We visited the Flagstaff Arboretum today. I had visited several years ago, but Patty had not. The Arboretum was started by Frances McAllister. The older part of the visitor center, to the left in the photo, was her home; the gift shop and display area to the right was added later.
There is a nice garden of local flora just before you enter the visitor center.
One of the displays in the visitor enter is about the view of the mountains - unfortunately they were obscured by the smoke from two forest fires in Sedona, some 40 - 50 miles west southwest of us.
They have added a new garden in honor of Mrs. McAllister.
On the back side of McAllister's home is this nice climbing ivy, some of which has started to turn red this fall.
We took the 11:00 tour led by a local docent. Among places we stopped were the herb garden, local plant garden and the Penstemon Garden.
We also visited the green house which has tubes of water for the passive solar heating system in the winter.
We also stopped at the pollinator garden, which is near the tent that is rented out for events like the wedding reception to be held later.
After the tour, we visited the mushroom garden and the riparian area around one of the ponds; among other things, we found this large metal sculpture of a toad.
They have an area for treating waste water naturally, with small ponds planted with flora that help clean the water as it sinks into the ground.
We also visited the butterfly house which has monarchs and several other varieties of butterflies.
Then we hiked the Outer Trail, a nature trail that took us outside the fenced area of the arboretum. Because of elk, antelopes and pronghorn deer, the arboretum has an eight foot tall fence around the areas where plants are on display. The trail is very easy to traverse and goes through the piney woods and meadows.
The dome of the US Naval Observatory is to the west and normally is easily seen, as it is relatively close. But the smoke from the forest fires obscured our view, as seen in the first photo. The second photo was taken about 15 minutes later when the smoke had partially blown away.
Here is one the gates we went through on the trail.
Besides the toad sculpture above, there were several other metal sculptures at the garden, including this one just before we got back to the visitor center.
We then had our picnic lunch at one of the tables in the shade and watched as the staff prepared for a wedding and reception scheduled there at 5:30. A very pleasant visit of a place we will want to visit again.
There is a nice garden of local flora just before you enter the visitor center.
One of the displays in the visitor enter is about the view of the mountains - unfortunately they were obscured by the smoke from two forest fires in Sedona, some 40 - 50 miles west southwest of us.
They have added a new garden in honor of Mrs. McAllister.
On the back side of McAllister's home is this nice climbing ivy, some of which has started to turn red this fall.
We took the 11:00 tour led by a local docent. Among places we stopped were the herb garden, local plant garden and the Penstemon Garden.
We also visited the green house which has tubes of water for the passive solar heating system in the winter.
We also stopped at the pollinator garden, which is near the tent that is rented out for events like the wedding reception to be held later.
After the tour, we visited the mushroom garden and the riparian area around one of the ponds; among other things, we found this large metal sculpture of a toad.
They have an area for treating waste water naturally, with small ponds planted with flora that help clean the water as it sinks into the ground.
We also visited the butterfly house which has monarchs and several other varieties of butterflies.
Then we hiked the Outer Trail, a nature trail that took us outside the fenced area of the arboretum. Because of elk, antelopes and pronghorn deer, the arboretum has an eight foot tall fence around the areas where plants are on display. The trail is very easy to traverse and goes through the piney woods and meadows.
The dome of the US Naval Observatory is to the west and normally is easily seen, as it is relatively close. But the smoke from the forest fires obscured our view, as seen in the first photo. The second photo was taken about 15 minutes later when the smoke had partially blown away.
Here is one the gates we went through on the trail.
Besides the toad sculpture above, there were several other metal sculptures at the garden, including this one just before we got back to the visitor center.
We then had our picnic lunch at one of the tables in the shade and watched as the staff prepared for a wedding and reception scheduled there at 5:30. A very pleasant visit of a place we will want to visit again.
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