This weekend we visited the Wilderness park (Wildnispark) which is just in the very southern park of Zurich. The park is part zoo and part hiking trails. They also had a few playgrounds and a restaurant. It’s slightly different than a zoo, because the animals had huge areas in which to roam, so they could go out of site if they wanted and have some privacy. Just don’t make the mistake we made of getting off the train too early, because then you have to hike through the park uphill from the back towards the main entrance! Not so much fun with a stroller and a toddler who prefers to whine rather than walk up a few stairs!
Even though we were lost, we got there just at the right time, because they were feeding the deer at the moment we walked up!
After checking out the deer, we hiked up to the main entrance where we relaxed a little while Carter played on the playground.
I went up to the restaurant to grab a bottle of water and saw this fellow right outside! He was just walking around the water in his area, checking out all the humans!
Then he decided to climb up his rock and pose nicely for the photos!
After lunch we walked around some more and saw the pigs, mouse house, wild cats and wolves! The mouse house was very strange, as it was a building set up to look like an actual house with food scraps all around for the mice to run out and grab. Maybe it just reminded me too much of that time we had a mouse in our house! After the wolves we had to leave because of the impending rainstorm, but we didn’t get to see everything so I’m sure we’ll be back!
The Wildlife park was a really nice place to visit! Next time I will think twice about bringing the stroller, or maybe go back after we get our car so we can store the stroller if we want. I’ll also know to wear better shoes, since a lot of the park is up and down hills and most of it is unpaved trails! But, it’s free and you get to see a lot of animals so definitely put it on your long list of things to do if you ever visit Zurich, especially with your kids!