Platform viewing deck over pond in Moon Viewing Garden in San Francisco Botanical Garden with fall foliage color in Japanese Maple trees. Photo by Saxon Holt.
New York City’s Central Park is known for its beautiful foliage when the leaves turn every Fall. And while San Francisco is often written off as “not having seasons”, the Botanical Gardens are proof that we do have some pretty beautiful changes that occur every autumn.
Spokesperson Nina Sazevich tells us the next two weeks are the best time to view the gardens at their autumnal peak.
“The Garden offers one of the nicest in the city when its Moon Viewing Garden and Temperate Asia Garden begin to turn,” Sazevich says.
In the Moon Viewing Garden, visitors can step out over the water on a wooden deck and immerse themselves in a mosaic of reddening leaves.
The gardens are also dotted with Gingko Biloba trees and Chinese tulip trees which are really pretty this time of year. Even though the ginkgo trees drop their berries, which when squashed, can give off a rather, shall we say, vomit-ous odor. So use your eyes, not your nose 😉
The 55 acres San Francisco Botanical Garden is located in Golden Gate Park. It’s open every day of the year from 7:30am until last entry at 4pm. Admission for SF residents is free (with proof of residence, e.g., CA ID with SF address, or photo ID and utility bill).
Sarah B.
Boardwalk path covered with autumn leaves of Plum tree in Temperate Asia section of San Francisco Botanical Garden. Photo by Saxon Holt.
Walkway by Moon Viewing Garden in San Francisco Botanical Garden with fall foliage color in Japanese Maple trees, Acer palmatum. Photo by Saxon Holt.