Botanical Gardens — Attraction in Clemson

This is an excellent day trip for the family, couple, group or even solo. The entrance fee and parking is free and there is an area called picnic gardens that has 15-20 picnic tables for you to bring a meal, but no grills for cooking out. Hint hint would be a nice addition. I would suggest parking at Fran Hanson visitor center and picking up a trail map then explore the geology museum, Jurassic gardens, desert gardens, and the carriage house for restrooms before heading out on the trails. Don’t pass on the Geology Museum, there is a very cool room called fluorescent mineral room where you will see natural rocks that glow in the dark, 10 out of 10 on that room. After picking up your map and seeing this area, I would move over to the parking area at the caboose gardens and start the trails there. Don’t miss the duck pond and if you want to feed the ducks and turtles bring some quarters for the feeders. The ducks are smart and hang out near the feeder machines lol. It’s truly a great day trip for everyone to go and enjoy, you wound be disappointed and I plan to visit again and again, because different flowers reveal themselves at different times of the year so you will always see something different there. I’ll have a photo of the map on this review and some of the highlights…enjoy your day...

For a free botanical garden, this is a fantastic place and well represents the biodiversity of SC with highland forest to beachside trails, it's very diverse within a fairly short walk.

I started by driving around and I don't recommend that - I ended up lost and in a maintenance area! The place isn't large - park near the caboose garden (to the left of the main entrance.) There's a bathroom nearby and you can tour the smaller gardens, like the dwarf conifer and camelia areas, a duck pond and childrens' garden. Then from the duck pont, walk out and back along the Natural Heritage Trail. That takes you through a mountain cove, forest, past a savannah and a beachy trail, along a marshy boardwalk and to the visitor's center. Around the shop and bathrooms on that end is a jurassic garden and geology museum (complete with a dark room with phosphorescent rocks) and a short desert trail next to the parking lot and a bird blind on the other side of the lot. (I assume) longer "arboretum" trails branch off into the woods, but they aren't cultivated areas like what's on the trail.

The gardens are great for a morning walk or an afternoon break - it's not an all day thing. The visitor center shop is worth visiting - small, but some unique items and a small art...

If you are a gardener who loves going to botanical gardens, do NOT waste your time here. This place appears to have not been tended to in at least 10 years with the possible exception of some lawn mowing. There is nothing worth viewing. If you are in the area though, you are in luck because an hour and a half away is the botanical garden at the University of Georgia in Athens. It is very nice and has an enormous greenhouse/atrium. If you are a gardener, you will love the UofG gardens. Edit, we just visited the Furman campus, beautiful campus. Tons of azaleas and cherry in bloom, water fountains. The whole place is beautifully manicured and the lake is a nice walk. There is also a...