Temple Square and Red Butte Gardens

My husband and I have been serving on a committee which is planning a National Foote Family Meeting to be held in Salt Lake City in July of 2015.  Every month or so for the last few months we have met in Salt Lake City for meetings as we did last Saturday.  While in Salt Lake, we decided to extend our visit for an afternoon outing.

First stop was lunch on the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

I couldn't resist taking a few pictures of the view to the west from the 10th floor.

Glen's great, great grandfather worked on building the Salt Lake Temple.  It took forty years to complete it.  The family in Draper still has a piece of the granite left over from when one of the granite blocks was cut.

Our next stop was the Red Butte Gardens located on the mountain just east of the University of Utah campus. 

Our Thanksgiving Point membership expired the end of the July and we decided to wait and renew it next year, so we have been missing our occasional garden walks.

It was also time to explore another garden.

Red Butte may not have the expansive views of Thanksgiving Point, but it did not disappoint.

We can't wait to visit again in late Spring.  There was an arbor of wisteria and we just have to see it in full bloom.  We know that the garden will have a whole different look.

The rose garden was in bloom and the roses were beautiful.  We are enjoying perfect weather this autumn.

This trip, I concentrated on taking pictures of leaves and foliage.

So much texture and so much color.

It was an up and down walk so the occasional bench was welcome.

This was who was across the way from that bench.

A plethora of leaf shapes and colors.

I also loved the climbing vines.

In the Children's Garden, I took a picture of my sweetie through the water.

More vines.

There are plans in place to put in a more water wise garden on the mountain.

Juxtaposition of evergreen and deciduous.

 

On the way out, there is a large green house where they keep citrus in the winter (just like George Washington at Mt. Vernon.)  Glen also found a bougainvillea.  It made him think of his Arizona garden.