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The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium hosted a fun Octo-Berfest evening that was adults only. And WOW! I really enjoyed exploring the aquarium without screaming and crying children! Without oblivious parents with their giant strollers. We were able to just actually walk around without rotten kids in the way. It. Was. Glorious! Plus you know, getting to enjoy a couple of beers while seeing the animals.
Quick Details:
Length: It depends on how much you wander around, we ended up doing about 5.5 miles.
Trail Type: Meander
Difficulty: DR2. It is paved and easy going.
Elevation Gain: 1 story… a couple of times. Twice if you are being efficient, and do everything only once.
Restroom: Several.
Dogs? No.
Other Info: Fee area. It was about $30-ish for non members and about half that for members. And if it is not obvious, it was a temporary event.
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 Trail:
We got there about 10 minutes early and found a short line to wait in. Seriously within 5 minutes the line doubled in size behind us so I think we timed it just about perfectly.
The Claw. We stopped at the first booze booth, that was the only beer and wine only station.
Then we saw that they had opened the Ballroom area. Neither of us have been in this area before.
There was a full service bar in here as well.
There is a view into the shark tank here. I knew there was one here, but this is the first time we had the opportunity to see it from this side.
Shark!
More sharks.
Shark.
I had a plan for the day, but you know, you see what is going on and make adjustments. So.. into the Ocean Explorer exhibit, but… backwards from how we normally do it. Plus, the ballroom had a direct access into the shark tank observation room. So, that was super easy.
Big shark again.
The shark tube is empty! I think we have only experienced that once before.
This is amazing! No screaming children! Ahhhh!
Shark above.
The ballroom on the other side.
Sharks.
Tunnel. I guess technically they call it the Shark Tunnel, but I like shark tube better.
The other side. It is amazing having this all to ourselves.
Shark.
Turtle and the ballroom on the other side.
Closer view of the turtle.
Above us.
Oh… what is this? I have never noticed this portal before. I wonder if it is just open today, or if it is always open and I just have never noticed it at all before now. o.O
The turtle is heading into it. I guess it is a backstage area.
The ballroom again.
Well, I knew it wouldn’t last forever, other people have arrived. Well, it was good while it lasted!
The hallway leading to the rest of Ocean Explorer. again, we are going the opposite direction we normally do.
Mantis shrimp.
Upside down jellies.
One of the tide pools. This one has rays in it. LOOK HOW VOID OF PEOPLE IT IS!!!! Ahhhh! I love it!
Rays.
The pool. You are allowed to touch the rays.. I just didn’t want to tonight. I have done it before though. They slimy.
Rays.
Octopus.
Leatherback Sea Turtle statue.
We still have it pretty much to ourselves. It is nice.
The other tide pool. This one has sea stars and anemone.
Sea horses.
The main lobby.
The megalodon jaw.
Onto Discover Utah. I love the faux hoodoos.
Tortoises
Little pond.
The George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation Otter Outpost. Sadly the North American River Otters were not out.
The tiger salamanders were all in a big pile.
The lobby again.
The beautiful neon wings. These were left over from the Lantern Festival. I imagine they will probably put it back out there this year. Or maybe they will leave it right here. I guess we will see.
On to Expedition Asia in the new Sam & Aline Skaggs Science Learning Center addition. This just opened this year.
The “coming soon” koi pond. I asked an employee when it would open and all she said she could say was soon.
The outdoor space. The binturongs and the clouded leopards will take turns using this space. Obviously they will not share it at the same time. But, from what we learned last time, being able to smell each other is beneficial.
The indoor binturong habitat.
One of the binturongs having a snooze.
The Asian short clawed otters are not out.
Oh, they have their den on display. Sadly it is too dark to get a good shot, and I am following the rules and not using my flash.
These otters just had pups so, as much as I want to see them I don’t want to disturb them.
Again.
Komodo Dragon.
Closer.
Coconut crab. You can actually see it without the awful glare right now. I love that they have the windows that let in so much natural light in this building, but it sure creates a nasty glare on some of the exhibits.
One of the clouded leopards.. er well, it’s ear.
The other one.
The tree kangaroo hiding in the corner.
Reticulated Python.
Heading back into the main building.
Orca statues.
Onto Antarctica Adventure.
Moon jellies.
More moon jellies. This tank had some bigger jellies, sea nettles, but I guess they died.
The old sign is still above it.
Mauve stingers.
The sign above.
Then the Deep Sea Lab.
We typically skip this small room because we are excited to see the penguins, but we stopped in today.
Inside a submersible recreation.
Again.
Giant isopod.
Onto the Penguin Research Station.
Icicles and a fun directional sign.
Sadly they have the lights turned off. We could still see them, but couldn’t get good pictures. But, I mean, they are trying to simulate their natural habitat so it’s fine.
We found ourselves needing another beer, so off to the beer line. There is a full bar line at the top entrance/exit of the penguins but the full bar lines take too long so we went to the beer and wine booth by the entrance.
Little bit of a sunset.
The Claw is starting to light up for the evening.
On to Journey to South America.
Little pond and waterfall.
Again, we did this in the opposite direction than we normally do.
Piranha.
Turtle.
The anaconda was just poking his little head out.
Mata mata.
Tarantula.
Webbing? Ah yes, a quick search tells me they do indeed produce silk, but do not make typical spiderwebs. They use the silk in their dens, and to detect prey, but not to catch it.
Curassow .
Toucan.
No sloth today.
Turtles.
Fun rope bridge. Honestly I am a little surprised they didn't close this off haha. But I guess it is safe enough.
Landis crossing it.
Me crossing it. Oddly enough, I was more comfortable on it than Landis was. I am usually the one with the fear of heights, and Landis is the crazy one who keeps going.
Frog.
Sea creature display. There are a couple nautilus shells. I have a few nautilus fossils so that is kind of neat to see. I guess I kind of knew they still existed, it’s just kind of weird to think about that a creature existed long enough ago to be a fossil, still exists today.
Quick search to confirm. Yes, they have remained unchanged for millions of years and are sometimes considered as living fossils. Neat!
Shark jaw, octopus sucker casts.
Octopus and squid beaks. If I remember right, the squid is on the left. According to the employee, both can squeeze through any opening that their beak can fit through.
We decided to do another quick run through Discover Utah.
Faux natural bridge. It reminds me of Two Bridges down in Bryce Canyon.
Faux arch. It looks a lot like Corona Arch, but we haven’t been there yet. It is on my list though!
Fake owl.
Faux rock art.
Above the tortoises.
Still no otters. Poop.
Western Toads.
Info about them and the program the aquarium is running called headstarting. Basically they start their life here, and then they are released in the wild. There is a fungus that is killing of the young, so this is beneficial.
Then another run through Expedition Asia.
One of the binturongs is being active.
So cute! I learned that they are more nocturnal animals. So that explains why they are active.
Ooh! Nimble fella.
I want to snuggle it!
Another attempt to get a good shot of the snoozing otters.
Then, back in line for another drink. Again, the full bar lines move a little more slowly, but meh, it wasn’t too bad.
There is a smaller rope bridge in this kids zone.
Booze pricing. It seemed a little high, but I mean, what festival isn’t?
The tree kangaroo came out.
Again.
Prehensile-tailed skink.
Binturong.
The other one hiding behind some bushes.
Well, now they have a sign for the Koi Garden, so maybe it will open soon.
Eventually we got hungry so we headed on over to the Café. Today for Octo-Berfest, they had a chicken schnitzel sandwich and fries that we shared. It was absolutely amazing and totally hit the spot for me!
We sat at the back where they have a couple hydroponic plant stations.
The use the plants grown in the hydroponic stands to feed the animals. Neat!
The main lobby again.
Back into Ocean Explorer.
The first little tide pool.
The 2nd.
Lookdown fish.
Back towards the shark tank.
The ramp down.
Now the shark tube is quite crowded. But it is still not super awful with screaming children. Cause there aint no screaming children tonight!
Across to the ballroom again.
With a ray.
The main shark viewing room, still from the shark tube.
Shark.
Above.
Again.
Turtle and shark.
Shark!
Turtle.
Again.
Underneath.
Sharks.
The shark tube from the shark viewing room.
You can just make it out from the ballroom too.
Shark!
The claw.
In red. I enjoyed watching the colors change while we waited for another beer.
Yellow.
Purple.
Green.
After that we decided to walk around the plaza. But it was mostly closed off. Poop.
As close to underneath as I could get, in blue.
From the side.
The other side.
Blue.
Purple.
Orange. Hrm... I wonder.
The outside of the Sam & Aline Skaggs Science Learning Center.
Purple.
Another angle.
We decided to do another quick round to finish up our beer. Starting with the penguins.
The neat direction sign again.
Penguin names. The ones that were born here are on the right.
Feathers.
The Big Molt. We got to see that last time we were here.
It’s still too dark for good photos.
Penguins of the world.
Where the old Expedition Asia habitat was before it moved to the new building. I still don’t know what they are doing with this space. We’re still hoping they expand the penguin habitat.
The top of the giant boat in the lobby.
Inside they have little controls to play with.
Oh. They have closed off Journey to South America. I wonder why.
The lobby.
Still no river otters in Discover Utah.
One of the little immersive viewpoints.
Brine shrimp.
The little orca statues again.
Under the whale statue.
More lobby.
The claw again.
Again.
From the outside. It’s fun all lit up.
With the moon.
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Panoramic.
Our preferred beer of the day. Salt Flats Oktobefest. It was really good.
I think I am about fested out for a minute though. That was 3 in as many weeks.
That was cool! We love the aquarium, and visit often enough that we have memberships. But getting to enjoy it without children? Now that was something! Being able to enjoy a couple beers was nice too, but honestly, I enjoyed the lack of children the most. I love the expansion, which gave the animals larger spaces. It was a little sad not being able to see some of our favorites, but I guess that is the trade off. 10 squirrels today!
As for difficulty, it in only 2 stories, and there are ramps and elevators. DR2.
Dogs are not allowed, so be sure to leave Fido home for this one.
