Back in the spring when I was disappointed about not taking a big trip this summer, my parents promised that we would take some day trips and explore things close to home. Today we visited the botanical garden. The garden has an indoor space and lots of outdoor areas. They just had a big butterfly exhibit in their conservatory, we weren’t able to make it to the garden for the exhibit but we were hoping that there would still be some butterflies.
We were in luck, right after walking in the door a couple of butterflies came so close they almost flew into my face!
I wanted to get my picture with some of the butterflies, so I stood by the flowers they seemed to like, but as soon as I got near the planter the butterflies flew away. I manage to get one picture with a butterfly in it but it turned out as an orange blur in front of the pot.
Butterflies kept landing and taking off again so I watched them on these planters for a while, if you look really closely you can see another butterfly in the photo.
These dishes were out in a couple of places and there were a ton of butterflies around them and landing on the scrubbies. I didn’t find anyone to ask, but I think the bowls had nectar in them to feed the butterflies.
Most of the butterflies we saw were orange, but I did see a couple that looked like zebras and this beautiful black and blue one. After going around the conservatory a couple of times we left to explore the outdoor gardens.
One of the first things we found was this giant cottonwood tree!
I was excited to find a monarch butterfly in one of the outdoor gardens.
I thought these flowers matched my outfit so I stopped for a photo with them.
I found another butterfly! This one wasn’t scared of me at all and I was able to get really close to it and watch it for a long time.
It was really hot and sunny out today so this shady area was a very welcome find.
Even more welcome after all of the walking we did was this bench in a shady spot. I checked it out and gave my legs a rest before we left the garden. I had a lot of fun and I was excited at the number of butterflies I was able to see today! Have you ever been to a public garden and if so what was your favorite part?