Western Colorado Botanical Gardens

How wonderful to have a botanic garden in town. The outside gardens are beautifully lalndscaped and maintained.
There is a tropical conservatory inside that is peaceful and serene. Water flows by ferns and orchids and all sorts of tropical trees.
The butterfly room is fun for childen and for adults!
The membership is reasonable and even the daily pass is well worth it. But if you live here, you ought to consider a pass!

A girlfriend and I showed up on a Tuesday morning. I heard it was free on Tuesdays. This must be old information as we were charged $ 5 per person. I am happy to pay it to support this place. They have a butterfly area. Where they check that you have no hitchhikers before you leave. Overall a beautiful space. Worth your time to visit while in the area. Could be done in less than a hour or as long as you want. I am not 100% sure if the building across the street is part of it or not. It is a castle looking building that has a bunch of fun things around it’s gardens. Glad we found this and made time to visit. Keep up the good work.

Me and a friend visited the WCBG on a recent trip to Grand Junction, CO. The admission fee was $ 4.00 each, since we are both 50+; otherwise, the fee is only $ 5.00. The grounds are small, but very nice. We saw some interesting creatures hovering near flowers at the entrance, and we asked the manager what they were. They are hummingbird moths! Very tiny and adorable, and busy! We wandered through the Butterfly Pavilion, which had a few butterflies, and their greenhouse, with many beautiful tropical plants. A large cat named Smokey came to greet us as we exited the greenhouse, and decided to let us pet him! We wandered through the gardens, including a nice herb garden, and walked along a path that bordered the mighty Colorado River (which merges with another river in Grand Junction). There are miles of bicycle and walking paths here. The Gardens also has some Aderondike chairs with footstools at the front of the main building where you can sit and enjoy the scenery. The museum was closed on the day we visited, but we only had about an hour to spend there, anyway.

We were in the Mesa area for the week and I planned a day in Grand Junction for the kids. We incuded the Botanical Gardens which was to be the highlight of the day, and were especially excited to see it just happened to be their free day that month. We were going to spend a few hours there. However, I had to stretch the time just to make it an hour long visit. My kids are 6, 8 and 10 and a great age for this type of place, so it was a bummer.
So the staff is friendly, and the gift-​shop is normal over-​priced related items, and you have to enter and exit through the gift shop. That however, I come to expect at these places. What was such a disappointment was the Gardens themselves the day we visited.
The butterfly pavilion was… empty of butterflies. None. They didn’t tell us this, so I came back out to ask if we went into the wrong room. Nope. They don’t have any right now. My daughter was crushed as she LOVES butterfly pavilions and we go to the one in Denver sometimes. The room we did like came next and was a pretty rainforest type small room, with two turtles, and a chocolate orchid (the highlight of the gardens), which leads you to the outside. Most of the gardens are outside, which is great, however the day we went there they were working on everything. There was loud leaf blowers, people on the walkway digging in various places, and when we tried to step around them nicely, they kept snapping at us «don’t step there!» where are we supposed to go??? it was very uncomfortable, and it made us feel like we were trespassing.
We left and found in their parking lot a castle with dress up clothes and a small play area. My kids loved this part. They dressed up like knights and a princess and ran around. They had coloring sheets etc, but no place for adults to sit down. I’m unsure this part is free normally or not as it was just open and not connected the the gardens.
Honestly, if I would have paid, I would have asked for my money back. The Butterfly Pavilion was the biggest reason we went, and then we didn’t enjoy the outdoor gardens due to the work being done.
However, on the way out they mentioned they are under new ownership, and they decided to order all new butterflies. And maybe that’s why they are do so many changes to the exterior gardens as well? Who knows. We don’t live in the area, so I can’t give them another chance. But maybe call before you visit and plan to make a day out of it, to see if they are done with the work.

On a drive through Grand Junction to fuel up the gas tank, we saw a series of signs that directed drivers towards downtown G.J. Being that we had some time to burn and like to explore new cities, we followed the signs. Once we hit downtown we realized that there wasn’t much to see except for an uncharacteristically small REI. It was then that I saw another sign for the botanical gardens.
The goose chase continued through an industrial section and some railroad tracks. At the end of a road and dirt path lies the petite Gardens. In my estimation, a walk through the greenhouse and gardens would take you half an hour and definitely less than an hour. The gardens are also in a building phase, so this is not a complete project yet. If you’ve been driving for awhile and pull off in Grand Junction, the WCBC is a place to stretch your legs out for awhile. The admission fee is five dollars.