Loveland Living Planet Aquarium

The Loveland Living Planet Aquarium is probably my favorite aquarium I have ever been to! This aquarium is found in Draper, Utah right off of the interstate. This aquarium is huge! It is one of the largest aquarium’s in the nation and has many animals and species available to see. They are currently expanding and growing to include a second and third part to the museum. Details have not been released except for an outdoor auditorium being built, and labs for students and schools to come learn and explore.

This aquarium is split into four main sections. There is the rainforest section which is a blend of the bottom floor and the top floor, the Utah section, which is entirely downstairs, the touch pool section which is down stairs, and the penguins and sharks section which is a blend of upstairs and downstairs. I absolutely love the penguins/sharks, and touch pools sections. All of the exhibits and sections are amazing, but these ones are the most interactive/most hands on and entertaining out of all of them.

The Utah section is full of animals native to Utah and endangered in Utah. It is mostly drier animals, although there are some fish and bugs. The touch pool section is just as it sounds. It is entirely full of touch pools where you can feel starfish, anemone like things, stingrays, manta rays, fish, and plants.

If you pay extra, you can also feed the fish and rays! Every time I have gone to the aquarium, these sections are always so busy and full. It can be really hard to find a spot to pet the sting rays especially. But around noon/one o’clock, they volunteers and employees feed the stingrays! Even if you don’t feed them yourself, it is super fun to watch and witness. The stingrays get all excited and flap their fins all around the edges of the pool.

The penguins are always so fun to watch. There are hundreds of benches and chairs to sit and watch the penguins, as well as a small play area for kids to wander around through and play in while watching the penguins. There are many interactive boards that include all of the penguins names and information on them.

This helps to be educational as well as show you the more active penguins. Sometimes the penguins swim around and play with the rocks with each other. You can also go downstairs and watch them from below the water which is pretty cool. The sharks are found in this same area. There is a shark tunnel which goes all the way around and over your head for you to walk through. The sharks swim overhead as well as some turtles, stingrays, and bigger fish. This exhibit is probably the largest one and has the most animals in it.

Other fun exhibits are the jellyfish and the tiny seahorses. There are also some butterflies in the rainforest area to watch and land on your shoulders. There is a small section of bugs, frogs, and eels which can be cool too.