The Santa Barbara Zoo is not the biggest, but it became one of my favorites during our visit in late November. The grounds are unbelievably beautiful and well done. They have beautiful palm trees perfectly placed, and have smaller gardens of desertscapes and more.

The zoo is situated on 30 acres in the foothills of the Santa Ynez mountains in a wonderful setting. The grounds are the nicest I have seen in a zoo. Just inside the entrance there is a small gift shop, where you can buy souvenirs and gift, and rent wagons and strollers for the kids.

There is a small old-fashioned style train that runs around the parameter of the zoo, and a small restaurant and stands to buy snacks at throughout the zoo. There are many benches and places to stop and enjoy trhe beautiful grounds

Oh, and they have animals too. The most memorable exhibits for me were the elephants, giraffes (including one with a severely deformed neck), otters, lemers, a parrot garden with colorful birds, and a neat outdoor bird cage that you can walk into.

After our visit here, we immediately planned to see the Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens to see how they could possibly out-do the zoo grounds. See my journal entry on the Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens to see how they keep up with the zoo, but not in the way you would expect.

The Santa Barbara Zoological Gardens are located close to downtown Santa Barbara. To get there, take State Street to Cabrillo Street and go south, turn east on Ninos Drive, and the zoo is a short distance on the right. You can also take the bus. Their phone number is 805-962-5339. Take lots of film. To me, the beautiful grounds were as much an attraction as the animals.