This was a really enjoyable, quiet, and interactive little zoo. My children had a great time and we got to see a unique set of animals (such as kangaroos, a lynx...). The scenery on the way up was beautiful too!

One of my favorite places to visit. Perfect for all ages. It’s cheaper than a regular zoo plus you get a hands on, personal experience with the animals. All of them are friendly and well taken care of. I highly recommend visiting the kangaroos, one of them is a sweetheart.

Super fun place. James Cox the owner makes you feel at home. Great family place. Stroller rental available along with a neat little gift shop. The amazing thing is the rescue program and how he works with the community

This is fantastic place to visit. Its great to know there are places like this that rehabilitate animals. It was fun to watch and pet the many different animals. You can also feed them. The man who takes care of the beautiful birds was wonderful. He provided us with great background information on the animals.

So fun for little ones and older ones too! We had a fabulous time. Highly recommend!

They do such wonderful rehab work will all the animals that come into them.... these photos are just of some of the animals I saw there.... precious

This is such a great zoo. We took a group field trip. They did an excellent job with teaching the class. I highly recommend supporting these great fokes.

Pleasantly surprised with the size and cleanliness of this facility. Animals are happy and very well and properly taken care of. Love this place. Would highly recommend this place. Would definitely go back.

Amazing place for the family to go to if they have not yet gone!!! Great amount of animals you can feed! They also have animals you can observe and not food! And they have pony rides which my child enjoyed! All in all this place is a great place to bring the family or a special someone and enjoy petting and feed many different types of animals.

Awesome local experience. Where else can you pet a kangaroo and see a Tiger? Add to that the place has a great mission and a friendly staff. The animals are accustomed to people and enjoy the interactions. This is a wonderful way to enjoy time with family and friends.

Went here for a kids birthday party and really enjoyed it. A great place to take the kids. It was a little hard to get there, but worth the drive.

So much fun! The animals were all so social and loved being pet. Loved the kangaroos and my 5 yr old loved the foxes and the pony rides. Great price for a fun family day!

Very cool little zoo. Lots of chances to interact with animals you wouldnt get elsewhere. Got to pet a kangaroo, thats never happened before. It doesnt take more than maybe 2 hours to walk through the whole thing. Its off the beaten path a little so unless you actually want to visit, you probably wont find it. Friendly staff, and lots of different animals to see.

For anyone who says this place is wonderful or amazing must not have had the pleasure of walking thru a real zoo because this place is NOT a zoo. I was raised on a farm and understand farm-life and this is basically an under-kept petting farm with mostly goats and deer and a couple of other animals. The cages for the more exotic animals are tiny and in my opinion cruel. The animals in the small area in the building have an overwhelming smell of urine/ammonia and poop that we ran through it quickly due to the stench and again tiny inhumane cages. When you arrive you cannot see anything hidden behind the main building and if you did you would see the whole tiny hilly property and realize right away that it isnt worth $15.00 per adult. I went to a petting farm in Wisconsin that was $5.00 and had more to see and pet and do then this place. Their website does not represent what you will see or experience.I did not see a kangaroo. The tiger was not there. There are only one or two of some of the other animals mentioned. The goats were not roaming either. The playground for kids is only a slide and a swing so dont get your hopes up there either.Overall it took us less than 30 minutes to walk and stop to feed the goats our expensive $6.00 bucket of food and we were done! $40 with taxes lost and a long out of the way drive to get there. The conditions are deplorable and then fact that they call themselves a rescue concerns me since this is not in any way a better lifestyle for these animals then wherever they were rescued from. They would do better in the wild then at this place! The money they takes in certainly does not go into better living conditions for these animals. Visit a real zoo and tell me that I am incorrect for saying this. This place should be ashamed. We were saddened and just wanted to set the animals free... And no I am not a PETA supporter and I have no issues with Zoos in general, but I do love animals and just could not believe what I was seeing and even more so since they call themselves a rescue.

What a wonderful experience! It is pricey. It cost $70 for 2 adults and 2 children with 2 small buckets of feed. However, it is a rescue, and completely funded by donations and visitors. A huge difference with this zoo and other zoos is that you can pet the animals. The animals are so friendly and eager for your attention (and food). We got to pet a buffalo, kangaroo, and camel... We will definitely be back!

Had a great time. First time visit with my grandkids. Really enjoyed. Will be back for another visit. Hope to get to see zebras next time.

ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS PLACE! My family and I went for their Halloween event and it was so fun.

Great little zoo. Plenty to see and interact with. You can feed goats, deer, camels, rams, etc. My little girl had a ball here today. Great place to spend a birthday at.

Heartbreaking to see animals like wolves and tigers trapped in small cages. Did enjoy feeding the goats, deer, donkeys and llamas. I fervently wish they would relinquish the tigers and wolves to rescues.

James Noah Cox and his staff are amazing! The love and compassion they give the animals is incredible. I highly recommend visiting them and supporting a great local business.

Great family small zoo.great owner.and keepers.animals well took care off .an maintained. Highly recommend little ponderosa zoo.an we will be back.

Absolutely love this place for the animals, friendly faces and the rescue mission behind the scenes!! Very amazing place

It’s was our first time there and we loved it! It’s a small zoo but they have great variety of animals and what’s cool you can feed most of them! My kids especially enjoyed that and so did I. Looks like they have a play ground and some other activities for kids and place where you can eat which were unfortunately due to the virus restrictions. Despite of that it was a nice visit and we’ll be back again!

Animals and staff were friendly, my kids loved feeding the animals and playing on the big slide!

Roaming baby goats are awesome. You can pet most animals. Love it. Buying food for animals to feed are good too. Helping take care of animals with buying food actually keep the zoo going. Sadly its cash only for anything. Wish credit/debit cards be accepted due to being afraid to hold large cash on you

Very highly recommended great staff and animals are so much fun to see and feed!!!

Great experience! The kids loved feeding and petting so many animals. Clean and well-kept with friendly staff. Not crowded at all, so it was a relaxing experience with the family.

Fun place! Baby goats are the best, they roam about.

This is a great place 2 go hv a family day we loved it..

I loved it. The little goats are so sweet and the animals they have are awesome.

This is the best little zoo! They are a rescue so their focus is on taking in unwanted exotic pets and rescuing lost causes. The place is small but the animals are very friendly and the staff is great. You can buy buckets of feed and hand feed most of the animals. Its really fun to have the camel eat out of you hand. You can pet any animal you want except for a few, the kangaroo will give you kisses if he isnt napping. Shadow the wolf loves people will come out to say hi and pose for pictures. The baby goats like to climb right through the fence to get food from you. This is my familys favorite place to visit when we are in the Smokies!

I have taken my first grade class and my grandkids here over several years. The staff is helpful and accommodating. The zoo is small with many hands-on opportunities. Be sure to feed the animals! So much fun! Special programs for school groups are especially nice. Only con is limited restroom facilities. The total experience makes up for this shortcoming.

We love this place. Its so much fun seeing my son get to interact with the animals. And they seem to be very well taken care of. Clean facility and friendly staff.

A great day at a small zoo with lots of interaction

Had an awesome time with my grandson.. the staff was super friendly

Its great what they do here and love to visit!

Great place really enjoyed the close encounters tour thanks to all the staff.

Great place a great opportunity to see cool animals

Very cute and very small but perfect for little kids VERY toddler friendly

My son and I came on a rainy Thursday morning during spring break and had the zoo to ourselves. We had a fantastic time, and thats really an unstatement. We had all of the animals attention. :o) I think next time we wont get the large bucket of food just because its not necessary. My son is a 13 year old animal lover so this was a perfect place for us to spend quality time together. The staff was very friendly and talked to us about different exhibits as they were attending the animals. Were surely coming back! The animals all looked happy and they were all pet-able like petting a kangaroo, camels, and little baby goats that followed us around like puppies....just such a unique experience.

We were able to do an animal encounter and feed almost all the animals up close and personal. Very well run place with a great staff.

We had a wonderful visit to Little Ponderosa on this week. It was a wonderful experience for my grandsons to be able to get close to the animals to pet them and feed them. We hope to return again in cooler weather!

Great place to take small children all the way up to the big kids!!!! You can feed the animals Wonderful Place!!!! Pony rides, birthday parties, pet and feed the animals they even have a small play area!!!! What more could a child ask for?!?!?! My kids LOVED it!!!! Cant wait to take them back!!!!

My kids loved visiting this little hidden gem! The goats were fantastic! My son had a blast making friends with the goats as they followed him around. They are rebuilding after a very unfortunate fire. It is well worth the drive to support this zoo as they rebuild.

This zoo is such a wonderful place. I love taking my family here. I recommend this place to anyone who loves animals!

Zoo & Rescue for injured or orphaned wild and domesticated animals of all species. Friendly professional staff. Fun family atmosphere.

Wonderful and quaint place. Very friendly employees. The kids loved feeding all the animals.

If youre in Anderson Country in E. TN, you should visit this family owned zoo. You can see pretty much all of the animals, unlike most zoos where they are typically hiding away during the visit. There are animals you can pet and also feed. You can get much closer to carnivores here while remaining safe. You can also buy feed for certain animals you come across (there are signs for each animals diet). One of my favorites was the camel that tries to take the feed bucket out of your hand and chug the whole thing lolPictured is one of their tigers yawning. The other is a Zonkey. Yes, you read that correctly!

This is a great place to go with your family, we even take a picnic and eat when we go we usually spend 2 hours here sometimes more!My son loves it and is never bored we have been going here for 3 years now a and will continue to do so for many years to come!

My child loved all the animals there was to feed. Loved how a lot of the animals were free to walk around with the people. We plan to go back..

Its a little expensive for the amount of time you can spend here. Walked through in about 30 minutes and we felt like we took our time. Playground area is lacking. No pony rides going on. But the kids had fun and loved the goats

We loved it. Nice and relaxing for family time. Loved all the animals.

In my opinion, this is the best little zoo ever! I love this place! You can feed almost all of the animals and get super close to give them lots of loving!! Also you can see two beautiful tigers close up! The love and care that the zoo staff put into this place and their animals is unparalleled and They are super friendly and always happy to see you! Little ponderosa zoo is a great family place, so make sure you take your kids because they will love it!!! Little ponderosa zoo also accepts donations and will always be grateful for it!!! Check their website for items that they could always use! The zoo is very easy to navigate with lots to see in a decent sized area so you dont get overwhelmed with a huge hike like a lot of the bigger zoos. I will always go here and i highly recommend it!!

Stopped by on the way home from Florida, headed back to KY and came here for a little bit and we had so much fun! Loved this little rescue zoo. HIGHLY RECOMMEND

I loved getting to feed the animals

Incredible experience and run so smoothly by Mr. James Cox. He truly cares about helping animals

A fun small animal rescue zoo. Good variety of interesting creatures that seem well cared for. Lots of opportunities to feed animals like goats, llamas, and kangaroos. A very nice way to spend a day and support the rescue efforts.

Really enjoyed my time here, most of the animals were willing to interact with you and feeding them was a plus!

We went for a field trip with my sons second grade class and it was great! All of the workers were so friendly and helpful. The ladies that showed some of the animals to the class were so informative and great at explaining everything to a room full of hyper 2nd graders. I actually liked it more than the Knoxville zoo because its not as crowded and the workers are more hands on and will talk to you and explain things about the animals. Yes its definitely smaller than the Knoxville Zoo, but if youre looking for a day of seeing awesome animals and learning about them and not being crowded by a bunch of people then this is definitely the place to go! I highly recommend checking it out!

Lots of fun! Animals to feed and play with.

Great little place to take your family or a date

Very clean. The zoo was very nice to visit. All the animals looked healthy. Very enjoyable with the family.

We had a awesome time!

Up close and personal.

I cannot wrap my head around the fact that you have a 700lb Siberian tiger in a 50x50 chain link cage and still consider this a good quality of life for an animal of this nature. Keeping him alive does NOT equate to keeping him happy.And clean out that monkey building! The ammonia in there is toxic to ALL who enter it. And your birds in the first building were eating other dead birds. Smdh

Very much enjoyed my here.Great cause great people.

The animals are rescues and taken care of. Much more hands on than other zoos.

We visited for our sons 2nd birthday and all of us LOVED it!!! We had my sister-in-law and her family join us and all of us enjoyed the interactions with the animals and the kindness of the entire staff!!! The special treat of our son being allowed to pick a Peacock Feather or Porcupine Quill for his birthday surprise was beyond a wonderful addition!!! We will be back, many many times. HIGHLY recommended, if I could give a billion stars, it wouldnt be enough!!!

Really cool, open zoo. My son got to pet about every animal in his reach, and they were all very approachable and friendly. You can also feed most of the animals there and buy feed at the front desk. The staff was also awesome. Definitely going again. =)

Kids love this place. When you purchase a feed bucket ($5) you can feed the animals by hand. They do serve food like pizza( not very good) and have drinks that you can buy. They have a play area for the children and a covered area for lunch. They offer pony rides for an additional fee. There is a small gift shop with mostly T- shirts, hoodies and stuffed animals. Very enjoyable place to visit. All donations go to the rescue animals they house there to help maintain them so its well worth the money.

First time going and we loved it my daugther and us had a blast you get to feed and interact with them so worth going best zoo ever ♡

Omg! I went shortly after the fire it was amazing arya loved it espec6riding the pony!!

A nice petting zoo for children,there’s pet food for purchase and plenty of goats following the children around to be feed. I was surprised with the variety of animals to see, parking was a little limited due to new construction,all & all it’s worth a visit.

They have managed to keep all of their animals fed and healthy through this upheaval by great sacrifice. Adopt just one to help save one sentient living soul from going hungry.

This was awful I really was so excited about going but once I got there I was so disgusted and sad and just felt awful that I wasted my money there. First as soon as you go inside the smell of reptile and mammal urine the ammonia is so strong it made my eyes water. Then you see very heavily sedated tigers with there tongues out and rats are everywhere running from cages so close you almost step on them. And then animal poop is everywhere your stepping on it. I would never recommend this to anyone if anything this place should be reported.

It was a great place to visit...grandkids loved all the animals...

Nice walk enjoyed the animals. Plus you never know what your going to see with the animals.

For the price you pay here you would think its as big as the Knoxville zoo. Its not. And while you can feed the animals its just not worth paying 15$ a person to get in and then another 15bfor food. But kids under 3 get in free and they do have bouncy houses. So ya know theres that.

Fun place to take the kids. Friendly staff. And the animals are all nice and kid friendly. The price is a little high for what you get, but not outrageous. All in all a good place to visit.

Really fun experience where you get up close with the animals.

What an a awesome place! We went here for a friends childs birthday party and was really surprised at the variety of animals. Definitely not your normal petting zoo. Would highly recommend, especially if you have young children.

Best zoo around

Amazing. My little friends LOVED it. Thanks for such a fun and relaxed experience! Well be back!

James is such a knowledgeable person. I learn something new every time we meet

Nice little place. It is smaller than I thought it was going to be, but was nice for my kids (1 & 3). They enjoyed the goats and deer that really wanted the bucket of food we bought. Highly recommend getting a feed bucket. We got the small. A goat followed us around almost the whole way until we ran out of food. They have a nice play fort and swings as well.

Wonderful place. The warning about the camel stealing your bucket is absolutely true. 10/10, would go again.

This place is great for the entire family!!!

My two year old really enjoyed Little Ponderosa. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. The price is a little high for what it is but I hope that’s because they are expanding.

I wish I had known about this place sooner. Take your kids here!! This place is wonderful. We loved being able to get close to the animals and even feed them. Great place to take the kids and we will definitely be returning. I don’t foresee us going to the zoo anymore now that we know of the little ponderosa zoo!!! Kids really loved this place.

The cages and animals are well maintained and you can tell they are very loved by the people that work there. The animals are very affectionate and I got my first ever high five from a kangaroo. I am probably going to buy a season pass when I got next time. It was so much fun even in the 97 degree heat.

Rustic and simple. Its beauty lies in the diversity. Great immersive experience!

Great place for everyone!

Neat place, has a lot of farm animals and some exotic. Could get more for the $$

Had a great time!

I was there to attend a birthday party for a family member. I was disappointed with the accommodations for many of the animals. There are way too many birds in several of the enclosures. The smell of ammonia was unbearable around the exotic birds. And the enclosure with the smaller birds was so dirty. The white peacocks were in way too small a space for the number of them. The employees were very nice, but I will definitely not go back because I felt so bad for the animals.

This is a fun kid-friendly place;its an animal rescue Zoo that is family owned. All the employees are polite and friendly and they all really cared for the animals

Amazing little road not taken place with small crowds, a nice playground and plenty of animals. Inside is obnoxiously pungent, but not sure how they could relieve that smell. It kind of smells like a burnt perm hairstyle. So, hold your breath while inside. Once outside, you can travel around a large oval to feed deer, camels, giraffes, sheep and goats. There are plenty more attractions, and a pony ride (extra cost). Be prepared to pay extra for a can soda or water ($2 is ridiculous). The only restrooms are at the entrance/exit. You enter and exit through the same building.The entire place can be viewed in probably 15 minutes, as the bottom of the loop is unnecessary, except for flow. There is a semi-steep hill going around the loop; so, if youre unable to walk long distances uphill, you may need help or a break, and definitely take the low road (right at the fork) first. Even though it can be tackled in 15 minutes, you can easily spend a few hours here.

Great place for interacting with the rescues.

Small zoo but great time interacting with the animals

A variety of animals. They seem to be well cared for