The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens — Attraction in Palm Desert

WOW!!!!! Now this is what a zoo should be. The absolute most fun I've had at a zoo since the drive-through zoo in Quebec!

I got there right when it opened at 8, which was perfect. That gave me plenty of time to see the more heat sensitive animals, like the Cheetah that tends to hide away in the shade after 10/11am. I got to see the Rhino encounter from a short distance, I think that would be worth the extra money. Instead of the Rhino encounter, I opted to wait for the Giraffe feeding. That was the best $10 I spent! You get a bunch of lettuce leaves and you get to go right up to the animals and feed them. SO. MUCH. FUN!!!! I did it twice. Once at 9 and once on my way out of the zoo.

There is SO MUCH to see and do there. There is even a model train town that is HUGE. Despite the construction of a new building, I was still able to see all of the animals and exhibits. There are even some hiking trails you can take from the back of the zoo (which I did not do) that take you over the San Andreas Fault.

Overall I spent three hours there, which was perfect as right when I was done and ready to call it a day, a bunch of school field trips came in and the place got infinitely more crowded. When it opened, you pretty much have the park to yourself and a handful of others. It's a great time to go.

There is food (pizza, wraps, etc.) and drinks available for purchase and you can bring in your own water bottles. I brought mine in and refilled it from the bottle fillers they have around the zoo.

This is a top notch zoo. While I was there, I was able to witness landscaping staff talking with zoo staff about plans for the various exhibits, so they do keep things well managed with an eye towards the future.

The only negative, which has NOTHING to do with the zoo, was that because of the avian flu going around at the time, the bird exhibits had netting on them to keep wild birds out. This made it hard to see some of the birds, including the bald eagle... but I was still able to see it and send a patriotic photo to my friends.

Lots of stuff for kids of all ages to do and see there... and did I mention you can feed the giraffes??? How cool is that!

When I went, at 8am, I bought my ticket at the entrance and was able to get right in and there were plenty of tickets available. Having seen the school tours show up at 10 and throngs on kids and chaperones fill the park, I would recommend getting tickets ahead of time if you're going to go later in the day.

For me, this is a...

It is a nice zoo.

Giraffe feeding which my daughter loves to do. Its quite pricey especially for the small 3 pieces of lettuce you get compared to other zoos but its something she enjoys so.

There are cement and dirt pathways which is nice. Some are not very wheelchair friendly though. While most of the zoo is wheelchair friendly, many of the exhibits are NOT which is always disappointing when we go as we go frequent. I do wish that everyone could enjoy the animals like mobile people can but there is only a couple of zoos in the western US that provide that. So a lot of times I have to try to get a photo with my phone or her iPad and show her what I just saw. :(

However, the GLOW lights are amazing every year. It is my daughters favorite and much better than any of their other lights they have say at Christmas. We did Christmas lights once and never again. Too expensive and just not worth it. We can see better lights in our county for free. But GLOW lights is amazing! Quite pricey though. They are a zoo with high prices for most things though especially compared to other zoos. I also wish they offer discounts if you go more than one night as we always go twice every year because my daughter gets tired easily and only last half way through. So we do two nights to enjoy all of it.

We always have to wait until last minute to purchase our tickets because we have to be careful with weather due to health issues especially there due to all the dirt the zoo is on.. They are not a zoo that understands this so we have purchased say like Christmas lights tickets and couldn't go on two of the nights due to weather changing at very last minute and they were like, sorry out of luck. So we wait as long as possible to purchase to make sure we can go. I am grateful for other places that are accommodating to the medical fragile kiddos and allow us to change dates or even give us a refund if we can't go due to weather / health.

Mixed feelings about here. Its great for strolls with my daughter and perfect size to do so. Oh and she enjoys going on the carousel which is wheelchair friendly. I really wish they would do what other carousels do that are wheelchair friendly - they have their spot (the floor) move just like the up/down animals that others sit on move when the carousel goes around! So she doesn't get to enjoy that here like other...

What a nice treat to visit this zoo. I'm hardly ever impressed by a zoo, but The Living Desert pleasantly surprised us! It's broken up into "Africa" and "Australia." The Africa area kept wowing us with the various animals and exhibits we saw. Right off the bat, the giraffe experience was a winner. We could have left after that and been happy with our visit. For $10 you can feed the giraffe a few leaves of lettuce. It was such a treat and so cool to get up close and personal. The giraffes know the drill when they see you walk up to the platform with lettuce in your hand.

After leaving the giraffes, we saw goats, gazelles, zebra, a cheetah, hyenas, African painted dogs, and a few others. Another up close and personal experience was to walk into the goat pen and hang out with them. They are pretty laid back and let you brush them. We were vv impressed with this area. The animals you get to see aren't as common as in other zoos.

"Australia" is a much smaller exhibit, but worth it to see the kookaburras and the wallabies! You walk in and they are all around. They hop around and are unbothered by the human visitors. You see a few other animals, but those were the most memorable.

They had many colorful and large exhibits up for their current night time event. It was a nice addition to the surroundings, I'm sure it's even better at night.

There is a new splash pad to cool off. It's geared more towards younger kids. There are plenty of cafes to grab food and drink, and at reasonable prices. I have to say I was very impressed by the gift shop merchandise. The marketing was great! lol. So many colorful shirts, sweatshirts, hats and merch with cute designs.

Overall, we enjoyed our visit and would highly recommend this as a must-do activity in...