The University of Arizona

Picket Post Mansion Tours May 21 - 22

Evacuation of Boyce Thompson Arboretum May 8 also cancelled special tours that day at the adjacent and historic Picket Post Mansion. The good news is that the mansion reopens to visitors for one final weekend, May 21 and 22, from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. each day. Money raised by mansion tours helps support Boyce Thompson Arboretum; mansion tour ticket cost $20. Visitors are also required to pay Arboretum admission of $7.50 in order to access the gardens and walk the half-mile of our Main Trail to reach the mansion. Please call our staff at 520-689-2723 with any questions about mansion tours next weekend.
Read more aboutThe Picket Fire which flared May 8 and brought a one-day closure of the Arboretum. Visit and you can see where wildfire burned near as our main gate, but did not burn Arboretum collections. View Nighttime Fire photos by John Aho . Arboretum Director Mark Siegwarth and our staff, our members and volunteers offer our sincere thanks to the United States Forest Service firefighters and fire crews from the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and all our neighboring communities for their work suppressing the fire. The Arboretum is on summer hours, open at 6:00 a.m. daily and closing at 3:00 p.m., with each day's last paid admission accepted at 2:00 so those visitors still have one full hour to enjoy the gardens and trails. Read more about Weekend Events, Classes Nature Walks and Guided tours.

Help support the Arboretum - buy annual membership, and visit often. Pets are welcome, provided they are leashed at all times and well-behaved. Do you need Maps and Directions? Arizona State Parks has an excellent map/direction page. The Arboretum is an
Arizona State Park located at Highway 60 milepost #223 near the historic copper mining town of Superior, 55 miles due east of Phoenix.
The drive takes about two hours from Tucson via highway 79 North through Florence to highway 60 -- then turn right and continue east another twelve miles. Trails are Wheelchair Accessible There is no restaurant at the Arboretum but sandwiches, drinks and snacks are available in our gift shop. Picnic tables and charcoal grills are available for visitors to use; propane and charcoal are allowed, wood fires are not. Read about the Arboretum's 75-year heritage, our history page describes how the Arboretum has grown to include two miles of trails and into a place for children to learn and for all ages to appreciate the beauty and importance of desert ecosystems.Explore the gardens on a virtual tour!

May - June Gallery Exhibit
During May and June our visitor center art gallery features botanical illustrations from the reference guide: "Legumes of Arizona: An Illustrated Flora and Reference." Illustrations produced for the project are accurate scientific representations of plants, and also unique works of art, many of them created by illustrators from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum’s Art Institute.
Preview this exhibit and read more