Gardens of Fun and Beauty.

The Rio Grande Botanic Garden is located on 52 acres of land, nestled between the Rio Grande and the Albuquerque Aquarium. It includes a 10,000 square-foot glass conservatory, a 10-acre Heritage Farm, the PNM Butterfly Pavilion and a whimsical Children’s Fantasy Garden . The Botanic Garden embraces the BioPark’s mission to demonstrate and celebrate the horticultural and agricultural traditions of the Rio Grande Valley . It opened to the public on December 5, 1996.

Families are greeted at the entrance to the children's Fantasy Garden by a huge friendly dragon, inviting you into the "castle." Once across the castle's moat, you will experience life as a tiny being inside a giant garden: ride the ants, walk through the carrots, play inside a pumpkin, climb a potato, and listen to the buzzing of a bee. A maze and sanded play area round out the fun.

Exit the Fantasty Garden into formal walled gardens that illustrate traditional Spanish-Moorish and English landscape design and feature in-laid tile, ironwork, plantings and water features. Contemporary glass conservatories showcase plants of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts of North America in one wing and plants from the world's Mediterranean climates in the other.

Swans glide across the central lake near the festival green and stage where many special events, including our annual summer concert series, take place. Weddings are held year round at the Garden.

The unique Heritage Farm features an adobe farmhouse, vineyard, heirloom and commercial apple orchards, field crops, small and large vegetable gardens, and farm animals and equipment. The adobe animal barn is home to a pair of Percheron draft horses, Alpine goats, Hampshire pigs, a Jersey cow, Churro sheep and Dominique chickens. A new Insectarium and Japanese Garden are scheduled to open soon.

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Admission & Park Hours

Admission to the Rio Grande Botanic Garden & Aquarium

13 to 64 years: $7
65 years and older: $3
3 to12 years: $3

Combo Admission to the Botanic Garden, Aquarium and Zoo
Same day combo tickets to visit all three facilities are sold until noon every day. Combo tickets include unlimited train rides on the Rio Line, which travels between the Aquarium/Garden and the Zoo, and the Thunderbird Express, which makes a loop around the Zoo. Combo tickets may be purchased exclusively from cashiers located at the front entrances of the Aquarium, Botanic Garden and Zoo.

13 - 64 years: $12
65 years and older: $5
3 - 12 years: $5

 

Park Hours

9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Sunday.
9:00 AM to 6:00 PM Saturday and Sunday, June through August.

Please Note:

• Tickets are sold every day from 9 am to one-half hour before closing. No one is admitted after this time.

• The Rio Grande Zoo is closed on January 1, Thanksgiving Day and December 25.

• The Zoo Train and Rio Line are closed on Mondays. No combo tickets to the facilities will be sold on Mondays. Trains run as usual Tuesday through Sunday.

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Guest Services

Persons with Disabilities, Rental Wagons, Wheelchairs and Other Services

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Location and Directions

The Rio GrandeBotanic Garden is at 2601 Central Avenue NW, which is at the intersection of Central and New York Avenues, just east of the Central Avenue Bridge which crosses the Rio Grande.

Visit Google Maps »

Take Central Avenue to New York Avenue. Head north on New York Avenue and look immediately to your left for the entrance to the Botanic Garden.

For additional directions and locations information, please call 311 or visit
http://www.cabq.gov/biopark/garden/index.html#LHO