Fran Hanson Visitor's Center — Attraction in South Carolina

SC Botanicals have been on my bucket list for some yrs! I finally slowed down for a day trip to Clemson. Their opening times and basic info is on their website. Easy drive from Columbia/ Lexington area, a little bit over a 2hr drive. Good free parking. Walk ways are paved and signs are easy to follow.

Once you arrive its self explanatory on how to navigate the gardens. Everything is pretty well taken care of, there were a few sections that needed some tender loving. I entered and went to the right and followed the the paved road, visitor center was closed during my visit. I still enjoyed my time at this beautiful place. So many flowers were in bloom, I'm sure I didn't even come close to capturing all of them. This is a great place to wander and enjoy nature. I believe its 29 acres, they do have some information flyers thru out the park.

They do accept volunteers if anyone wants to volunteer some time. Make sure you take plenty of water, umbrella for the sun, and lots of energy. They do have a few benches as you walked thru to take a break. The picnic tables were closed off due to COVID. We walked for hours and still barely touched the surface.

I highly recommend everyone visit, volunteer, and donate if you can. My day was well spent at the Gardens! Yes, I will be making this a yearly trip to Clemson to visit wander around. They have some other historic sites that I'm will visit also.

Photo of South Carolina Botanical Garden - Clemson, SC,...

We visited this garden 2 weeks ago while we was visiting the Clemson area, and to get out and enjoy the excellent summer weather. This park was very easy to navigate to with the use of a GPS device or Google maps. They have plenty of parking and they can accommodate small and large vehicles.

The gardens are still open even during this COVID-19 pandemic, but the day I went the public restrooms and visitor center was closed. It was nice to walk and view some of the different types of trees and flowers. I could also tell that some of the gardens are not being maintained, because some of the bushes was overgrown in some of the gardens. Also many of the picnic tables were closed for public use, and tapped off due to the social distance procedures.

Overall I really enjoyed these gardens and had a very pleasant afternoon walking under the canopy of the live oaks. I'm sure we will definitely return to these gardens in the future or during a different season (fall,...

This is definitely worth a few hours if you're in town. The visitors center area was very well taken care of and I enjoyed the different floewrbeds i.e. desert, tropical, etc. It was themed/landscaped very nicely. The geology museum was on the smaller side, but had very interesting specimens, especially the precious gem section, on display. If you take the driving loop around the grounds you can go over the butterfly garden which was the best part of the grounds in my opinion. It's a natural outdoor garden that attracts a lot of wild butterflies. There's also a beautiful sitting area with a gazebo...