The Great American Pixel

An Afternoon at the Belle Isle Zoo

Yesterday my friend Peter and I went for a bike ride to Belle Isle. The fence into the old zoo was open so we took a look around. Oh my god. Of many mind-blowingly unmaintained ruins and vacancies in Detroit, this has got to be up near the top. I had no idea it was so vast, and it’s right next to the swimming beach (here’s the satellite map, the walkway you see here is the long loop between Central and Loiter/Tanglewood).

I find it odd that I don’t really hear anything about the future of the zoo, even with the escalating discussion about how to fund and maintain Belle Isle.

Any ideas for this place? Honestly, if the walkways could be secured it would make a wonderful overgrown nature walk. The whole thing is other-worldly. A few pics: