VACATION AND TRAVEL
place where you can have a wild family adventure viewing rhinos or feeding a giraffe, while also helping preserve animals for future generations. Blank Park Zoo is approximately 30 acres and features an indoor rain forest Discovery Center, Jamaa Kwa Africa, Australia Adventure, Kids Kingdom, Great Cats Complex, a Sea Lion and Seal pool, and more. Home to almost 1,500 animals!
Here is another outdoor attraction, and that is Gray’s Lake Park. This park has some nice visitor reviews with many amenities such as: Accessible Playground with Swings, Beach, Bike Rental, Boat Ramp, Boat Rental, Bridge, Christine Hensley Terrace, Concessions, Drinking Fountains, Open Space, Parking Lots, Restrooms, and a Walking Path/Bike Trail.
Other notable gardens and parks in town are: Pappajohn Sculpture Park, Clive Greenbelt Trail, Principal Park, Des Moines River Trail, Robert D. Ray Asian
walk from the State Capitol Building. You can park at one or the other attraction without moving your car, while visiting both places in the same day. This museum houses documents and artifacts that detail the history of Iowa. Among the collections here, you will see rare antique cars like the Duesenberg automobiles, as well as the animals and plants that are native to the region.
Admission is also free just like the State Capitol Building. Free parking is available in the garage across the street, at the northwest corner of East Grand and Pennsylvania avenues. They also have metered street parking available.
Other notable museums worth checking out in town are Des Moines Art Center, Salisbury House & Gardens, World Food Prize Hall of Laureates, Science Center of Iowa, The Wallace Centers of Iowa: Wallace House, Fort Des Moines Museum & Education Center, as well as others not listed.
This next attraction is in the top ten most visited, and that is the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden. Reputed for its huge collection of the Midwest's ornamental and native plants, this 14-acre center bordering the Des Moines River features a domed conservatory that houses over 1000 varieties of exotic plants from throughout the world. The center also has an impressive herb garden, tropical and desert plants, and one of the best bonsai collections in the U.S.
Now, it seems in most of my articles I list a zoo, and this city has a very nice one called the Blank Park Zoo. Imagine a