Over spring break my sister and I took a sister-cation down to Phoenix to explore the desert and bask in the sunshine. While there we tried to do as many things as possible (including eating and seeing the Grand Canyon) in order to really get to know the area. One of my favorite places we went was the Desert Botanical Garden.
Desert Botanical Garden
The Desert Botanical Garden is located right in between Phoenix and Scottsdale and is super easy to get to from no matter where you are staying in the area. The Desert Botanical Garden is home to thousands of species of cactus, trees and flowers from all around the world spread across 55 acres.
DESERT DISCOVERY LOOP TRAIL
There are several different trails through the garden and you can loop through them skipping those that don’t interest you and making multiple loops in different directions through the ones that do. One of my favorites was the desert discovery loop trail. This trail circles the whole garden and we were able to cut across and around it to see the whole garden multiple times.
DESERT WILDFLOWER LOOP TRAIL
The desert wildflower loop trail gave me chills as we were able to see just how many different flowers and flowering cacti are able to not only survive, but thrive in the desert climate. It made me feel even worse about my not-quite-as-black -as-it-used-to-be thumb with my own plants at home.
BUTTERFLY PAVILION
One of the highlights of our visit was the Butterfly Pavilion. I was amazed at how many butterflies there were in a single area! The butterflies were not at all shy around people and at one point one landed on my leg. I’m not going to lie, my first instinct was the shriek and swat it away, but once I calmed down I realized how amazing it was!
