Living Desert Zoo and Gardens State Park

On a ridge of the Ocotillo Hills northwest of Carlsbad, a paved trail of 1.3 miles loops down through reconstructed pieces of the Chihuahuan Desert and climbs back up: sand hills, gypsum hills built of local selenite, desert uplands, an arroyo, a piñon-juniper slope and a canyon. The views run out over the Pecos valley and the town.

The animals are native to the Southwest, and nearly all came in injured, orphaned or otherwise unable to survive on their own. Mexican gray wolves, among the rarest mammals on the continent, have their own yard. There are mountain lions, bobcats, javelinas, pronghorn, elk, bison, prairie dogs, Bolson tortoises and rattlesnakes, an aviary of eagles and owls, and a nocturnal exhibit tunneled through a hill. The gardens and greenhouse hold hundreds of kinds of cacti and succulents.

The park began with a gift of land in 1967 from Neil Wills and Robert Light, added to by Eddy County, and opened on June 12, 1971. It is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. These hills were Mescalero Apache country, and the Mescalero have held mescal roasts at the park.

It closed for clean-up and repairs in 2025 and reopened that July. Last entry to the zoo is mid-afternoon, and state park annual passes are not valid here.