Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden

Found this amazing garden on discover the forest and enjoyed every bit of the walk great time with the family the majestic oak lived up to its name you will enjoy it highly recommended

Great place to go for some peace and quiet! The staff is friendly and helpful, and there are countless little spots to go off by yourself. You really won’t run into other people constantly– if even at all! You can just enjoy some alone time in the shade by the water, or head around the mile-​long trail. It was extremely hot and humid on the day that I went, but there was a lot of available shade. I wish I had found this place sooner! If you want serene– this is it!

My family and I went for the first time this past week and we will definitely be back! My 16 month old was in heaven with all the beautiful flowers, plants, wildlife and trees around. Tons of trails to pick from and with only $ 8 to get in for adults we will be back here often. Kind of tricky to find if you’re not looking for it. It’s in the college area and down a long driveway that does not have clear signs. But once you’ve found it it’s awesome!

Very pleasant place to walk early morning. Nice gift shop and plants available, small number of snacks and drinks. Very affordable garden, mostly level walking on paved path. The penstemon were outstanding in their bloom. Good place to get a light walking workout. Friendly people at the front desk.
P. S. I saw a small bucket of standing water next to a faucet, perfect place for mosquitoes.

About half of the garden is like a desert and the other half of the garden is like a forest. It makes sense since all of the plants in the garden are found in California and California is half a desert, half a forest.
Toward the back the plants are not as nice and gardened. They’re situated in neighborhoods among themselves with no detail to how they look aesthetically. The main portions of the garden are nice.
I’ve had to go here twice on 2 separate occasions. Once for extra credit for a botany class. And the 2^nd for a field trip for a plant morphology class. I wouldn’t have come here if it weren’t for those reasons because it’s too far from where I live for what it is. I saw some people walking through the garden as if they go there everyday though.
Admission is $ 5 since it’s a non profit organization.

Great place to relax and enjoy. Well managed. Always something new!

I’ve been here twice and I absolutely love it. It’s so peaceful.
Entrance is $ 8 but if you have a student ID it’s $ 6. They also offer memberships but I’m not exactly sure on the price.
There’s a lot of variety of trees and plants. Make sure to go see the big oak tree there because it’s amazingly beautiful. There’s a lot of benches around where you can take a moment to sit and appreciate nature. Also great for reading a book because it’s pretty quiet most of the time unless other people are passing by.
They have night time events sometimes. I haven’t been to one but I seen them setting up one time where they put lights along the pathway. I’m sure it looked great at night with the lights.
I haven’t been here in spring yet but I can just imagine how much more beautiful it looks during that season. I’ll definitely be returning here.

Gorgeous here. We visited and took our 2015 family photos here and they came out beautiful. The backdrop is unreal. It is super serene here, worth visiting for sure!

My family and I visited for our first time for a night event, Things that go Bump at Night. Staff was very friendly and it was beautifully decorated. We saw different types of plants and animals, like a tortoise, owls and toads or frogs; cant remember which.
Point is, it is a very nice place to visit either alone, on a date or with your family.
Bring comfortable shoes.

This is my go to place if I just need a quick escape to nature but can’t get away to the mountains. I live right next door so I can pop over whenever I want. It’s easy to get lost in the gardens and to not see a soul, if you don’t want to. I often take reading in with me and find a secluded bench to sit on. And then if I actually want to learn a bit about the plants and creatures, I can do that too. It’s great!

My kids love this place! We take our nature hike then have a picnic! Great place to expose your little ones to nature and keep them away from the tv

While in line for the butterfly pavilion I couldn’t help but constantly crack up while thinking about that one Episode on Community when Troy meets LeVar Burton… LOL! (If you’re a huge community fan like me you know what’s up! Haha)
To get into the garden it is 8 $ you can take a tram to the butterfly pavilion or take the short walk through various gardens (more like a lot of dead trees and dried out bushes: sad face:) I was a bit bummed out about the garden. A lot of plants were dead and at one point it felt like I paid to walk through a hiking trail. Other then that it was still nice to walk around and look at different plants and trees.
The butterfly pavilion was a treat! We came on the last day so it was free! Normally it’s 2 $. Waited in line and I was allowed to release a butterfly. It was a fun experience.
To be honest I didn’t venture too much. Ended up leaving after I released the butterfly because I was getting very Hangry (lol!)
5 stars because even though everything was a bit dry, it’s understandable because we are currently going through a drought :(also the volunteers and staff made it very enjoyable and the wait to the butterfly pavilion bearable :)

This place is like my own personal backyard great for relaxing, reflecting and great for morning runs.

It is amazing how many plants are native to California. We see a variety of them in our everyday life and sometimes don’t think twice about it.
* Travel tip: The Botanic Garden offers Free Days
Here are some features that we experienced:
* White sage (salvia apiana) is part of the mint (lamiaceae) family
* Route 66 California fuchsia (Epilobium) is part of the evening-​primrose (onagraceae) family
* California poppy (eschscholzia californica)
* The Benson Fountain, constructed in memory of George C.S. Benson (1908 – 1999). He was a founding member of the Overseers Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and a stalwart supporter of California native plants.
* The Benjamin Pond is dedicated to Richard K. Benjamin, Ph.D., an internationally acclaimed research scientist and mycologist.

Beautiful place to find your zen. Lots of twists and turns, lovely gazebos and fountain, butterfly garden, sculptures, pond, and various benches in spots you will want to sit awhile at with your book and zip-​lock bag of cashews. Pretty amazing to have it as your «backyard» if you happen to live in the Claremont Graduate Housing as I did once.

In honor of National Public Gardens Day (
), I came here on Friday for free (yep other participating gardens also provided free admission). I arrived around 11:30 am and had no problem finding parking.
I was greeted by a friendly person at the front booth and picked up my map and was well on my way to check out this garden. There was definitely a LOT of ground to cover. I was here total for 3 hours and still did not see everything. At 86 acres of land, you can easily spend a whole day here.
Anyways, one of the first things and ever lasting impressions I have of this place is that there are a LOT (and I mean quite a lot) of little critters (mostly lizards and squirrels) that run pass you on the trails, so be prepared for that (I am honestly not a fan of the reptile family so I was a bit freaked out while I was here). Probably would be best to wear good durable, solid (closed toe) walking shoes as most of the trails are dirt roads.
There is plenty of shaded areas to walk through and other parts of the numerous of trails that are not shaded, so best to bring a hat to cover your face and don’t forget the SPF. While you are at it, would be great to pack yourself some water and a little snack. There is plenty of wooden benches throughout (plenty also in the shade). Also don’t forget your charged up camera as well.
There is such a large collection (living collection as it is put on the gardens map) of California native trees, plants, shrubbery, etc. and of course some other plant life from other areas as well. Depending on when you go, there may be different things to check out, like the butterfly pavilion (which was not available on this visit).
This place is definitely a great place to take the kids so that they can take this opportunity to learn and explore mother nature at her finest. The place is well maintained and there are friendly staff around to help guide you if you are lost and cannot read the map that well (I wasn’t lost but I was a little confused with the map though).
There are only 3 places for the restroom facilities, with the essentials (running water, soap, toilet paper, etc). The gift shop is rather small and to be honest, a bit overpriced (but then again what gift shop isn’t?). There are cute things to browse through though.
Overall, 3 hours on a Friday afternoon was well spent and would be happy to come back here (even if I had to pay the admission price). By the way, this place is located right next to Claremont College, school of Theology. Parking is free.

The Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Gardens was a blast. My class and I got to experience the Native American lifestyle and witness rare plants and wildlife. The highlight of our trip was the gray squirrel which is rare in the state of California and utterly adorable.
The Botanic Gardens are eco-​friendly, the docents are very knowledgeable and considerate, and the environment was breathtaking. Among things we witnessed were coyote scat, deer hoof prints, baby coyote pictures, and we entertained ourselves with Native American games and made crafts. There was even a Native American Chumash hut and mini village. While in the village, we danced the Crow dance, and walked in and out of the hut. Overall, the amazing garden helped us learn about the world around us.
(By the way this was written by my class)

A great collection of California native plants. They’ve done their best to create different areas to represent different parts of california. Of course being as varied a state as it is, this can be tricky in basically a dessert setting, but they do a great job.
Go to the butter fly pavilion first. right now this is a tent house set up near one end of the garden. They plan on having a more permanent feature in the future. But for now this is a great way to go. You can have fun looking for eggs on the plants, finding new caterpillars and of course the buffer flies fluttering about and landing on you are great fun. Saw about 5 different types. Apparently though they are having fun with a squirrel that sneaks into the tent at night and «snacks».
A great place for an afternoon get away to nature while still in the city. Looks like they have lots of kid events as well. Look for the sculptures scattered around the garden as well.

Bored to tears one Sunday, hubs and I decided to check this out. We’ve lived in the area about 500 years, so it was about time.
This is a lovely little sojourn, perfect for old-​timers and little ones in strollers. (older kids may get bored) You walk around, pretty little paths, looking at ll the native plants and wildlife. We came in June, so many flowers were in bloom. I bet early springtime is even better. They have a few Redwoods too, and those were a highlight for me. There were bunnies, cool lizards (different ones than the ones my cat brings to me on a regular basis), squirrels and all kinds of birds.
We splurged the additional 2 bucks for the butterfly pavilion access. People were friendly and explained the chrysalis and various types of native b-​flies and moths, and even had some cute caterpillars on hand to show off. The butterflies were adorable, beautiful, amazing. Only thing was, the pavilion itself is very small, so if you are clumsy like me, be careful! I almost stepped on one of the little critters– they like to rest on the path!
If you get a yearly pass, its like 70 bucks for families, and you can use it at Descanso too, and other botanical gardens. When I retire, this will be something I will probs be buying.

After reading the reviews I expected so much more. Came here with my BFF for a Sunday stroll as she has memberships to botanic gardens across the country. Call me spoiled but while the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden does provide a nice, peaceful place to get away from the noise and disruption of urban/​city life, it just seemed to fall short of some botanical gardens I have visited in the past in Arcadia, San Diego, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Hawaii etc. But I have to admit that since this place is less busy, it was indeed more peaceful. It was still nice to see the all the plants, trees, flowers and wildlife.
TIP: They currently have a butterfly exhibit, but it costs $ 2 extra to get into it. I advise you save your money as the exhibit did not include as many butterflies as I had hoped. I think you will see more as you are walking up and down the trails.