Cameron Park Zoo, Waco Texas | Nutty Hiker Adventures

Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, Texas — Photo By: Fine Art by Bridget

We finally got around to going to the zoo in Waco. It only took us 3 years!

We opted to buy a yearly family membership. It was going to cost us about the same price as buying the one day tickets (due to our family size), plus the membership would let us come back at anytime for free.

They also give military discounts on both regular tickets and memberships, so if you are active duty military (or dependent) make sure to ask for it.

Size

The zoo itself is only 52 acres. I say only, because I grew up in Dallas going to the Dallas zoo, so I just assumed all zoo’s were at least that big. Almost like state fairs. I assumed (up until moving out-of-state) that all state fairs were as big as the State Fair of Texas (imagine my disappointment when I learned the hard way that wasn’t true lol).

Food

Anyway, we still had a good time! I will say that the food there is very limited. There are only two “restaurants” and one of them is closed down. The only operating one is at the front of the zoo. Your only other option is hot dogs from a food vendor cart and I believe we saw a hamburger food truck or cart.

Animals

I was a little disappointed in the variety of species. I really expected to see more “exotic” can’t see anywhere else species. That wasn’t the case. There is one entire section dedicated to the Brazos River Country and this alone takes up half of the zoo. These are animals that you can see in your “own back yard” so to speak.

The other two sections are the African Savanna and Asian Forest. There are only three animals in the Asian Forest and only a handful in the African Savanna.

Like I said I was pretty disappointed, but nonetheless we still enjoyed it.

Overall

Overall, the layout of the zoo (being able to start and finish without missing anything or backtracking) was great. While I was disappointed in the size of the zoo and the variety of species, overall we enjoyed it and we will go back.