A BALMY breeze laps at my winter-rough skin as an African Blue Monkey dangles mischievously inches from my head, all while a gossamer mist falls gently from a soaring Royal Palm.
And you thought winter in Nebraska was a hardship.
Midwesterners are a humble people. They don’t like to brag — about their jungles, their deserts their swamps. Yet, Omahans can escape to all three just by driving a “country mile” to the city’s Henry Doorly Zoo. Frigid prairie? Outdoors maybe. Inside, it’s an affordable, warm weather escape.
This isn’t just some garden-variety indoor conservatory with a few sad-looking cacti. The world’s largest indoor rainforest isn’t in Dubai, or some Japanese shopping mall. Nope — it’s right here in Nebraska. You’ll find it conveniently located next to the aforementioned desert and swamp, both (you guessed it) also the largest of their kind.
On a recent visit, with winter in full swing and Omaha apparently largely in hibernation, there was only one option. I headed for the zoo.
FIRST, A LITTLE HUMIDITY
My exotic trek began in the zoo’s Lied Jungle. It’s home to 90 subtropical animal species and lush flora from the rainforests of three continents. The outside air temperature is an arctic two degrees below zero. Inside the rainforest, however, it’s already a decadent 78.
After ditching approximately 14 layers of coats, scarves and sweaters, I bravely set off down the jungle path. The trail serpentines from sunny treetop canopy to dense forest floor, revealing spectacular vistas of towering palms, rare medicinal ferns and exquisite low-flung orchids. (Not bad, when you consider Nebraska was once entirely treeless, and remains partially so today.)
Because this is a zoo, lots of animals roam free in this eight-story tall, one-and-a-half-acre paradise. Which explains the wild dash of a white-handed gibbon past a pink-coated human toddler as a family of scarlet macaws looks on — utterly unruffled by the colorful interspecies scuffle.
I traipse through the Asian rainforest, past Cinnamon, Teak and Black Pepper trees and all variety of bamboo species. I ogle gibbons, leopards and the peculiar Malayan tapir — something like the love child of a polar bear and an anteater.
In the African rainforest, pygmy hippos float as blue monkeys swing overhead. I snake through South America, where spider monkeys hold down the fort on their own little island.
A (faux) rickety rope suspension bridge practically begs crossing. The danger-esque bridge — along with a lookout hidden behind a 50-foot waterfall and a walk-through sinewy tree straight out of “Pan’s Labyrinth” — create a dramatic and visceral adventure.
This is no dull science filmstrip or Disney-fied Jungle Cruise. No, folks, this is Nebraska.
SAND, SAND, SAND!
I brace myself for the chilly sprint from the humid rainforest to the arid climes of the nearby Desert Dome. It’s only a few feet between buildings, but I’m fairly certain my jeans are flash-freezing to my skin during the jog.
Luckily my pants and I thaw out quickly, once inside. It’s not only the world’s largest indoor desert environment, but also the world’s largest glazed geodesic dome. (Think Biosphere 2. But without all the scientists going nuts inside.)
The dome, which lends Omaha’s skyline a distinctly sci-fi, post-apocalyptic flair, encapsulates plants and animals from the African Namib Desert, the Australian Red Center and the Sonoran Desert of the southwest United States.
The desert dome is more austere (which makes sense given the fact that it’s a, well, desert) than the other zoo exhibits. But it offers an impressively tall sand mountain and plenty of desert denizens — rattlesnakes, marsupials, death adder snakes, bobcats, foxes, jackrabbits and even a crew of beloved (and be-lusty) meerkats.
THE SWAMP THING
After passing through the desert, it’s a relief to discover that the swamp — more formally known as Kingdoms of the Night — does not require a trip outside. Blessedly connected via enclosed passage, the two facilities cost a combined $31.5 million to build.
Kingdoms — the world’s largest nocturnal display — reverses day-night cycles so that human visitors can enjoy crocodiles, bats, aardvarks, bats, beavers, bats, salamanders, bats and other creatures of the dark in their natural habitats. (Did I mention the eight species and hundreds of bats flying around the place?)
I’m enthralled by a theatrically lit wet cave, adorned with 2,400 stalactites stretching eerily into what appears to be a bottomless pit. (It’s really only 16 feet deep, but the illusion is creepy enough to make you wish they offered life vests.)
As I make my way, via wobbly floating boardwalk, into the world’s largest indoor swamp, I half expect an animatronic banjo player to pop out of the musky air and invite me inside “Trapper’s Cabin” for some jambalaya. The shadowy swamp is 160,000 gallons and 30 species of spooky — and smart — fun.
“We want you to get that feeling of eeriness and mystery that shrouds the animals so that you feel the experience and remember it,” assistant zoo director Danny Morris tells me at the end of my visit. “Where else can you be in the tropics and the desert and the swamp when it’s two below outside?”
Where else, indeed?
THE LOWDOWN
GO:Entrance to Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo is a reasonable $11.50 for adults, $7.75 for children ages three to 11, free for children two years and younger. Tickets include admission to the Lied Jungle, Desert Dome, Kingdoms of the Night and all other zoo exhibits, such as a newly-opened butterfly pavilion and breathtaking shark tunnel in the Scott Aquarium (www.omahazoo.com)
LEARN: Have a child who can’t get enough of the animals? Send ’em to zoo school. The Henry Doorly Zoo offers a variety of educational programs and will host a full-time zoo academy for 80 high school students beginning this fall.
INFO:
visitomaha.com