists and turns, a massive shark filled tunnel and incredible jellyfish displays. In one huge room nearly 50 penguins were swimming and walking around, snow falling on their heads. What a remarkable place.

Hours had passed and we had only done a few buildings. We didn’t get to even see the train, the ski lift, and the endless amount of outdoor exhibits. It became clear that exploring this place comprehensively would take entire days, and such a trip to Omaha for this purpose alone would be well worth the time and trouble.

I am not sure if I can declare the Henry Doorly Zoo the best in America, but it would be hard to imagine any other Zoo we have access to being better than this. Absolutely recommend.