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| - The Desert Botanical Garden is definitely worth visiting in if you're in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area. Its educational, fun, and can offer a modest workout. If you walk through all the exhibits, you'll log in about 10,000 steps easily. They also have an onsite restaurant (Gertrude's), and I saw a few wine bars (maybe tequila stands) scattered about. Plenty of parking.
Some key highlights/tips:
1. To make your visit most efficient and to minimize back tracking, work your way counter-clockwise from the visitor entrance and keep "bearing right." The park is divided into a big loop with 4-5 smaller loops around the perimeter.
2. You'll see cacti, aloe, agave, yucca, and a whole other host of desert plants of all shapes, sizes, and colors. That's what makes it so cool.
3. Plenty of places to sit at each loop, and there seems to be bathrooms and water fountains scattered about.
4. There are paper lanterns scattered throughout the trail that supposedly lights up at night. See if you can catch an evening tour or event here - supposedly they may have live music, food and drink, and maybe dancing.
5. Plan on spending 2-3 hours here. You'll probably see similar plants if hiking but the variety here in the garden is unmatched.
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