I shared on Instagram recently that my in-laws are visiting my husband and I from Europe this week! Being that they are only visiting for a week and my husband and I work on the week days, we knew we had to get out and make some core memories over the weekend! We contemplated nearby places to go but ultimately made the decision to visit Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville, North Carolina. We have heard of this drive thru zoo before but never committed to visiting. It is about a 3 hour drive from us so it was definitely an all day activity, but it was SO worth it! I had no idea that we would be able to get up close and personal with such exotic and beautiful animals. I received a few questions about the ranch so I wanted to share a quick blog post describing our experience.
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Lazy 5 Ranch was easy to find and purchasing tickets was a smooth process. We chose to drive through the ranch in our own car, but wagon rides are also available. The drive thru costs $15 per adult, with children and seniors receiving a discounted rate of $11. The feed buckets for the animals are $3 each and we purchased 3 buckets to share. Upon arrival, the ranch attendants gave us a map and some information on how to feed the animals. We were immediately greeted by a variety of cattle when beginning the drive thru.
We spent about 2 hours driving through the 3.5 mile trail where we were able to see cattle, zebras, deer, llamas, goats, antelope, ostriches, emus, pigs, and more. The ranch has over 750 animals from 6 different continents! You could feed all animals by hand or bucket with the exception of the zebras and longhorn cattle. All of the animals were friendly and would come right up to the car window. In some instances, they would even stick their heads into the car windows! We definitely had to get a car wash immediately following this trip so just keep that in mind.
During our day at Lazy 5 Ranch, I learned that the ranch provides a safe area for many endangered animals to reproduce such as the Grevy Zebra, Scimitar Horned Oryx and Ring-tailed Lemur. A few people asked me about the USDA violations that Lazy 5 Ranch was fined for several years ago. I did read up on this topic and learned that these violations were from 2013-2017 and have since been resolved. To my knowledge, the ranch has passed all USDA inspections since then. I am passionate about the wellbeing of animals and would never knowingly share something that didn’t align with those values! With that being said, we truly enjoyed our day at Lazy 5 Ranch and it was an experience we’ll never forget!
