My husband is one of those destination drivers. You know what they’re like…..get to the end goal as fast as possible, food on the fly and a bottle to pee in. I’m all about the journey, so when I am traveling alone, or without hubby in tow, I try to find hidden nuggets along the path to my destination. I’ve made the drive between Colorado and Idaho many times and to tell you the truth, I enjoy the drive alone. It’s a very relaxing (BORING! my husband says) drive involving no big cities and lots of wide open spaces. A time to catch up on my podcasts, plan my next project, drain the tension from body and brain. Montana gifted me with another jewel on this trip.
Ah Montana, this big, bold, beautiful state continues to bring me joy! On my last trip back from Colorado, I stopped in Butte for the night. Since I only had a 5 hour drive on my second day to get home, I started looking around for a little diversion on the way back. Tizer isn’t exactly on the way back. I needed to go West to get home and the garden was about an hour due North, but I decided to head that way anyway. It opened at 10, an hour there, hour back to I90 and I’d still get home by dinner time. Beautiful drive north on I15 alternating between mountains and wide open valleys. Then google maps tells me to exit and I end up on this little two lane road that may have been paved last when Clinton was in office. When that ends and I find myself on a dirt road flanked by houses, I’m thinking “Oh google, what have you gotten me into now”. Not the first time google and I have been at odds. At the end of this dirt road I came to a dirt parking lot with a port-a-potty. Hmmmm, seriously, what I have I done now? Across the “street” was a nursery and to my right was a chain link fence with a hand painted sign that had seen better days telling me the gardens opened at 10. I still had a few minutes. Looking through the fence I saw a little house with all kinds of metal garden art. Okay, what the hell was this…did I just drive an hour to visit a place where someone had turned their yard into a garden and arboretum? I was weighing my choices…get out while I could or just pay my money and go see what was happening behind the chain link fence. Right about that time a lady came out and opened the gate. She made eye contact with me….well crap!, now I had to go in.
I meandered thru the metal garden art (all for sale) and into the gift shop to pay my $9. The lovely lady who runs the place gave me a map, explained a few things and pointed me in the right direction down a path to a magical experience. I have a few botanical gardens under my belt and St Louis is still my favorite big city garden…if you haven’t been, I highly recommend it. But Tizer has now become my favorite small time garden, replacing Steamboat Springs, CO. It’s so lush, with chairs tucked into secluded places so you can just sit and enjoy the view. There is also a lovely overlook above the children’s garden. Leave them down below to play in the living teepee and discover the tree faces and animal sculptures while you sit up top with your cup of coffee or whatever and watch them enjoy. (slide show below)
There is a stream bubbling through the middle of the garden with several enchanting bridges to cross over, along with a covered seating area to sit and watch whatever the water happens to carry past you. I was there the end of July and there were so many different flowers still blooming it felt like spring. Of course, at that elevation, this probably was spring. There is also a cabin right next to that stream that can be rented out…how cool would that be? One of the paths does meander up and down, and gets thin in places, but the majority of the place is flat and groomed and shouldn’t be a problem for any fitness/age level.
That’s the cabin to rent back there. 
I’m going to leave you with pictures of some of the lovely’s I discovered and recommend to you that if you are ever driving down I90 and need a diversion, this is well worth your trip. Or in Jefferson City, stop by, you won’t be disappointed!
Dana, Do you know what that purple flower that looks like it was splattered with white paint is? Is it a petunia? I really like it.
Aunt Mona
well, you know my thumb is brown, but I’m pretty sure it is a petunia 🙂
Yeah, I thought so too. I really like the color!