Boyce Thompson Arboretum Visit Pt. 1 - Main Trail

Bit of a lull in the long-running Martin 12-string guitar restoration over the last week or so.  I took a week off during Christmas to visit relatives.  In the desert.  Arizona.

One nice trip we made was to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum.  This is a fantastic park set near Suspicion, Arizona (you gotta love it).  It's located adjacent to the Tonto National Forest.  It was started in 1926 by William 'Boyce' Thompson, a self-made millionaire who made his fortune in investments in the stock market as well as in copper mining in Arizona in the early 20th century.

Above you see a great bunch of barrel cactus (cacti? cactuses?).  The park, not surprisingly, features cactus and succulents, but also includes lilies, beans, and mint.  The park is 323 acres, there are 14,000 individual plants representing 3100 species.

There are four trails - the longest is the main trail, which is about 1.5 miles long.  Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to explore all of them.  But I'll go back again as soon as I can.  The place is amazing.

Here's a lovely Biznaga Colorada - it's flowering.  Really cool.  Many of the plants are labelled with the common name as well as the scientific name.  The park staff document virtually all of the plants in the arboretum!

More cacti along the main trail.

Here's some biographical information about Boyce Thompson.  I took a lot of photos - stay tuned for more coming soon.

Here's the park's website.

Boyce Thompson Arboretum Pages:
Part One - Main Trail (This page)
Part Two - Greenhouse
Part Three - Ayer Lake