University of California Riverside Botanic Gardens

Being in Palm Springs over the Thanksgiving holiday meant that if we wanted to go anywhere west, we needed to consider traffic on I-10.  With that in mind, on Tuesday we headed over to the University of California - Riverside to visit their Botanic Gardens.

Steve wanted to look for a Townsend's Warbler that was being seen (no luck) and I am always happy in any sort of gardens.

Like any gardens, they change with the seasons.  Some things were not in bloom at all (Iris gardens) but there were plenty of other things in bloom (roses!j  There are some pretty steep ascents, so it was also good exercise :-)

I enjoyed their small butterfly garden and the wooden scorpion someone had created.

It's always fun to see citrus ripening.

We scrambled over some rocks, and looked out on mountains.

There was an herb garden that was fun and the jasmine smelled fantastic!

And  flowers just blooming on the side of the path.

A random patch of Canna Lilies was at the base of a grapevine covered stairway.