The Traveling Wheelchair

1 Franklin Park Rd
Dorchester, MA 02121-3255
Phone: 617-541-5466
http://www.franklinparkzoo.org/

Franklin Park Zoo is very wheelchair accessible with a few minor exceptions. Ric, Kellie and I parked in a handicap parking space in a parking lot across the street from the Main Entrance which is the Zebra Entrance. Parking here is Free. The other entrance is the Giraffe Entrance and parking is available in a parking lot for Free here too.

Admission tickets can be purchased at a Ticket Booth that is located at both entrances. Cost of Admission is; Adults $12, Children $7, Seniors $10 and Disabled $7. An annual Family pass which gets you and your entire family into the Zoo for one year at no additional cost is $70! Once you purchase your ticket you will be given a helpful map of the entire Zoo grounds. You then pass thru the gates to get into the Zoo. It is a little narrow but any size wheelchair should be able to fit.

Summer Hours for this Zoo are; Monday thru Friday from 10-5 and Weekends from 10-6 from April 1 to September 30. Winter Hours this Zoo is open from October 1 to March 31 is Daily 10-4. Educational Programs are offered on-and-off site.

Loaner Wheelchairs are available at this Zoo so if you are not in a wheelchair but have difficulty walking you may want to borrow a wheelchair. I would suggest that persons in wheelchairs bring a friend to push your wheelchair or bring a Power Chair for it is a long way to wheel around this Zoo. I really miss my old Power Chair that died and can’t wait until I get a new one.

The Zoo is out in the open and not much protection from the sun so I would recommend you bring your sunscreen!

The Franklin Park Zoo is one of the oldest zoos in the country and very easy to maneuver your wheelchair around. It is located on 72-acres. There is a wide paved road that winds around the entire Zoo that is easy to wheel along.  Walkways made of cement stone or hard packed sand is easy to wheel on around the many side exhibits of animals. All the animals are easy to view from your wheelchair too.  Each exhibit has a sign that tells you all about the animals you are viewing.

Two fast food restaurants are located in this Zoo. One is Giddy Up Grill and the other is Kalahari Kitchen. We stopped for a bite to eat at the Giddy Up Grill for the Kalahari Kitchen is season and was closed yesterday. The picnic tables at Giddy Up Grill are not wheelchair accessible and I had to sit at the end.

We didn’t see any wheelchair accessible picnic tables in this Zoo. Inside there are a few tables but they are too small to fit my wheelchair. I still enjoyed my lunch and really enjoyed having a friendly PEACOCK sit by my side!

There are three Restrooms at this Zoo. A Restroom is located by both restaurants. The restroom inside the Giddy Up Restaurant has a large handicap stall with the ADA required safety grab bars and the pipes under the accessible sinks are covered as is ADA required. There is another Restroom located inside the Tropical Forest. This restroom has a large handicap stall and three accessible sinks but the pipes under the sinks aren’t covered as is now ADA required.

You will get to see Zebras, Ostriches, Giraffes, Two Tigers, a Lion, Camels, Cranes, Guerillas, two Green Anacondas, a Pygmy Hippopotamus, rare Birds and many more animals some of whom are on the Endangered Species List.

One of my favorite exhibits to visit is the Butterfly Landing. It was not open yesterday when I visited because it is a seasonal exhibit and only open on weekends after September 2. I’ve been in it many times and always find it easy to maneuver my wheelchair around and it is wonderful for beautiful butterflies fly all around you.

Another favorite exhibit of mine is the Tropical Forest that is located in a large dome. Outside is a large metal sculptor of ‘Kiwi and Kimani’ a mom and baby Guerilla sculpted in 2007 by Jamie Corken Ruelf. 

Located outside the entrance of the Tropical Forest are two water fountains and one is wheelchair accessible. I usually don’t like to drink from these but tested it to see if I could get a drink while sitting in my wheelchair and I had no problem at all.

Once inside the Tropical Forest you will feel like you are in a tropical jungle and are among many tropical animals located in here in their natural habitat. You will have no problems wheeling along the cement walkway and all the animals in here are easy to view from your wheelchair.

Seven ‘Mighty Silverback Guerillas’ are located in a natural habitat setting that is enclosed in glass so you can easily view them from many locations in your wheelchair. My friends and I met Nikki, a very nice League Keeper at the Guerilla exhibit. She told us that we were here at a great time to see all the guerillas because they were about to be ‘Forged’ which means ‘fed’ one of their meals. Fruit, figs, lettuce are thrown into the exhibit and all the guerrillas move around to eat.

Nikki told us that all the guerillas favorite food is Oatmeal and they eat it daily. She also told a little history of the Guerillas and pointed out Oki and Joe, two male guerillas. I remember hearing about Joe the Guerilla a few years ago on the news for he had escaped for a day!

Nikki pointed out a female  Guerilla named Kiwi who was 27 years old. The Life Span for Guerillas is 50 years if they live in captivity and only 35 years if they live in the wild! Their origin is in the tropical evergreen forests of Central and West Africa.

After seeing great views of the Guerillas my friends and I proceeded to travel through the Tropical Forest to see other animals of the wild. I got a great view of many wild animals and many are Endangered Species.

I especially liked seeing the Green Anaconda. There are two Green Anacondas in water and easy to see from my wheelchair. They look just as big and scary as they did in the movie I once saw titled, ‘Anaconda’. A sign by the exhibit window stated that Green Anacondas live in tropical streams and rivers and marshes in South America and get to be 20 to 30 feet long. They are excellent swimmers and considered Water Boas.

I saw some animals I’ve never seen before like the Baird’s Tapir that has a small trunk that looks like an elephant trunk and he stood tall and kept lifting his trunk like he was waving at me. His natural habitat is Central and South America and adult weight is 495 lbs.

The last exhibit in the Tropical Forest is not wheelchair accessible for there is a set of stairs that leads down to it. Ric went down to check it out and told me it is an aquarium with beautiful and colorful fish.

We exited through a rear door of the Tropical Forest and found ourselves in the rear section of the Zoo. It took us quite a while to find our way back to the Zebra entrance. I would recommend you exit the Tropical Forest from the front door you came in to avoid a long wheel around the Zoo.

We finally found our way back to where we entered the Zoo and saw many other animals along the way. One other thing that is NOT wheelchair accessible at this Zoo is the Optical Telescope that allows you to see a closer view of animals set far away. It only costs a quarter.

The Lion and Tiger Tale exhibits have these Optical Telescopes.  I could see a big Lion in the distance laying on it’s back with all four paws up on top of a mountain side but really would have liked to get a closer view especially since I have visual problems. Ric zoomed in and took a great picture with our camera so I got to see this lion closer up once I got home.

One site I saw that was very sad is a replica of the bones of a dead Elephant. The sign said that the male elephant had been found dead without it’s Tusks so it is assumed that hunters killed it so they could sell the Tusks as Ivory for a large amount of money. It is illegal but still occurs today.

I highly recommend ALL to visit this wonderful Zoo!

I give the Franklin Park Zoo FOUR STARS for wheelchair accessibility. In order to earn the other Star they would need to place some wheelchair accessible picnic benches in the park, place a wheelchair accessible Optical Telescope next to the other Telescopes, install a wheelchair lift in the area that leads to the aquarium in the Tropical Forest and place protective covering around the exposed pipes under the accessible sinks in the Tropical Forest.