Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current, December 11, 2019, Page 6, Image 6

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

    Page 6
December 11, 2019
Mississippi
Alberta
North Portland
Vancouver
East County
Beaverton
photo by m iChael d urham /C ourtesy o regon z oo .
A dazzling display enjoyed by the whole family. More than 1.5 million brightly colored lights transform the Oregon Zoo into a walk-through winter wonder-
land during ZooLights, now showing for the holiday season.
ZooLights Bigger Than Ever
A winter
wonderland of 1.5
million lights
ZooLights is back! The Oregon
Zoo’s walk-through winter wonderland
of more than 1.5 million colored lights
is open for the holiday season and it’s
bigger than ever.
The event draws thousands of visi-
tors to enjoy the forests of lighted trees,
life-size illuminated animal silhouettes
and take rides on the light-bedecked
zoo trains. Ivan Ratcliff, the zoo’s
guest services manager, has the follow-
ing tips to save you money, avoid lines
and get the most enjoyment out of your
ZooLights experience:
1. Buy your tickets online at oregon-
zoo.org. You’ll save $2 per ticket and
be able to skip the lines at the front
gate.
2. Ride MAX to the zoo. The Wash-
ington Park light rail transit stop lets
you off just in front of the zoo entrance.
3. Start your festivities early in the
season. Most ZooLights visitors come
on weekends and on the weeks when
school’s out.
4. Show up fashionably late, unless
you’re driving. The big rush at ZooLi-
ghts is usually from 4 to 6 p.m. This
strategy only works if you’re taking
MAX and don’t have to worry about
traffic and parking.
5. It’s not all about the train. A lot of
people focus on the train, but that’s just
one part of the ZooLights experience.
Around 90 percent of the lights are
along the walking paths. Schedule your
ride online before you visit — then you
can stroll around the grounds and en-
joy the lights until your appointed train
time.
For online tickets and more informa-
tion, visit oregonzoo.org/zoolights.