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Red Butte Garden and Arboretum is a neat little huge garden within the University of Utah Complex. It features a huge web of trails through various gardens, and a creek with some ponds.
Today they were doing a fun event called Blooming With Pride to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and artists. My friend Elise noticed it and decided to help herself to 6 tickets thinking it might be something we all would be interested in. Despite the scorching heat, she was right, it was totally something we all wanted to do. So this weeks walk with friends was at Red Butte Garden.
Quick Details:
Length: There are over 5 miles of trails. We did probably a mile or so. I didn’t think to turn on my tracker until we were almost done. The map says it is a 1/2 mile loop, but we meandered quite a bit today.
Trail Type: Meander
Difficulty: DR2. As far as I can tell it is ADA compliant. All stairs that I saw appeared to have a ramp option as well.
Elevation Gain: I am guessing less than 100 feet.
Restroom: There are several flush toilets scattered around.
Dogs? I am assuming no.
Other Info: This is normally a fee area. $16.00 per person.
To Get Here:
Not much snow left on the peaks (Passenger Seat Photography (PSP).
It is just north of the Natural History Museum of Utah (PSP).
The Trail:
Take i215 to Foothill Drive heading north. Go about 3.3 miles and turn right on Wakura Way. Continue up that for 9/10ths of a mile and it will be on the left.
We had to park in the overflow parking lot and hoof it up.
The Natural History Museum again from the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. We decided that we need to come back to the museum sometime soon.
Approaching the main entrance.
You don’t even have to pay to see some of the gardens haha (these are out front).
The main entrance.
There are 10 big art projects by local artists within the LGBTQ+ community.
This one is called: “The False Understanding of “Passing”” by artist Stacy Pete.
The other side.
The Orangerie.
What the heck is an orangerie you ask? Well, in it’s simplest terms; it’s a greenhouse. Historically for orange and other fruit trees.
Neat greenery on the wall.
“The Phone Booth Sessions: Conversations with Little You” by artist Mal Strunk.
It was a super popular event today! Which, Yay! But also, I just had to accept the fact that there are going to be people in my shots today.
Pretty rose.
Neat oak leaf sculpture. I didn’t seek out the plaque for this one, but I don’t think it is part of todays art showcase, rather a permanent statue.
Neat pergola.
“Tapestry of Belonging” by Caitlin Stewart-Johnson.
The Herb Garden, within the Terrace Gardens section. There are 10 areas in the Gardens Section.
Neat tree. Some kind of cedar if I remember right.
Continuing along.
Another neat statue. I failed at looking for the plaque on this one as well, but it looks like a cormorant to me.
Yucca blooms. Neat.
This is the Fragrance Garden. Still in the Terrace Gardens area.
I thought this might have been passion flower, but Elise corrected me on that it is bee balm.
This looks like milk weed.
Fragrance Garden again.
Nice garden swing. “In memory of our precious Susan”.
“Wayfinding: Authentic Natures” by the Red Butte Garden Staff.
Closer.
Again.
Detail: Delicate Arch. Dang it looks pretty close to the real thing.
The main bowl. Super cute! It’s like a large fairy garden.
This pergola is getting covered by plants quite nicely.
Vines climbing it.
Leaving the Fragrance Garden, and back on the main loop.
It looks like we missed "Utah: Naturally Queer" by artist Corey Kimzey, but that is way up into the Water Conservation Garden area that is a bit higher up.
What in the world is that across the canyon? Our initial thought was some rich asshole, but then I remembered that Red Butte Canyon is a closed research natural area.
After looking at google maps, it appears to be a large water tank.
One of 2 little overlook patio thingies.
This one has “Alternative Routes” by Meagan Bertelsen.
“Being queer saved my life.
Often we see queerness
as depravation.
But when I look at my life,
I saw that queerness
demanded an alternative
innovation from me.
I had to make alternative routes;
it made me curious;
It made me ask,
Is this enough for me?
-Ocean Vuong”
Continuing along.
The 2nd little balcony viewpoint thingy.
“In loving memory of Nany Armstrong Stanford. Devoted grandmother and mother”
You can’t see much through the trees from this one.
If it was just us we would have explored the Six Bridges Trail and the Meadow to the right. But, when you are in a group sometimes you don’t get to do what you want. I know if I REALLY wanted to today, my friends would have waited patiently for us, but I don’t want to leave them in the middle of it. So I guess we will need to come back sometime. Anyway, we went left into the Water Pavilion Garden area.
There are a lot of benches along the way.
Amazing moose statue! Of course we had to get our picture taken with it!
Continuing along.
Little pond on Red Butte Creek.
The big pond below. This is bizarre. I don’t feel like I am in Utah anymore! It reminds me a lot of some of the neat gardens we found in Seattle.
“We are One” by Alyssa Cumpton. I like this one.
Cute forest path.
The pond again.
R. Harold Burton Water Pavilion.
It’s cute.
The pond.
Efforts to restore Bonneville Cutthroat Trout.
The pond again.
Some really pretty yellow and purple columbines.
Neat “floating” stones.
Pretty flower with a pretty butterfly.
The pretty flower again.
The pond.
Little waterfall.
With the little pond. And we have a cute little friend…
Look at that stunning orange dragonfly! I don’t think I have ever seen a solid orange one before.
Closer. Wow!
The waterfall.
With the little pond again.
A black and white dragonfly joined the party.
Our orange friend again. I just loves him.
The waterfall from the front of the little pond.
The big pond again.
The Water Pavilion again.
“Water The energy of life and food for the soul”. And I can’t make out the last line fully.
The pond from the west side.
It looks like we missed “Spill Your Guts” by Bekah Ogan. Darn.
Entering the Rose Garden area.
Nice little clearing.
Pretty roses in all directions!
These are quite pretty!
We found a bigger waterfall here. Yay!
With another little pond.
Better.
Closer.
Little bridge over Red Butte Creek..
Upstream.
The little pond and waterfall again.
Closer.
Downstream.
The little pond again.
The waterfall again.
The amphitheater. This is where they hold summer concerts. I have never done that either, but it sounds neat.
Back into the rose garden.
The other side of the clearing.
Pretty roses.
More roses.
“Hands of Unity” by Renee Salois.
Neither of us know sign language, but we deduced it to probably spell out PRIDE. I was able to confirm that we were correct later. The P seems to have shifted.
From the side.
Another pretty pergola.
It has a view of the creek, but uh… it is too overgrown right now.
Pretty garden.
As expected it led us back to the Amphitheater.
The main stage. Back the way we came.
The creek is hard to see through the thick foliage again.
We joined our friends for a rest outside of the Rose House.
Huge columbine bush! Elise was super surprised to see one this tall. I was at first too, but then I remembered we have seen them this tall (but not quite as full) up near Alta.
Some white ones near the back.
I think these are my favorites!
Dumke Floral Walk. The Floral Walk Section.
Pretty flowers of some sort.
Pretty flower beds.
They had every color of the rainbow, but not in the right order. Which is a shame. I get, this was a 1 day event so I can’t expect a proper rainbow garden, but it would be neat if they did do a proper rainbow of flowers.
This is a nice combination.
Fantastic old wood benches. These are at the entrance to another overlook.
It offers a nice view of the rose garden.
There was another art project here called “Queerness Through the Pages” by Gillian Ruppel but there were too many people to get a good shot, and our friends were continuing along. I know they were on a mission to get to AC so I wasn’t going to complain. But I do regret not getting a picture of another queer piece of art.
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Panoramic.
Pretty trees with red leaves.
Another neat plant covered pergola. Which was the base station for a community art project. We decided to participate.
I made a cute little heart out of purple ribbon.
Elise made a cute green frame around these flowers.
Someone made the random S thingy we all drew in the 90’s. It is alive and well folks!
Lastly, Landis made an L. That was fun!
Looking back towards the pergola.
Some pretty hibiscus.
Back to the Visitor Center we found a lovely rainbow of plants.
A cute little fountain in the Four Seasons Garden Courtyard.
There were a couple of food trucks here if you are feeling peckish.
After this I decided I wanted to see the Stone House as I had noticed it when we did the Red Butte Skyline Trail and I thought it looked pretty neat so I had told myself if we ever came to Red Butte Garden I would seek it out. I decided to make that a separate post you can find here (gimme a day).
After that adventure we decided we were hungry and none of the food trucks looked like anything we wanted. So after a quick stop in the Visitor Center and of course the Gift Shop, we were off to find something to eat.
As for the gardens, well, they are gardens, but they were quite pretty! Plus, I loved having another event to find my people. Thank You Red Butte Garden it was lovely. 9 out of 10 squirrels losing one for the normal fee cost.
As for difficulty, it does appear to be ADA compliant for the loop we did. DR2.
Dogs are not allowed, so be sure to leave Fido at home.
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