Lynn WiezyckiWhenever I can, I try to allow some extra time before my flights to visit the zoos and botanical gardens at the places I visit. This time I actually made my reservations for a day later than I should by accident but took advantage of the time to
check out the Albuquerque Biopark. This includes a zoological park, aquarium and botanical gardens.
I started out at the zoo. I purchased a pass for all three parks and started wandering around. They have a variety of critters so there were many image opportunities.
Info from Wikipedia:
The Albuquerque Biological Park (or Albuquerque BioPark) is an environmental museum located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It contains four separate facilities:
- Albuquerque Aquarium – An aquarium with a 285,000-US-gallon (1,080,000 l) ocean tank containing Gulf of Mexico saltwater species from estuaries, surf zone, shallow waters, coral reefs, and ocean, as well as many other exhibits.
- ABQ BioPark Botanic Garden – A 36-acre (15 ha) botanic garden that includes a 10,000-square-foot (930 m2) glass conservatory housing plants from desert and Mediterranean climate zones.
- Rio Grande Zoo – A 64-acre (26 ha) zoo, with 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of paths and more than 250 species of exotic and native animals. Elephants, giraffes, camels, lions, tigers, snow leopards, polar bears, hippos, gorillas, chimpanzees, zebras, and seals can be found here, along with more unusual animals such as koalas, hyenas, white rhinos, Tasmanian devils, wombats and African wild dogs. There is a variety of birds, from storks and eagles to roadrunners.
- Tingley Beach – fishing lake, model boating lake, picnic areas, narrow gauge railroad, and paths.
The Albuquerque Biological Park is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)
The BioPark also operates a 36″ narrow gauge railroad that connects these facilities.
My Visit:
There were fall flowers all about the zoo.
The animals are my favorite subjects, though.
I eventually made my way over to the botanical gardens.
This late in the season, (October) many of the plants were being readied for the winter. My favorite spot was the Butterfly House.
I finally made my way to the Aquarium which was a challenge to shoot in as all aquariums are but I was happy to get some images there as well.
I highly recommend a stop at the Albuquerque Biopark. I drove between the parks but they have a train that takes you from park to park.
To see these and additional images, please either click on an image or go to my Gallery.
This is the end of the series of New Mexico adventures. Please check out all 8 parts! Next stop… N Georgia!
That is all for now.
Lynn
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