The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium

It has been a long time since I have been to the aquarium, in fact I haven’t seen the new building they moved into several years ago, so I was happy to return. And wow! They have really added quite a bit of new and exciting things to see! And the Penguin Encounter was incredible! It was so neat to be able to feed them and get to experience them up close. But I also really enjoyed the rest of the Aquarium. It was awesome. I love that they have expanded from just an aquarium, to 5 different galleries covering different aquatic ecosystems including some of our local ones. I know this isn’t a hike, but it was a lot of fun, and well, we certainly got our exercise today.

Quick Details:

Time Needed: About 2 hours depending on what you do..
Cost: $19.95 per adult.

To Get Here:

Take I15 to exit 291, 12300 s. Go west to the first light and turn right on Lone Peak Parkway and it will be on the right very shortly.

The new building is quite stylish, and has a nice view of Lone Peak behind it.

Humpback whale and calf statues in the main lobby.

We had reservations to do the Penguin Encounter so we did that first.

I made a separate post for that and you can see more here.

Megalodon teeth.

We decided to start with the Journey To South America.

Something  I noticed is they laid out the aquarium really well and it doesn’t really matter where you start. All the the galleries flow together pretty well.

Pretty ducks.

Different looking stingray.

Green Anaconda.

Turtles.

Crocodile.

The butterfly encounter. I was a little disappointed it was only monarch butterflies, but it was still kind of fun.

And they encourage you to hold them.

A bunch on the nets.

The river giants. Those are some seriously huge fish!

They let quite a few birds roam freely throughout this section.

The river giants from above.

The sloths were both asleep.

Toucan.

Frogs.

Since the previous gallery took us upstairs, or next stop was Expedition Asia.

Pretty fish.

Pretty bird.

Eee! The clouded leopards are active so cute!

I didn’t capture it but the bigger (I assume male) one gave the other one a couple licks before climbing up. Cats are cats.

I have been really impressed with all of the exhibits. Almost all of them have a really nice waterfall or river.

Another pretty bird.

Binturong. Also referred to as a bear cat. I can see why.

The small-clawed otters are taking a nap. I really wanted to see them playing (which I eventually did see) but they are super adorable napping as well.

Lizards and turtles.

This snake blends into the leaves really, really well. It took a teenager pointing it out to me, repeatedly, before I saw it. Yep, I wouldn’t last long in a jungle.

I wanted to see the leopards again.

Wow. That is a neat looking bird. Not sure what kind it is.

Ring of small-clawed otters.

Next we went back downstairs to check out the Discover Utah gallery.

I love, love, LOVE the faux slot canyon and arch. This is amazing.

Toads.

Neat pictograph reproduction.

That was above the desert tortoise exhibit. He’s currently hiding.

 

Another cool display.

North American River Otters!

So cute!

Diving.

There is a little hidey hole you can climb into and pop your head up into the exhibit to see them closer. I found this fella having a nap.

I have yet to see one of these cute fella’s in the wild, but hopefully one day.

Their enclosure is pretty neat too.

He found a snack.

This was my favorite part of the whole day. He was playing in the little waterfall.

I wish I had thought to take video.

He was just having a grand ol time in there.

And now to head to the outdoor section.

Quickly followed by the sibling.

And the sleepyhead decided to wake up and join them outdoors.

As far as I can tell, this is the only exhibit that has a section outdoors.

Can you tell I liked the otters? I really liked the otters.

Pretty duck.

Tiger salamanders. We’ve seen these guys in some of our local lakes like Cecret Lake.

We wandered across the lobby to the Antarctic Adventure gallery to see some of the other things there.

Moon Jellies.

.

I forget what kind of jellyfish these are.

Moon jellies again.

We found a lower viewing window for the penguins. Yay!

I love the penguins!

I forget what this is but it’s kind of creepy.

Giant crab.

The ramp up to the main penguin viewing room.

I love the multi directional signs. We saw another neat one at Hardware Ranch.

They are being a lot more active right now than they were when we were waiting to do the Penguin Encounter.

Water beading off the feathers.

So fun to see them all swimming around.

Oh I took a video of it too.

We decided to take a quick break and enjoy the penguins from the seats in the back.

After a while I said, wait a minute, didn’t they get a shark tube? Did we miss a section? So we consulted the map and realized we indeed had. And the best way to get to it was back down the ramp.

Back down to the lower window.

The Ocean Explorer gallery.

Sea stars.

Urchin.

Pretty plants.

Sea horses.

Nemo’s! Or clownfish.

Big ol stingrays.

Huge lobster!

Shark hallway.

Which leads to the 40 foot shark tube! Quite a few years ago we saw a shark tube in the Oregon Coast Aquarium and never would have dreamed of having something like that here in Utah. And yet, here we are.

Shark!

More sharks.

Between the rounded tube and the water distorting the light sometimes it looks like the sharks are swimming right at you. It’s a little unnerving but cool.

Right overhead.

Huge stingray.

From the side.

And the underside. That is neat to see it’s mouth, at least I think that its mouth.

Big turtle.

From underneath.

That was neat, the 3 big sea creatures I wanted to see up close all swam almost directly over my head all within a short window of time.

A view of the shark tube from the outside.

More sharks.

I was worried something was wrong with this guy but we found another one doing the same thing.

You can see the other one at the bottom of this picture. Also note how much larger it is compared to the other sharks.

There is also seating at the back of this room if you want to just hang out and enjoy the sharks and such for a while.

Okay now that we have seen everything, it was time to revisit our favorite things or see if non-active animals are now active.

Of course that meant the first thing I wanted to see was the short-clawed otters. And yay! They are now active!

Ahhh!!! I love all the otters!

His sibling was up making a mess of the hay.

There’s the 3rd one.

Yep. I think the penguins and the otters were definitely my favorite. And They have 2 species of otters so double win.

Like the penguins, the water just beads off their fur.

One last shot of his cute face!

Lastly I wanted to see if by chance the sloths were being active. I know they’re sloths, but thought we’d try.

Nope. They haven’t moved. I don’t even think they have shifted positions! But, the lighting is a little better.

The electric eel was being active though. They have a little meter above the window that shows how much electricity it is emitting and shows a line for hunting and actively stunning prey. That is cool.

We could have spent a lot more time here today but we were both getting hungry, and rush hour was drawing near so we decided to call it a day. Of course we had to exit through the gift shop. They aren’t even subtle about it either with signs saying exit through the gift shop. haha. But I had planned on getting a t-shirt or something anyway. A little over priced but it goes towards the aquarium so it’s worth it.

I had a great time today. the new location with the 5 different galleries is incredible. It is neat that the aquarium expanded from just ocean life to different aquatic ecosystems, including our local ones. I really liked the displays and the enclosures and how interactive it is. As much as I really prefer to see animals in the wild, there is something to be said about getting to see them up close. It also really seems like they care about the animals they have on display too. All in all I definitely recommend a visit.