New Camps and Events Await at Pine Grove Zoo

LITTLE FALLS (WJON News) -- A popular Central Minnesota attraction has big things in store for its 2026 season. Pine Grove Zoo in Little Falls will open for the year on April 16th, and it has a huge schedule of events planned for the season. Popular favorites like the Safari Sleepover, Ice Cream Social, and BooFest will all be back, but they also have new zoocamps like ZSI: Zoo-crime Scene Investigation:

"In three days, you have to be able to determine what happened and who did it, and what is pretty cool is we are actually having a K9 come out. They're gonna show us, like, how they lift fingerprints, or paw prints in this case, and so the Little Falls Police is getting involved, and our Sheriff to help make this camp one of a kind."

Zoo Director Marnita Van Hoecke says they have eight new camps and all of them are adventures you will talk about for years.

Pine Grove Zoo has something in store for everyone, with over 50 events planned throughout the year, plus special daily zoo connections with different animals. Van Hoecke says it is going to be an amazing year:

"One thing that we're kicking off this year, we're going to do it once a month, it's our Zoo-per Escape. So Zoo-per Escapes is an escape room zoo style, and so this is for families and groups, and you have to go around the zoo, figure out some puzzles, and you're gonna uncover a mystery, and so the mystery is, of course, animal-related."

Van Hoecke says the zoo is ready to welcome visitors back, and all the animals are anxious for some attention, too. The zoo is open from April 16 through October 18th and costs $14.00 for ages 10 and up, $12.00 for kids 3 to 9, and $13 for people 62 and older.

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