Oakland Zoo $70 Million California Trails - 2015 Completion?

Update on the upcoming California Trails exhibit. Bison will inhabit their enclosure in a couple months.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.sfch...-exhibit-taking-shape-at-Oakland-10955258.php

 

I have edited the thread title to add the project name (California Trails). I left 2015 in the title even though they obviously missed that target date.

However, the gondola (to access the new area) and the restaurant at the hilltop gondola stop opened in summer 2017. According to the zoo website, California Trails will open in June 2018.

 

Here is the section of the zoo website devoted to California Trails: Oakland Zoo | California Trail
And here is a nice promo video:

 

Here are a couple videos showing the completed gondola:

 

I’ll also keep up with the project because I’m in close proximity to the zoo. I’m excited to see this exhibit after going up the gondola and seeing a little bit of it myself!

 

Zoo officials released a press release today announcing the completion of the black bear exhibit, and that the family has been released into the enclosure.

New Habitat Completed for Rescued Black Bears at Oakland Zoo’s Upcoming California Trail

A couple of interesting notes:

If you want to get a glimpse of the habitat and the bears before the official June opening, the web cams are available over here.

 

Good news about the bears, though with the public opening several months out I would have thought they might wait to let the foliage in the new exhibit get a little more established.

 

I'm not sure that they have the space to keep them stored for any real length of time. The zoo doesn't exactly have a robust selection of off stage facilities, so that might have factored into their timing plans.

 

Brother, can you spare $500?

In order to drum up some walking around money the zoo is now selling tiles to be displayed along the exhibit trail when it finally opens in June. The tiles start at $500 and go all the way up to $5,000 for an 8"x8" tile with an illustration. Orders must be placed by March 1st in order to have it installed for the June grand opening.

Any fellow Zoochatters want to go in together?

 

If the five thousand dollar tile is only eight inches big, how small is the five hundred dollar tile? Will anyone even be able to read it?

 

The zoo is hosting a Gala on May 18 which is a fundraiser for California Trails. It will include a first look at the exhibit and a special talk on grizzly bears. You can become a benefactor (and get "free" tickets) for a couple thousand to several thousand dollars, or you can buy a single ticket to attend the event for five hundred dollars.
Oakland Zoo | Gala

 

Ah, if only I had that much money for traveling to zoos

 

$70 million for California Trails (here at Oakland Zoo).
$68 million for Africa Rocks (at San Diego Zoo).
Not to mention Fresno Zoo expansion, previous San Diego projects, recent Los Angeles Zoo, San Diego Safari Park (almost $20 million for a tiger exhibit alone). Millions and millions flowing through California zoos, a state where money flows fast and loose. Not surprising really. This new report states that if California is separated from the rest of the USA and considered (hypothetically) as an independent nation, it has the fifth highest gross national product in the world!
California now world's 5th-largest economy, surpassing UK

 

Construction costs are also higher in San Diego, LA, and the Bay area than in most places in the country.

 

Opening date has been pushed back (original date was late June). New opening date is July 12, 2018.

 

I find most of these sponsorships ridiculous. I was looking at Dallas Zoo's new Simmons Hippo Outpost and the minimum level to get your name memorialized in the exhibit was $10,000! I couldn't quite figure out what that got you, but it's probably better than an eight by eight tile. At least I hope it does.

Which is probably for the best. The last time I was up there it didn't look like a lot had changed or improved from a couple of months ago.

 

I was given an advance tour today (June 28, 2018) and have posted my review here: Oakland Zoo - Review of Oakland's California Trail