Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City

In a bid to find more to do during my time in Utah, I ended up at the fun Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. It’s a smallish zoo for as big as the city is, perched on a hillside across from a large Mormon history park.

Touring Hogle Zoo

The layout of the Hogle Zoo is long and narrow, sloping gently downhill from the entrance to the end where the bears are. It also straddles a natural creek, so there’s a larger main path by the road and a smaller, higher path on the other side of the creek.

What I did, and what I feel a good general plan is, is to first walk all the way downhill, then work your way slowly back uphill. HOWEVER, it’s worth seeking out any scheduled talks for the day, and it’s not such a big zoo that you can’t bounce around a little extra. Not to be missed is the daily seal & sea lion training, which I just missed and am still sad about! It might be a decent plan to walk downhill on the upper back path, then back up the larger main path. At least this way, I would have caught the first talk of the day at the bobcat enclosure. (It said “south hill” on the sign, I just didn’t know where that was! Nothing by that name was on the map.)

Animals at the Hogle Zoo

If we take a basically clockwise tour of the Hogle Zoo, here are the animals you can expect to see.

African Savannah

Right when you walk in, you are facing the large African Savannah area, with giraffes, zebras, ostriches, and warthogs. There’s a large covered pavilion you can view the savannah from. Giraffes were hard to see on my visit, sort of tucked into a corner on the left. And if they go inside their building, you can’t see them at all. Immediately adjacent are some African lions.

After circline the Primate Forest, below, there is a spot for meerkats and porcupines on the side of the African Savannah.

Primate Forest

Just beyond the lions is a boardwalk area with indoor enclosures for several primate species. In here, you find black & white colobus monkeys, howler monkeys, and cute spider monkeys.

The Beastro cafe is in this area, the zoo’s biggest eatery. They also have bathrooms, an ATM, and hot drinks. But it’s a little expensive – I got a large hot chocolate to carry around on a chilly day and it was $6.50!

Great Apes

Hang a hard left past the Primate Forest and towards the Great Apes building. You can go inside at this point, or walk around the back to see them in their outdoor jungle gym habitat. I might recommend walking around the outside first, then walking inside on your way back, but only because the building seems to get mobbed in the morning hours. (I have the introvert’s instinct to go the opposite way of a crowd!) It’s probably worth walking through twice to see if anything interesting is going on.

There are both western lowland gorillas and Bornean orangutans in the Great Apes facility. I feel like I mostly saw the gorillas, both inside and out, but maybe that was because they were more active. There was a young gorilla running around with a blanket outside. Inside, I managed to catch a father and his kid having a tickle fight. Every now and then the mom would come over to see what they were up to, and they’d stop for a minute. But then she’d go away and the little one would start attacking his father again. It was really fun to watch – there was a pretty good crowd of both visitors and keepers gathered to see.

North American Animals

Walking behind the Great Apes building, the path takes you alongside a few smaller enclosures. This is the “south hill” where the bobcat is located, as well as a hawk (or falcon?) and a common crow.

This is also a great place for a view of the zoo from above and the mountains.

Asian Highlands

Along the back path, you reach the Asian Highlands first with a fox and a cool-looking goat from Turkmenistan. Then you get into an area with all the big cats – Amur Leopard, Amur Tiger, snow leopard, and Pallas’ cat. Then back in a corner past a cafe is a cool red panda exhibit.

The Asian theming around this area is really pretty. And don’t sleep on the Cat Wok Cafe, next to the red pandas. It’s mostly cold treats and snacks, but they have partnered with local Cloud 9th Creamery for some really inventive zoo-specific ice cream flavors.

Small Animal Building

At the bottom of the hill, make sure to head right to backtrack to the Small Animal Building. It’s easy to miss! Inside are all sorts of amphibians, spiders, reptiles, snakes, birds, and even some small mammals like a sand cat and bats. I loved the signs on the bat windows, about how they’re old and need a hammock because they might fall down.

In the middle of the building is an open rainforest setting with a few tortoises and several free-flying birds.

Rocky Shores

Head back to the big bridge and cross it towards Rocky Shores, an area inspired by the Pacific Northwest. This is where the bears and seals are, and arguably one of the most popular parts of the zoo. In the front corner is a grizzly bear habitat. Right next to it is polar bears, complete with a pool and underwater viewing area.

Sharing pretty much the same pool (but divided) is a cool area with sea lions and harbor seals. There are several places to view them under the water and from above. A tiered seating area is available during daily training sessions with the animals.

As you make your way out of the area and up the hill, you pass an otter exhibit and a bald eagle enclosure. At the top of the curved path is the Creekside play area with a playground and splash pad. There’s also a small theater here and a larger Wildlife Theater further along, but none of it – the play areas or the theaters – were in use during the spring.

Conservation Carousel

The Conservation Carousel is a nice central spot for Hogle Zoo. Most of the paths through the zoo converge here. I dig it because it doesn’t play your typical tinkly carousel band organ music. They play sort of regular rock music. When I was there, they were playing “You Spin Me Right Round,” which I thought was hilarious!

It costs $3 to ride the Conservation Carousel, or if you are a zoo member, you can buy a puch card for 10 rides for $25.

Elephant Encounter

In front of the carousel and heading back towards the African section is the Elephant Encounter. Two big enclosures feature white rhinoceros and African elephants. There’s a cool African lodge building and a full-sized, but fanciful, sculpture of an elephant to pose with.

It looks like Hogle Zoo is going to discontinue its elephant program soon, to give their two female elephants better opportunities to reproduce elsewhere. So I’m not sure what that means for this area in the near future.

Entrance and Wild Utah

Heading back towards the entrance area, you can visit the Great Ape building again or for the first time, pass the Beastro restaurant, and the shops at the entrance.

To the left of the entrance will be the new Wild Utah area, which was under construction during my early April visit and sounds like it won’t be completed until spring 2024. When it is done, you’ll be able to see animals native to Utah, such as cougars, badgers, bobcats, and bighorn sheep, plus a large building housing several ambassador animals for educational programs.

The Zoofari Express train, which is closed during the construction, will circle the Wild Utah and the African Savannah areas once it’s all done. Prices are the same as the carousel – $3 per ride or $25 for a 10-ride card. The station is right in front of the zoo entrance.

Admission & Hours

From May 1-September 30, admission for the Hogle Zoo cost $24 at the gate for adults, $20 for kids 3-12, and free for infants 2 and under. In the winter, from October 1-April 30, tickets are $22 for adults, $18 for kids. You can save $2 per ticket by buying online. And the last Wednesday of every value/winter month is a “Wild Weekday” with tickets for only $5.

Hogle Zoo is open 9 am-6 pm daily for most of the year. It shortens to 10 am-5 pm November 1-February 28. They’re closed Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, and occasionally for weather or special events. Parking is free.

Conclusion/Review

I really enjoyed the Hogle Zoo. It’s always nice to get out and walk around and see animals you’d never see in your normal life. The zoo is on the small side, and some of the enclosures aren’t the nicest I’ve ever seen. But overall I was impressed with the level of detail in a lot of the African, Asian, and Pacific Northwest theming present.

I arrived shortly after they opened, bought my ticket on my phone in the parking lot, and was done before lunch. While I could have eaten at the Beastro, I had a better (and cheaper) sandwich at the Honest Eatery in a shopping center nearby. There are plenty of other places to eat in the area, and you can bring your own food to the zoo, and come and go as long as you still have your ticket.

After lunch, I ended up having an entirely animal-centric day by heading to the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium, about 40 minutes away. Even with the distance and the size of each, it was easy to do both in one day.