The Beautiful Cape May County Park & Zoo in New Jersey

Are you planning a trip down to the south Jersey Shore area? Heading to Ocean City, Avalon, Stone Harbor, Wildwood or Cape May, New Jersey? If so, you need to plan an afternoon trip to the beautiful Cape May County Zoo in New Jersey! It is located right off the Garden State Parkway near the Cape May County Court House.

The Zoo is open year-round and the admission is 100% free with free parking! They do ask for a donation at the gate and we always give them a few dollars so if visiting the zoo we hope you will at least drop a few bucks into the bucket on your way in. If you need additional information you can call the park's office at (609) 465-5271. The hours are posted on their web site so make sure you check the schedule before planning your trip.

This is a large zoo and once you head through the gates you will come to the first section which is mainly birds. You will see peacocks, toucans, snowy owls, barn owls, hawks, bald eagles and other types of birds.
You will then visit the farm animal enclosure where you can feed the goats (and yes, they will come up and eat out of your hand!) and there are a few chickens in there too. Kids just love visiting this small petting farm animal section of the zoo. The photo shows my hubby feeding the white billy goat which was really cute!
After visiting the farm animals we came across enclosures that held various types of monkeys and primates. We say tamarins, ring-tailed lemurs and other types of monkeys. We really enjoyed seeing the primates as they are always so much fun to watch.
We then hiked back through the zoo until we got to the African Savanah and walked the trials so that we could see the lions, rocky the tiger, leopard, snow leopards, red panda, camels, giraffes, zebra and other animals that you normally only see on the other side of the world.
After we were done touring that area and visiting those animals we headed over to see the alligators, turtles and we went into the reptile house to visit with those animals. (or I should say that hubby went into the reptile house while I waited outside as I have no desired to see snakes and other creepy animals). I did enjoy seeing the super large turtles though!

When we came out of the reptile house we were greeted by two beautiful big black bears who were out in the enclosure prancing around and playing with barrels and balls. They even had a small in-ground pool in their enclosure and I guess they take swims in that during the hot summer days.

It took us about 2 1/2 hours to go completely through the zoo...but we are adults and had no children slowing us down so if you are a family you might want to plan on spending 3 to 4 hours at the zoo when you visit.

The Cape May County Park & Zoo also has a train and carousel on the property so the kids and you can take a ride on those if you wish. We didn't have time that day to ride those but next time, we definitely want to take the train ride!

There are a few restrooms throughout the zoo along with places for you to get snacks & drinks. Once you leave the zoo you can buy some lunch and beverages at the zoo's cafe which is right outside the exit gates. We had a really great time and can't wait to visit the zoo again in the spring! It is a definite "must see" zoo in New Jersey!