When we were brainstorming the plan for our epic road trip, we asked our children if there was anything they wanted to see. My 5-year-old chimed in immediately. “We should see a zoo and a circus!” We knew the circus request was going to be a challenge but zoo was definitely doable.

A quick internet search produced a list of the best zoos in the United States. To our great luck, one of these zoos was the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. We love it when we find interesting things to do in the plains states so the Henry Doorly Zoo went on our list.

We arrived just as the zoo opened in the morning. We were a little concerned that our visit would be disappointing as the weather was quite chilly. We didn’t know if there would be any animals to see or whether our children could stand walking around in the cold. We dressed everyone in layers and hoped for the best.

Fortunately, our worries were unfounded. The zoo has numerous exhibits that are open year-round and many are indoor. There were more exhibits open than we would have time to see.

Our first stop was the Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom Pavilion. Seeing this name reminded me of watching the show on Sunday afternoons as a child. All I can remember is an older gentleman wrestling alligators and other wild animals.

Inside the Wild Kingdom Pavilion were exhibits of numerous small animals. Each of these exhibits was well done. While the animals themselves were sometimes underwhelming for adults, the children were thrilled! The zoo also made sure that there were boxes and steps so that smaller children could easily climb up to see the exhibits.

After the Wild Kingdom Pavilion, the children wanted to see the butterfly pavilion. The exhibit where butterflies fly free all around you was restricted to certain tour times with a zookeeper so we didn’t see that but there was another exhibit on insects that we toured instead. The room was designed to look like a tropical rainforest and it was humid and warm.

We stopped briefly by the chrysalis nursery where the zoo is always in the process of hatching hundreds of different kinds of butterflies and moths. We learned a few interesting facts about butterflies.

Next, the children wanted to see the aquarium exhibit. This was a great tie-in with our recent homeschool science lessons focused on ocean life. The aquarium did not disappoint.

One of the best attractions in the whole zoo is the penguin exhibit. The penguins are enclosed in a glass-walled exhibit. There is a faux rock surround and even faux snow that falls from the ceiling! It looked exactly like a scene from the movie March of the Penguins.

The penguins swim and dive in the surrounding pool. There is even a glass-walled bubble indentation in the tank so that children (and adults) can get a closer look at the penguins. The penguins seem to enjoy children and they swim right up to the glass bubble and sit there just a few inches away. You feel like you could reach out and touch them. It is a wonderful experience.

Next, we saw an amazing display of jellyfish that were almost artful in their presentation.

The zoo has a glass-walled tunnel tank filled with small sharks, sea turtles and other large fish that I could sit and watch all day.

Next, we visited one of the star attractions of the zoo, the Desert Dome, located beneath the world’s largest geodesic dome.

Inside are huge desert scenes with rock walls, sand, rivers and other other natural-looking features.
One downside of the Desert Dome, however, is its distinctive aroma. My daughter had trouble getting excited to see the rest of the exhibit because of the overwhelming smell.

The great thing about the desert dome is that the zoo educates visitors about how complex the word “desert” is. Most of us would probably assume one desert is just like another with sand and cactuses. However, the zoo indicates that there are multiple types of deserts around the world, from Arabian sand deserts to polar ice deserts. The Desert Dome walks you through four different types of deserts. Each section replicates the plants and landscaping in that region and restricts the animals only to animals of that region.

The Henry Doorly Zoo’s attention to detail in its exhibit design made me realize that most zoos organize their animals based on the similarity of caging and care requirements rather than ecosystem accuracy. Unfortunately, this results in pairings of animals that would never be together in the wild, leaving visitors with a confused conception of the world’s ecosystems.

In an ingenious use of space planning, underneath the desert dome exhibits is an exhibit of caves and nocturnal animals.

Again, the zoo design is incredible! There are replicas of stalagtites and stalagmites and glass-walled exhibits of bats, snakes and other cave-dwelling creatures. The zoo educated us that just like ocean animals live in 3 levels of darkness, cave-dwelling creatures also can be classified based on the levels of darkness they live in.

There was a wonderful southern swamp ecosystem portion of the nocturnal exhibit with alligators in the water and bullfrogs chirping. It was a little spooky walking over wooden bridges in near darkness with alligators nearby!

After the Desert Dome, we went for lunch at the zoo’s café. The Tree Tops restaurant overlooks the zoo’s rainforest jungle exhibit. There is a large glass wall to the café and you can watch monkeys climb and swing on faux trees as you eat. The children loved it.

Unfortunately, we can’t say much for the zoo’s food. Zoo food is always notoriously bad for some reason but there is really no reason why it should be. This restaurant could really use one super-delicious, gourmet-inspired daily special for adults to enjoy.

After lunch, we wandered through the rainforest jungle exhibit which is incredibly designed. There are large faux trees from floor to ceiling, a small river and waterfall.

There are also interactive spaces for children to enjoy, including a rope bridge and a “secret” staircase to climb. The designer of this space seemed to appreciate that when children observe animals, they are inspired by their movements and need some way to act those behaviors out. This space was an amazing mixture between a playground and a zoo.

Before we left, we wanted to see some of the zoo’s larger animals. We stopped by the tiger and gorilla exhibits.

The gorilla exhibit was especially fun. The zoo incorporated one of their trademark glass bubbles in the cage design. The gorillas seemed to love visitors. If you went to stand in the bubble, one of the gorillas would come climb on top of the bubble and stare down at you.

There were numerous benches placed along the front of the cage so that small children could easily climb up for a closer look. The attention that was paid in the design to facilitating the visitor experience was inspiring.

Who knew a zoo could provide so many organizational design lessons? I would have to agree that this is one of the nation’s best zoos. Not only were the exhibit designs ingenious and visitor-friendly, nearly every single one of the animals seemed happy and alert. It is definitely worth a visit.

After our zoo visit, we had to spend a lot of time in the car to make our mileage goal for the day. We drove through miles and miles of Nebraska farmland.

Nebraska seemed to have the largest concentration of cows of any state we had visited so there were lots of opportunities for cow paparazzi shots.

We ended our day driving into the Nebraska sunset.