Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park

Summers Hours in Effect

Summer hours are in effect: Park is open daily from 6 am to 3 pm until the end of August. Daily admission is $9 for adults and $4.50 for ages 5–12

May 18: Plants of the Bible Walk

8:00 am. Mesa resident and Bible scholar Dave Oberpriller leads this walk on the third Saturday of each month; a relaxing and slow-paced stroll down smooth, flat and wheelchair-accessible trails to see pomegranates, figs, pines, palms and other plants referenced in scripture. Weekend nature walks and most public events are included with daily admission of $9 for adults. http://ag.arizona.edu/bta/events/bibleplants.html

See more upcoming Events below

The University of Arizona also maintains a website for this park, with additional park information and photos. Learn more.

May 18: Gourd Art Class: Beginners

10 am - 2 pm. Enrollment is $30-$39; have a credit card ready and call 520-689-2723 to enroll and pre-pay. Informal, fun four-hour workshops each month bring a chance to burn, paint, etch and emboss decorative gourds with coaching from Mesa artists Gerald and Vicki Johnson. Pre-registration is required, and this class is limited to 15 students. Enrollment includes a gourd of your choice and full morning of coaching and artistic inspiration. Tools, paints and paintbrushes are provided during the workshop as well.

May 19: Advanced Gourd Art Class: 'Coiling'

10 am - 2 pm. At the special request of many repeat students, Vicki and Gerald Johnson offer this new & advanced workshop teaching a specialized technique for students who have attended a previous Gourd Art Class, and are eager for a new challenge. 'Coiling' is done with pine needles and waxed linen thread, and provides a finished touch to the top of your gourd bowl. All materials, including prepared gourd, pine needles, thread and decorative attachments such as pods and beads to decorate your gourd are included in this special class. $40 registration BTA for members, $49 for non-members, includes specialized materials and instruction. This class is limited to 12 students

May 19: Sunday Tree Tour With Certified Arborist Jeff Payne

8 am. So, just what is an Arboretum? Boyce thompson Arboretum State Park staffer and Certified Arborist Jeff Payne leads this once-a-month Sunday walk where visitors learn the answer to that often-posed question during a relaxed and leisurely guided tour through the forested areas of the Arboretum. Join Jeff for a chance to learn about the Arboretum's collection of oak and olive trees, native hackberry, mesquite and many more. Weekend nature walks and most public events are included with daily admission of $9 for adults. http://ag.arizona.edu/bta

May 19: Sunday Photography Class: 'Macros' With Paul Landau

1:00 - 3:00 pm. Enrollment is $30 (or $39 non-members). Have a credit card ready and call 520.689.2723. Look closely at the bright red larvae of a Pipevine Swallowtail; before the colorful caterpillar morphs into one of the blue-black butterflies commonly seen in the gardens at Boyce thompson Arboretum State Park, they have a beauty all their own - with intricate rows of dorsal spikes making them resemble an undersea creature more than a denizen of our Sonoran desert. The human eye can only look so close; Scottsdale photographer Paul Landau has learned to capture microscopic scenes with his camera, revealing compound eyes, antennae and patterns almost invisible to the human eye. During a unique photography workshop with Paul Landau on Sunday May 19, the artist will share techniques during an afternoon spent in search of tiny creatures and plants here, and photographing them along with 15 participants. "You'll probably be amazed to find out what your camera can do," predicts Landau. "Even the simplest 'point-and-shoot' digital cameras have close-up capabilities that reveal inner worlds of detail, iridescent green beetle wings, and the intensity of nature on a scale that's overlooked until you learn where to look - and how to see. http://ag.arizona.edu/bta/photoclass

May 25: Saturday Guided Butterfly Walk

8:30 am. Learn to ID butterflies on a guided walk with ASU Professor Ron Rutowski and Southwest Monarch Research coordinator Gail Morris here to lead our walk. Marceline Vandewater leads the next one July 27, and then Ron Rutowski and Gail Morris return as leaders August 24. Read about Central Arizona Butterfly Association events around the state with a visit to the website http://www.cazba.org. Marceline reported these early-season sightings April 14: Red Admiral, Texan Crescent, Pipevine Swallowtail, American Snout, Queen, Spring Azure, Sleepy Orange, Two-tailed Swallowtail, California Patch, Dainty Sulphur, Giant Swallowtail, Painted Lady, Elada Checkerspot and Common Buckeye. Weekend nature walks and most public events are included with daily admission of $9 for adults. http://ag.arizona.edu/bta/

May 25: Arboretum Geology Walking Tour

8 am. Local geologist Alan Seymour returns as guide for this once-a-month walk, a chance to see rocks and volcanic formations along the main trail on a guided tour that compresses almost two billion years of geologic history into just over one educational hour! Learn about Pinal schist, the volcanic origins of Picket Post Mountain and the Apache Leap tuff. Weekend nature walks and most public events are included with daily admission of $9 for adults. http://ag.arizona.edu/bta/

May 26: Photography Class: 'Switching to Manual' with Michael Madsen

9 am - 2:30 pm. Enrollment is $39. call 520.689.2723 to enroll and prepay. Gilbert professional photographer Michael Madsen has traveled to Europe, Thailand, Mexico, Morocco, Jamaica and the Bahamas in search of the perfect picture; on Sunday of Memorial Day Weekend he'll coach beginning to intermediate photographers who are ready to harness the horsepower of their digital cameras by getting past the "auto" settings in favor of manually controlling theirown aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and white balance. "We will switch our cameras to manual mode and learn to take charge of our cameras, and explore the creative side of photography," says Madsen. "You'll be taught how to adjust your camera settings, and the photographic effects that occur based on these settings. Heading outdoors after lunch allows us to apply techniques we have learned in the classroom and experiment with camera settings together and one-on-one." http://ag.arizona.edu/bta/photoclass

June 1: Saturday Afternoon Book Club

1 - 2:30 pm. The second meeting of a new book club at Boyce thompson Arboretum State Park on Saturday, June 1 starts at 1 p.m. in the air-conditioned Lecture Room of the historic Smith building. Book club participants will discuss Sarah's Quilt and The Star Garden by Nancy E. Turner; the second and third volumes of the Sarah Agnes Prine trilogy which began with These Is My Words. Join the book club for an informal and relaxed discussion about these books that tell the story of one woman's journey as she faces the challenges of ranching and raising a family in the Territory. As an added bonus, the book club will have a phone interview with the author: Nancy E. Turner, with a chance to ask questions about her characters, and her own family history which inspired the books and her writing. How have others described these books? Publishers Weekly lists The Star Garden as "Part Western, part romance, part imagined history; Tony Hillerman, author of Hunting Badger and arguably the Southwest's most famous author, was quoted as saying "Sarah's Quilt is even better than These Is My Words, and that's saying a lot." Light refreshments will also be served. Please contact Vicki Johnson for more information and to RSVP for the June meeting at BTABookClub@msn.com or 480.688.3342. Book club attendance is included with Arboretum daily admission fo $9; and, of course, free to annual members and state parks pass holders. http://ag.arizona.edu/bta/

June 2: Guided Bird Walk With David Moll

6:30 am. Learn to identify resident birds at and look for exotic seasonal migrants on a two-hour walk starting from the Visitor Center breezeway. Prescott resident David Moll is special guest as guide for this walk; he's a popular bird walk guide at the annual Verde Valley Birding & Nature Festival each April - and founding president of the Prescott Audubon Society. A walk with David is more than just a bird walk - while finding Arizona birds is his specialty, he places them within a context of meteorology, geography, topography, botany, entomology and interactions among each other and with other vertebrates. Weekend nature walks are included with daily admission of $9. Read recent bird checklists at
http://ag.arizona.edu/bta/events/birdwalks.html

June 8: Learn Your Lizards Guided Walk

8 am. AZ authors Kurt and Cindy Radamaker are the special guest tourguides for this guided outing for kids -- and all who enjoy Arizona's most common, colorful and charismatic little reptiles. Walks are also scheduled June 29 and July 13 with 'Wild Man Phil' Rakoci. http://arboretum.ag.arizona.edu/events/lizardwalk.html

June 22: Arboretum Geology Walking Tour

8 am. Local geologist Alan Seymour returns as guide for this once-a-month walk, a chance to see rocks and volcanic formations along the main trail on a guided tour that compresses almost two billion years of geologic history into just over one educational hour! Learn about Pinal schist, the volcanic origins of Picket Post Mountain and the Apache Leap tuff. Weekend nature walks and most public events are included with daily admission of $9 for adults. http://ag.arizona.edu/bta/

June 23: Edible & Medicinal Desert Plants Walk Guided by Dave Morris

8 am. Explore the Curandero Trail on a tour guided by ethno-botanist and Choctaw Tribal Nation member David Morris -- learn about the edible-medicinal uses for Prickly pear cactus fruits and other edible and medicinal Sonoran Desert plants on this slow-paced one-hour walk along a desert path where our guide shares his knowledge about the ways native plants have fed, healed and clothed Sonoran desert peoples for more than one thousand years. .** Please note: this tour explores the Curandero Trail, which has steep sections that are not suitable for visitors who use wheelchairs or walkers. Weekend nature walks and most public events are included with daily admission of $9 for adults. Read more at http://ag.arizona.edu/bta/

June 29: Learn Your Lizards Guided Walk

8 am. 'Wild Man Phil' Rakoci is the special guest tour guide on this guided outing for kids -- and all who enjoy Arizona's most common, colorful and charismatic little reptiles. Phil returns July 13.
http://arboretum.ag.arizona.edu/events/lizardwalk.html