Boyce Thompson Arboretum — Attraction in Four Corners States

Definitely one of the nicest places in Arizona to hike. Absolutely beautiful. Bring a picnic. Make a day out of it. Tons to see. Lots of trails. A lake.

The best way to show how much I love this place is.. well check it out. The 'Descriptions' from most of my posts from my previous trips here:

2024 - March We arrived about 8:45, and began our hike on the Wallace Desert Garden Trail

2022 - Aug One of my favorite places to enjoy mother nature. Have a hike, take in the beauty, snap some photos, and then have a picnic.

2022 - April It’s warming up. But still absolutely beautiful out here. Happy Easter!

2021 One of my favorite places for a hike and picnic. On this visit, we focused mainly on the 'new' area. The Wallace Desert Garden.

2020 - May Another beautiful day at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. I LOVE this place. We had a nice hike, and picnic. Did I say, I Love this place.

2020 - Feb Another great hike and picnic @ the most beautiful park in Arizona.

2020 - Jan One of our favorite places in Arizona, to enjoy mother nature. Beautiful park. Great place for a picnic.

2019 - Mar I always... always.. love spending time here. Bring a picnic, and something to drink (wink). Get some hiking in. Take a lot of photos. And see a lot of unique things.

2019 - Jan I LOVE the Boyce Thompson Arboretum. We can walk anywhere from 1 to 4 miles, through some of the most beautiful scenery around. Then have lunch in the hugs picnic area. So much to see here. And it changes with the seasons. I always take too many pictures, and this time was no exception.

2017 - April A beautiful day for a nice hike. We began in the demonstration area, then took the High Trail', then back through the Herb Garden, to the picnic area, where we had a nice little picnic. After the Arboretum, we went into Superior to visit friends.. and puppies.

2016 - Nov One of my favorite places to hike. A great place to spend an afternoon with friends. Walking around, looking at all the beautiful plants and scenery, the hummingbird garden, the butterfly garden, the cactus garden, the herb garden, Australian area, demonstration garden, the indian maze, the high trail, Ayer lake, the Eucalyptus forrest, and much much more. Bring a picnic basket, the picnic area is a perfect place to have lunch (and a couple brewskies). Bring your beloved dog, there are always a few other dogs for him to say 'hi' to as you're walking the trails.

2016 - Mar The weather was perfect, and I got some really nice shots. We had a wonderful hike.

2014 - Mar A day at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum with Steven, Jeannine and Robin. The weather was perfect. The desert was beautiful. The company was fun-tastic. And the picnic lunch was pretty damn good if I do say so myself :-)

2010 One of the most beautiful places I've ever hiked.

And before this. I actually lived in Superior for 10 years and went to the Arboretum very frequently. Sometimes 2 or 3 times a week. Back then I had a 'Neighborhood Pass'. I don't even know if they still have those.

Now, the best way to get your moneys worth is to buy an annual pass. Pays for itself in just 2-3 visits. Then it's free for the rest...

My husband and I went to Boyce Thompson Arboretum for our maternity photos for our first baby. We have struggled for over 10 years with infertility and are finally pregnant with our first and wanted to have special pictures to celebrate the moment. While we admittedly did not do research online beforehand (which we apparently should have), we went to the arboretum to meet with our photographer. When we got there, it was not obvious that there was a place for admissions or what the cost of the tickets were (or that they stopped allowing admissions after 4pm). After we were told this, we decided to try to go elsewhere to take our pictures. We had seen an area down a way that looked like a picnic/camping area and thought that was separate from the park and went to take some pictures there. Nowhere did we see any signs that said that pedestrians could not enter and had seen multiple other people walking in and out through the gate. While we were taking some pictures, the next thing we knew, one of the employees came at us on their golf cart yelling at us about how they were going to call the sheriff for us trespassing. We were immediately apologetic as we legitimately had NO idea that it was all part of the park and immediately offered to pay while still being threatened with the sheriff being called. My husband ended up paying and we were able to get a few more pictures in before we left, but the experience really left a poor taste in my mouth. It was legitimately an accident that anyone could have been made by anyone and now I have such a negative cloud hanging over what was supposed to be such a special time...

Beautiful scenery and lots of neat birds and critters. We had a great time walking the trail and learning and appreciating the beautiful plants, animals and views. The docents were pretty friendly and knowledgeable. It was really neat seeing the coati. I had never even heard of those before coming here. A docent was on either side of the spot on the trail where there was a whole family of these raccoons with monkey tails. They were adorable. They can apparently be aggressive when they have young to protect and especially get upset when dogs come through. So the docents stand on either side of the path and encourage people to hurry through the spot in order to minimize chances the animals will get upset or that obnoxious people will try to run up and try to get selfies with them. During the time I spent standing next to the docent asking questions and taking photos I didn't see them do anything that seemed scary or dangerous and tons of people walked by, many with dogs so they seem rather tame as long as no one antagonized them. Also a neat fact the docent pointed out was that there was a family of Northern Cardinals right near the Coati. Turns out that the birds follow along the path of the animals because the coati dig up the soil hunting for bugs and the birds sift through the disturbed ground looking for bugs the...