Scales and Tails

Scales and Tails is a super cool new business found near Salt Lake City, Utah. It is like a mini aquarium or zoo, but with a focus on reptiles and bugs. Admission is pretty cheap, especially with a Groupon deal. It was around $10 for two people and we stayed for a little over an hour. Scales and Tails is pretty tricky to find, as they are hidden between two car garages.

When you walk in, you will be welcomed by the smell of reptiles and humidity. Reptiles need humid climates to survive and therefore the entire room is pretty warm and wet. Lots of trees surround the beginning entrance and you will feel like you are walking through a rainforest! Don’t be startled though, the first creatures you will see are giant snakes!

Whenever I go to the zoo or aquarium, I don’t like spending much time around the snakes, but these snakes are huge. They had over 15 different types of snakes that you could feel and hold with the help of an employee. I don’t remember there being a poisonous snake, but they bring in new animals all of the time, so the animals change a lot.

In the middle of the room, there is a huge tank where the alligators lie. These alligators are babies right now, but they are still pretty big. They have feeding demonstrations to the alligators which is cool to watch.

My favorite part was the turtles! I absolutely love seeing, feeding, and holding turtles. There were over 5 different kinds of turtles as well s baby turtles! Some of them swam around in their water tank and the others ate food or walked around the tank. Most of the time, turtles at the zoo or aquarium don’t make much movement and can seem to be sleeping a lot. These turtles were super active. It might have been the time I went (around lunch time) or they might have been right in the middle of their lunch, but nonetheless, they were very active turtles.

I got to hold a few different turtles and they were pretty big as is seen in the photos. The turtles continued to move around while I was holding them. The tanks are pretty low so that you can pet the turtles and feed them. If you ask the employees, they will lift the turtles out and let you hold them.

Towards the back, there were lots of spiders, cockroaches, bugs, and lizards. There were lots of containers for the bugs because they have so many different types of bugs. The lizards are all on the bottom of the shelves, and were very active too. I got to hold a few lizards, and some tried to jump out of my hands. If you ask, the employees will let you feed the lizards, but I didn’t feed any since I didn’t want to watch them eat live bugs.

This event is very family friendly and fun to go visit!