Cougar Mountain Zoo 19525 Southeast 54th Street, Issaquah, WA 98027

"Very small zoo, but nice for very young children. We went on a chilly day and several of the animals were not out or active."

"This zoo is small, but so much fun! My two-year-old was able to walk herself, which felt freeing for me. The kids could have watched the lemurs all day and they loved feeding the reindeer/goats/alpacas. We went after Christmas but before New Year's, and therefore didn't have to wait in lines or pay for the photo ops (no Santa at this point, but we knew and were ok with that). I recommend visiting!"

"My family and I visited the zoo on the final day of the raindeer festival. It's not a big zoo, so there aren't many animals. However, we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to feed the raindeer. Unfortunately, since it was the last day, we didn't get to see Santa. He usually heads to the North Pole after Christmas. Despite that, the kids had a great time. There's a little café where you can purchase snacks. All in all, it was a nice experience. It takes about two to three hours to explore the entire zoo."

"It's a cute little zoo where you can feed some of the animals with feed you can purchase from the zoo grounds. The gift shop offers merchandise at regular retail prices. I was expecting things to be higher priced, so I was pleasantly surprised. I would love to visit again. You can schedule visits for animal experiences... we went for the reindeer festival in December."

"My 4 year old son and I went and had a great experience. We attended during Reindeer Festival but after Christmas so Santa had returned to the North Pole. The zoo is laid out to utilize every part of the small campus. We have never been to a zoo that allows you to get so close to animals. There are signs posted at each enclosure warning you about what the animals could do, so stay back. Hopefully people do not ruin the joy of getting close by not heeding the signs and changing the zoo's practice. My son loves tigers and we saw 3. We also saw all 3 cougars and 4 wolves. Whenever we visit other local zoos the big cats have been difficult to see and I rarely get to see wolves. The exotic birds had "flown south" for the winter. There is another area where you get up close with alpaca, mule deer, cranes, swamp wallaby, emus, and a porcupine (who was sleeping). You can feed many of these too, just heed the signs about which to feed. Sadly we never saw any lemurs, they were all inside and sleeping but the viewing area looked great to watch them on active days. The zoo is clean and there are wonderful viewing areas to be able to sit and watch your favorite animals. There were a lot of staff around who interacted and observed. The restrooms are simple and typical of a park. The gift shop is very small and mostly filled with stuffed animals and flimsy plastic toys. The biggest draw back was the parking lot. This was probably due to it being Reindeer Fest but the parking lot could not handle the amount of vehicles and navigating to the academy adjacent to the zoo was odd and tight (felt like you weren't supposed to). It was winter break so I found parking near a maintenance shed. We might go again but only if I was going to be in the area or doing more in the area, it was about a 90 minute drive for us."