Lazy 5 Ranch is a large scale drive-thru petting zoo in Rowan County. Other than your car door, there is nothing between you and this vast exotic animal collection. Lazy 5 is a cool way to easily get up close and personal with animals at the expense of a few dings on your grocery-getter.
Where is it?
Just outside of Charlotte in Mooresville, is the Lazy 5 Ranch. If you are coming from the Western Part of the state, it is much closer than going to the Asheboro Zoo. I would not call it isolated because you’re within easy driving distance of most conveniences. Parking is no major concern since the majority of the zoo requires you to drive. It is not a bad idea to pick up lunch before you head over but there is a concession stand available.
Yee…Haw?
When you pull up to the main entrance, you might notice the front gate will appear to be open to a field of animals. If you are from suburbia like me, do not be alarmed. They are NOT about to escape. There is a grate at the entrance that prevents hooved animals from leaving but allows you to drive in. You must drive through the front field to get the visitor center and the ticket gate.
The ticket booth is also where you can buy food pellets to feed the animals for the tour. Probably 50% of the laughs we had were from trying to feed animals from those food bucket. Get 2 at least and thank me later. Oh and NO CREDIT OR DEBIT CARDS!
After you get your tickets and pellets, you will find yourself in a parking lot. Go ahead and park. This is your last opportunity to go to the bathroom before driving through the rest of the park. If you have small kids, go a head and change that diaper or have them use the bathroom. We thought the tour would go faster than it did and paid the price.
There are some playgrounds and consesuons if you are interested. You will come back to the same area at the end. In the warmer months and when COVID is over, they run a hay ride through the park that picks up in this area. It seems like this is a more immersive experience but we did not get the chance to try it.
The TOUR!
The park is known for its drive-thru style zoo experience. I mean this very literally. Just like you drove through a field of exotic animals to get from the road to the parking area, you will drive through the park. The main feature of the park is a long winding dirt path through a very large natural habitat for various exotic animals.
The animals range from antelope to long horned cattle and pot belly pigs. The animals you will see are mainly relatively tame or would otherwise be in a petting zoo. One main difference between the entrances and this area is that the animals KNOW you have food for them. Some of them will harass cars if you do not give them food. It seemed like they also have a shake down system. One animal will step in front of a car (you only go 5mph anyway) to get the car to stop. Then the rest swarm the car knowing you will probably give them something.
Likely for everyone’s safety the giraffes are in an enclosure of their own towards the back of the park. You still get close enough to feed them etc. but these are one of the few animals not allowed to co-mingle with the rest. To list a few animals we saw : zebra, lama, alpaca, pigs (and piglets!), goats, long horned cows, antelope of various kinds, goats, buffalo and many more.
Another nartual part of this set up is the animals tend to congregate near the entrance into the tour. Since this is when people have the most food to give out, people tend to be more generous. We noticed this can cause congestion trying to get into the tour
The animals were really cool to see peeping in the window of our Prius (named Butch). Beware, some of them may damage your car. Butch came away with a small dent and scratch from an angry antilope. Don’t feel like you need to give away all the animal food early. There are plenty of animals in the 30 mintue-1hr long tour to share with. Trying to feed lamas out of your window is a different type of fun for sure. Only bring a car you don’t mind food pellets spilling in.
There is no short cut out of the park or pit stops once you get going. Is you have a baby in diapers, this can be problematic. Even as adults, we got about half way through and found ourselves wondering how much longer we had to go. A mid point rest stop or a clear “short tour” vs “long tour” would really help improve this experience
Welcome Back
As you finish winding through the tour, someone with you will probably need to go the stop by the time you finish. Alternatively, you may want to assess the damage to you car and try to get some of the pellets out of the car. The parking area has plenty of space to stretch your legs and get ready to leave. We stayed a while and grabbed some snacks. Madilyn liked the playground setup as usual. There are some viewing area for the front field which are somewhat picturesque. They have some other events they put on but the driving tour is the main attraction with little else to do afterwards.
Overall
Lazy 5 Ranch is a fun way to check out exotic animals up close. Be careful managing bathroom breaks before/after going on the tour. Worth the cost of admission for the silly laughs from trying to feed lamas out of your car window.
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