The St. Louis Zoo in St. Louis, Missouri, is free to visit and is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily except holidays until Dec 30th. At which they will post their new times for 2025. The St. Louis Zoo is a must-see! We drove six hours just to spend the day at the zoo and it was worth it! So are you ready to join us on the trip to the St. Louis Zoo? Put your seat belt on because it’s time to head out!

The Ride to the Zoo

I’m going to share a little mistake that I made on this trip. I car camped the night before and never thought to check the weather as it had been sunny and in the upper 70s-80s in Kentucky. On the way up I was freezing! My Embr Wave 2 was keeping me a little warm but I didn’t want to use it much before getting to the zoo as I am heat and cold-intolerant. I was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of shorts with sandals. I finally convinced my sister to stop at Walmart so I could get some leggings and a hoodie. I ended up getting a black pair of flared leggings for $7.98 that are super comfortable, as I would live in these leggings cause they feel so great! My sister found a hoodie in a pattern I love for $3 and I found a pair of sneakers for $19.98 and a pair of socks for $1. So I spent $31.96 for a new outfit just because I didn’t check the weather for St. Louis. Do I regret it? Nope! I was comfortable all day!

Sensory Bag

If you or your child that has sensory issues such as autism, PTSD, dementia and other issues I highly recommend checking out a free sensory bag. This bag does have to be returned before closing. The bag had a noise-canceling headphone, sunglasses, fidget toys, a fan, a laminated map and more. The map showed what locations had certain sensory challenges such as smells, noise, temperate, sounds and places to relax is a quite area is needed. For more information on the sensory bag and challenge exhibited click here.

The Adventure Pass

I purchased the Adventure Pass for Jax and myself, it was $12.95 a person. Honestly, I feel like it was a rip-off! I bought it because we were going to ride the train and do the 4-D theater. However, they kept taking people for the same video instead of switching back and forth as they said. Our 10-minute wait turned into 30 minutes and they took the other group again which would have been another 10-minute wait to see if they took our line. So we lost 30 minutes waiting in line for nothing. They weren’t doing the Sea Lion Show which was included in the pass. We never made it to the Stingrays as we ran out of time so I cannot speak on it. The carousel is down for a remodel. So only the railroad was worth the ride and you can do it all day for $7.95. We truly enjoyed the train ride as we got to see a lot of the animals that weren’t out in the enclosure. Next time we go back I’ll just pay for the train ride.

Animals of Historic Hill

As we entered the zoo we turned to the right and headed up the hill to the Historic area. Here we visited the Bird House and Garden, Herpetarium, Primate Canopy Trail, the Primate House, and the Cypress Swamp. The Bird House and Garden is a relaxing peaceful walk where you can view many animals including the Bald eagle, barred owl, beared barbet, burrowing owl, Congo peafowl, crested wood partridge, elegant crested tinamou, and many more! I thought the neatest bird was the Rhinoceros Hornbill, their species is at high risk of being extinct.

The Herpetarium was Eric’s least favorite so if you don’t like snakes enter with caution but I highly recommend visiting it! We saw the humungous Aldabra tortoises, the American alligator, the Eastern Hellbender, Gray’s monitor, a couple of very neat Narrow-headed softshell turtles plus several other lizards, snakes, and turtles.

The Primate Canopy Trail was pretty crowded so we didn’t go on the canopy however we were able to see several of the monkeys, the Primate House was pretty much empty as everyone was outside playing. We saw the adorable Black and White Ruffed lemurs, Allen’s Swamp monkey, Coquerel’s Sifakas, Geoffroy’s Marmoset, and a few others.

Animals in Red Rock

We truly enjoyed seeing the different animals in Red Rock. In the “Antelope Habitates” we saw a herd of addax, some Bactrian camels, a banteng, a couple of East African crowned cranes, grevy’s zebras, Okapi, red kangaroos, reticulated giraffes, Sichuan takins, Soemmerring’s gazelles, Somali wild asses, and Speke’s gazelle. The Okapi was my favorite, whereas the Somali wild asses were Eric’s favorite and the reticulated giraffes were Jax’s favorite. We were disappointed that the giraffe feeding was closed.

We then headed over to “Big Cat Country” which in my opinion is the coolest part of Red Rock! We saw African lions sleeping in the sun. Amur leopard walking around the path. a jaguar and my personal favorite that I could have stayed and watched play all day was the Amur tigers! The mother, father, and cubs were out enjoying the day. The cubs were playing and pouncing on each other, having such a great time!

Animals of The Wild

Unfortunately, Jax and I didn’t get to spend much time here due to the hold-up at the 4-D theater, and need to meet up with the rest of the family for lunch so we did a quick walk through the Wilds. The habitats here include Fragile Forest, we did get to see a gorilla but the others were not out. We did see the grizzly in Grizzly Ridge and the polar bear was by the window in Polar Bear Point. We got a quick glance the the penguins in Penguin & Puffin Coast.

Animals of River’s Edge

In the African Nile, we saw the cheetah, a dwarf mongoose, and the hippos playing in the water. Jax enjoyed seeing the termite mounds. In the Africa Savanna, we saw the African-painted dogs sleeping and the black rhino pacing. Africa was pretty quite as most of the animals were not out. We only saw the elephants due to the train ride going behind their enclosure.

Insects of Discovery Corner

This was Jax’s favorite place in the whole zoo as he loves insects, especially ants. so we saved this for last! We saw several different insects such as giant centipedes, death’s head cockroaches, golden silk spiders, leaf cutter ants, velvet ants, a beautiful Mexican Red-kneed tarantula, and a lot more!

Gluten Free Food

I was beyond excited that they offer gluten-free food at Cafe Kudu! The 12-inch pepperoni pizza was great! Jax ate most of it so I had to go back and get some fried chicken strips they were okay, but the texture was off. I was disappointed that they didn’t have the gluten-free pretzels as they had the dipping sauce in the warmer for it. A huge plus is that they keep the gluten-free food in its own kitchen across the room so it doesn’t come in contact with the other food and they change their gloves. As someone with Celiac Disease, I felt safe eating here and never got sick! You can see their food options here.

The End

As 4 pm approached we headed to the exit and turned in Jax’s sensory kit and took one last look at the waterfalls outside the exit. Thank you for joining us on our trip to St. Louis Zoo! Now plan your own trip to the zoo if you can and tell us what your favorite animals were. Where will our next adventure be? I don’t know but it will be free or cheap! Ready? Set? Let’s go!

P.S. I’ll remember to check the weather!