Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary

Truly enjoyed walking the trails and looking at the different types of trees and wildflowers. There’s so much to see, and this is the perfect time of the year to go. Also saw many different types of birds while I was out, which is always exciting! Their information center had fun and interesting information to ponder as well. The staff was just as excited to share their knowledge about the garden and it’s history. I had a good aura while I was there. $ 1 to park your vehicle, otherwise no enterance fee. :)

I have seen so much wild life here! Owls, deer, birds birds birds! Then… last time we were here a woodchuck befriended us! It’s good to know that I’m not the only person who loves wild spaces! Bring it on mother nature.

This evening, my husband and I entered the park at approximately 5:30 PM. This was my first time at the park (and it is one I’ve read quite a bit about and really wanted to see), so we made sure to note the entrance time because the sign on the door explicitly stated we needed to vacate the park by approximately 6:30 PM.
Doing our best to be good stewards of the park, we noted our entrance time and also made sure to look at the map in the entrance so we could return to the front gate and abide by the rules.
Approximately 10 minutes later, we were approached by a woman in the distance who yelled, «no dogs». In our efforts to make sure we’d leave the park at the appropriate time, we’d failed to see the line in the park rules that stated «no domestic animals allowed». We were taken aback for a moment, because we had just been by the Eloise Butler shelter without comment or incident, so we were confused for a moment. Furthermore, the woman didn’t identify herself as park staff and it was dusk inside the park, so we stood there until she walked closer. From the embroidery on her shirt we could see was affiliated with the park, however, this was difficult to see until she was very close to us.
Like others, we came to the park to enjoy it’s beauty, not realizing we had broken a rule that we were absolutely willing to correct. We made no attempts to disobey this woman or walk in the opposite direction, instead we simply stood in the same location for approximately 10 seconds to let her approach us.
The woman, whom I later came to know as Jody, took our stance as a sign of direct disobedience and aggressively informed us she was escorting us out of the park. Stunned at how this person was talking to us, we turned around and walked silently towards our vehicle with Jody no less than 2 feet behind us the entire 10 minute walk. It felt like we were in prison. Her actions were absolutely aggressive and angry – in no way mirroring our own and it felt incredibly bizarre and highly uncomfortable.
As Jody marched us back to our car in this aggressive silence, it felt like a warden was behind us. And as I walked, I just kept thinking how differently this situation could have been handled.
When we were 100 yards from the gate, my husband turned to Jody and stated that we were good from there, we were in the wrong, and she didn’t need to escort us up the hill to the gate (which was in sight): we could make the rest of the trek out of the park. But Jody stated had to follow us all the way to the gate, implying it was because we could not be trusted.
I had had enough of this inappropriate behavior.
I stopped, 75 yards from the main gate, turned to Jody and very calmly stated that her actions really felt out of order and unnecessary given the situation. I stated to her that we understood that we were in the wrong, that we were respectfully complying as per the park rules, and that there was no need for her to be treating us the way she was. I stated that we did not enter the park with a dog under malicious attempt and that we were simply there to enjoy the end of what had been a very nice day for our family. It was just a mistake and we were correcting it without incident.
She stated that she needed to treat us the way she was because we were rude in not apologizing for the dog when she first approached us.
Again, to note, we first encountered Jody at dusk, at a distance. She did not identify herself or her affliction with the park once, so we thought the respectful action was to halt and wait for her to approach us. And when Jody reached us, she removed the opportunity for apologizing or statement on our part by informing us she was escorting us from the park.
My husband calmly responded to Jody’s allegations of rudeness by stating he felt her behavior had been unnecessarily aggressive and overall rude, to which she angrily responded, «being rude would be calling the Minneapolis Park Police» as she motioned for her walkie talkie.
There was no reason to make a statement like this to us. There just wasn’t.
We silently turned to exit the park, wherein I asked for Jody’s name and stated that I would not be returning. She seemed to be very pleased about this, but honestly, it’s just a shame.

I’m a Boy Scout (with an emphasis on scout, more so than boy), and I’m always looking for opportunities to earn more adventure badges. The Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden is a good place to get them.
You can «hike», sit down with a sketch book and draw ferns and flowers and sweeping trees. You can hunt for mushrooms, feed chipmunks, and stumble upon wild turkeys. You can even collect mosquito bites, while having a heart to heart on one of the many benches in this 15 acre sanctuary.

What a beautiful place! I drove here alone on a beautiful afternoon, and walked the entire trail and it was simply heavenly! Birds are everywhere… it’s wild and lush and has a ton of beautiful greens (flowers, trees, plants). I felt a immeasurable level of peace of here. A definite 5 stars!

At the risk of sounding ungrateful for what a lovely lady botanist did graciously in wanting to preserve nature and providing a learning environment, and the city providing an area where you can go and stroll, I have to share my experience with you honestly. I usually read all the reviews I can find on a place before I go visit it so I have a rough idea of what is to come in order to provide a good experience for my boys, and to see if it would be a suitable place to take them at their age as there are so many awesome places to go to in Minnesota and we have not even skimmed the tip of the iceberg. What I read in the reviews and what I found are two different things. I don’t actually know exactly what I expected, but I did not expect this. Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary is a very scenic sanctuary but a little bit overgrown it seems. My 3 year old and one year old could only stand a couple of minutes of being scraped by the plants as we tried using our double jogging stroller to go on the trail. We saw lots of butterflies and bumblebees on our short excursion, so my son liked it for that reason. It is very «hilly» so be prepared for that too. If I was with a secret lover (hehe, don’t worry hubby :), which there seemed to be two pairs of in the parking lot) it might be fun. One of the pairs was blaring their music while having lunch on the bonnet of their car, which took away from the peace and quiet, but I’m sure they had a blast. On a very positive note, we loved the fresh air and the tranquility otherwise. It is quite hidden, and my GPS gave two possible addresses for it, one takes you to BFE but as I came to find out 1 Theodore Wirth Parkway is the correct address. So, it is very hidden, if you don’t have a schedule to follow you might enjoy getting lost. We had to drive through a dodgy area of town, so I would have liked to skip that part with two children in the car. I guess I have to be less trusting of my Smartphone GPS, it must not that be that smart after all. I would probably go there again when my boys are bigger.

This place is magical. It is, in fact, a secret garden. I can’t believe I had never even heard about this place before. We were only able to stay for a half hour because we were short on quarters but will for sure be back soon.

This is the perfict place to waste away a sunny afternoon. Trails all over the place. streams. overlooks. wildlife, A visitors cabin in the woods, and of course. the wildflowers. Worth the short drive out of downtown.

Great place to take a hike and had beautiful scenery. Didn’t see too many birds, but it is fall.

Beautiful place for a peaceful walk.

Located just outside the metro, Eloise Butler Garden and Bird Sanctuary is a magical sanctuary for naturalists who love wild flowers, butterflies, and birds. It consists of trails that loop around a prairie and a pond. You must have a photographic memory of the map that is available at the entrance. If not, there is a guided map for $ 5. There are parking fees in the area so if you want the extra hike, park in the Wirch Beach parking lot. This peaceful garden gives you the opportunity to hike in a well-​maintained, gated sanctuary and to get lost in a sea of nature. It is an explosion of plant species in the middle of the Twin Cities. On my way back to the parking lot, I saw 2 deers grazing along the trail. What a wonderful way to end my hike.