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The Living Planet Aquarium, Utah

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If you’re looking for things to do in Salt Lake City, check out the Living Planet Aquarium! This is a great place to spend a few hours with your family and see enjoy the animals and sea life exhibits year round.

photo collage of living planet aquarium

A couple weeks ago, we drove down to Utah, went to the Living Planet Aquarium, did some exploring outside of Washington, Utah, and hiked in Zion (I’ll share photos of that soon!).

It was a wonderful break with our kids! Getting out for a good hike always energizes me, as well as seeing the beauty at the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium.

We’ll do a post about Zion National Park in the next week or 2, but I wanted to share about the aquarium for great things to do in Salt Lake City!

The aquarium has reopened after being closed for a bit due to a certain virus, and since they are limiting the number of guests and requiring online reservations and ticket purchases, it is not crowded like it might normally be.

If you’re looking for fun things to do in Salt Lake City, the Living Planet Aquarium is a great one to add to your list! It is located in Draper, Utah, which is a suburb in the southern area of Salt Lake City.

The aquarium is easy to get to and is right off the interstate, so even if you drive by, you can see “the Claw” structure outside the facility (now called EECO). This was the stage used by the band U2 during their 360 tour (2009-2011), and the stage ended up finding a permanent home at the aquarium (I didn’t get any photos of it though).

They are developing this area under the EECO structure as a future Science Learning Campus.

Enjoy our photos and our video of the Living Planet Aquarium! Some of these are taken with my Canon and others are taken with my iPhone, I found it rather difficult to get great photos with my Canon in with the aquarium lights, I need more practice I guess!

foyer of living planet aquarium

In the foyer, there are several life-sized models of whales and other sea life hanging from the ceiling.

life size model of whale shark

The foyer also has a replica of a bow of a ship built into the second floor and first floor as well.

clown fish next to purple anemones

The clownfish were particularly hard to get photos of, they move around so quickly! This is one of my favorite photos we got from the aquarium.

There are several areas of the aquarium to explore:

  • Ocean Explorer
  • Expedition: Asia
  • Penguin Research Station
  • Discover Utah
  • Journey to South America
  • Deep Sea Lab
lionfish in aquarium tank

It took me several tries to get good photos of the lionfish.

Asian pheasants at Living Planet Aquarium

These pheasants were in the Expedition: Asia area and I can’t remember the name of them, they have beautiful plumage.

Damselfish in tank

The aquarium lights almost make these damselfish look bioluminescent.

poison dart frog

If I remember correctly, this was one of several poison dart frogs.

aquarium tunnel at Living Planet Aquarium

The aquarium tunnel was one of my favorite things to see, but they are always my favorite whenever we find them at aquariums!

The touch pool was closed due to the C-virus, so we didn’t get to touch any skates this time.

pinecone fish in tank from Asian Pacific ocean

The pinecone fish, a native of the tropical and subtropical Asian Pacific.

The nest set of photos are taken with my iPhone since I used both my iphone and my Canon throughout our visit.

Journey to South America at Living Planet Aquarium

In the Journey to South America area which was set up like an indoor jungle. Some of the animals (like the sloth) were sleeping in their burrows so we didn’t get to see much of them.

baby seahorses in tank

Tiny seahorse babies! They had several tanks of seahorses, one tank was for pregnant ones and one tank was for babies, and another tank had regular seahorses.

clownfish exhibit at Living Planet Aquarium

One of my favorite tanks! Tons of clownfish 🙂

Get more info about the aquarium and reviews on TripAdvisor!

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