The plan for the weekend was to hang around the house and tackle a lot of our wedding planning that has been neglected, but waking up Sunday, Carly and I decided that we needed to do something fun. Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to receive a season pass, with guest pass included, to the Denver Botanical Gardens through my work, but even though we had talked about going plenty of times to pick them up, we still had yet to go. The interesting thing is, if you look on TripAdvisor things to do in Denver, the botanical gardens is the top attraction. It has always seemed a little odd to me in a city like Denver, that has so much to offer, that the botanical gardens would be number one, so we decided that today was the day that we had to find out for ourselves.
It was a perfect morning for walking through gardens outside, with just a light coolness in the air, but not too much to where it was chilly. It’s not too far of a drive from our place in Centennial to the gardens, which are just south of downtown. We arrived around 930am and there was still plenty of parking in the garage, so we parked and proceeded to pick up our passes.
As soon as we walked through the entrance to the gardens, it became apparent that this place was going to be incredible. You are greeted by towering shrubs, large greenhouses, and every color of flower imaginable. They gave us a map when we entered, but we quickly decided that strolling wherever our hearts took us was going to be the most relaxing way to see the gardens. We could’ve tried to plot out a path to see everything, but then we would’ve been there all day, and honestly, probably would’ve got lost in the beauty anyways.
The highlight of the visit was in the “sensory garden”, which encouraged you to experience the plants with all 5 senses, where Carly touched the fern plant and discovered that the leaves of a fern move when touched. Her reaction was priceless!
After walking for awhile, we realized just how big the gardens really were. We just kept walking and walking, hardly seeing the same thing twice, even though we were just wandering aimlessly. The experience was incredible, and Carly and I decided that we would definitely be coming back to see things that we may have missed.
All in all, I would highly recommend the Denver Botanical Gardens to anyone visiting Denver as a beautiful, relaxing way to enjoy some of nature’s most gorgeous plants right in the heart of the city!
