Minnesota Zoo sets all-time annual attendance record after popular new attraction opens

Minnesota Zoo Director John Frawley always thought the Treetop Trail – a project that turned the zoo’s old monorail track into an elevated walking trail – was a great idea.

A record number of zoo visitors seem to agree with him.

“It’s been so fun,” said Frawley. “After 47 years serving the state, to have a record year is kind of a big deal.”

About 1.46 million people came to the Apple Valley zoo in fiscal year 2024, which ended July 1, beating the previous attendance record of 1.37 million set in 2012. Frawley and others say the Treetop Trail that opened in July 2023 lured visitors with views from heights not seen since the monorail was operational.

The trail, which is accessible via an elevator and included with admission, lets people stroll as high as 32 feet above the ground while viewing ponds and woods, along with 10 different animal exhibits. Its deck boards are made of recycled milk jugs and its railings are steel. It varies in width from 8 to 12 feet and is outfitted with wi-fi, a public address system and security cameras.

“It was absolutely the right thing for the zoo to do,” said Suzanne Gappa, a Minnesota Zoo Foundation board member since 2018, when the Treetop Trail’s feasibility task force began. “For me, it was very much a passion project because I saw that this was a way that we can take a piece of infrastructure that we already own and transform it.”

Completing the trail cost $37.4 million, and the capital campaign was the largest in zoo history, Gappa said. The trail’s popularity “hasn’t been a surprise but has been a delight,” she said.

Programming on the trail, including morning walking groups and birdwatching, is underway, she said, calling the chance to walk through the woods “really powerful.”

The zoo also offers health and wellness programs, like yoga, on the trail, Frawley said, and tours with naturalists. Artists have even come to paint scenes from the trail.

“We’re seeing a lot of people we don’t normally see,” said Frawley, such as older couples wearing walking shoes and people in wheelchairs and on scooters.

Visitors from a few other zoos, including the Dallas Zoo, have come to see how an old monorail can be repurposed, Frawley said. The Minnesota Zoo’s monorail shut down in 2013 after parts became scarce and ridership declined. The Dallas Zoo retired its monorail in 2020, and Zoo Miami decommissioned its monorail in 2022.

The Treetop Trail is part of the 485-acre Minnesota Zoo’s new emphasis on connecting people to the outdoors. Frawley said updated plans for the future include ideas such as tent and cabin sites.

“We want to be the nation’s nature zoo,” he said.

On Friday morning, families, couples and summer camp groups lined up to visit the zoo. Several people said they were walking on the Treetop Trail for the first time.

“I love it,” said Angie Gueldner of Monticello, who waited to visit with her husband, Derek, and three small sons until the trail was complete. “The construction seems really nice.”

A group of 10 elementary-aged kids from the Mounds View Public Schools community education summer program traveled the trail with their chaperones. Camp assistant Lauren Collier called the trail “gorgeous.”

“You can see [the view] from both sides,” Collier said. “And as a parent you can have your kids right ahead of you on the trail and they’re not going to wander off.”

Chris Stewart and his wife, Andrea, of Oakdale are zoo members with two small children but hadn’t yet been on the trail until Friday.

“It’s kind of a fun, different view. You can breathe a little,” Andrea Stewart said. “Today, it’s been all animals up close and great view points.”