If you have always wanted to go to the desert, now might be your chance!
The Desert Botanical Gardens have over 140 acres, as well as over 50,000 plants on display for you to enjoy! You can feel like you are basking in the desert sun, admiring all the large, prickly cacti, their beautiful flowers, and all the beautiful flora that you can often find in those stunning landscapes.
There are so many wonders found in the Sonoran Desert. Do you think you could spot the prickly pears, or the agaves? Perhaps you have always loved the desert wildflowers or saguaros...perhaps you will learn what a saguaros is when you get there!
They also have fascinating exhibitions, festival and seasonal events across the year - like the Great Pumpkin Festival, or live music that you can enjoy in the landscaped gardens!
Kids, if you really want to enjoy nature you can join one of their kids camps and programs! You will have so many unique opportunities to experience the incredible desert but importantly, within a safe environment!
They make sure they integrate science, art, literature, and music into all of their programs, with the very enthusiastic staff doing their best to make it a super fun learning experience. Some of the youth programs include the science-based enrichment program for preschoolers, a great enrichment program for home schoolers, and a summer camp for kids of all ages to really enjoy a fun hands-on experience.
If you want to really spend time as a family, make sure you look into their family programs, like the very cool nocturnal insect hunt! They also have baby and teen specific programs too - so get out and enjoy desert life! (Not to be mixed up with dessert, but if you're good you might get that afterwards!)
The Desert Botanical Garden is located in Phoenix, Arizona (the best place to really understand the desert!), near Scottsdale and Tempe, in the midst of the red rock buttes of Papago Park. Sounds beautiful!
Get directionsGeneral Admission: $24.95 – $29.95
Youth 3 – 17: $14.95 – $16.95
Free for members and active military
3 years
2023
The garden is a charter member of the Museum Association of Arizona and National Center for Plant Conservation, fully accredited with the American Association of Museums and American Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta. It will always build on its 63-year legacy of environmental stewardship, and has become nationally and internationally renowned for its plant collections, research and educational programs. You go!
Patio Café has some tasty food to fill up on after those desert treks!
Make sure you bring comfortable shoes because a lot of the paths are unpaved and you're going to the desert so bring hats, sunglasses, sunscreen, and drink plenty of water! Don't be a cactus!
The Garden Shop sells many garden related items so all those green thumbs get down there, and they also sell games, fun toys, shirts and cards.
The Desert Botanical Garden's kids programs, offer a variety of unique opportunities with age appropriate themes and learning levels and topics.
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