The Boyce Thompson Arboretum is one of the most beautiful places in Arizona, it also is part of the Sonora Desert. It was founded by Col. William Boyce Thompson who was an engineer, financier, and philanthropist. “In the early 1920s, Thompson, enamored with the landscape around Superior, built a winter home overlooking Queen Creek, the Picket Post House. In 1924 he founded the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research in Yonkers, New York (now at Cornell University in Ithaca), and the Boyce Thompson Arboretum on 400 acres around the Picket Post House, in Queen Creek Canyon.”
“The collections include plants from the United States, Mexico, Australia, Madagascar, India, China, Japan, Israel, South America, the Middle East, Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Arabian Peninsula—all told 3,900 taxa and 19,000 plants within 135 acres of gardens. We highlight twelve of our gardens and exhibits below. To learn more about the Wallace Desert Garden, please click here.”
This place is so beautiful. The first impression is that it’s not possible life in the desert. Of course, this is not true. There are different habitats. The arboretum garden is located in Sonora Desert. According to azcentral news (2017) inside Arizona, there are three different deserts including portions of the Mojave and Chihuahuan deserts, and some say even the Great Basin Desert in neighboring Utah and Nevada.
Certainly, life in the desert is not easy on the contrary, but nature shows its beauty and splendor under the rays of the sun, Phoenix is one part of this landscape because the city is smack-dab in the middle of it.
I have never practiced hiking before my scholarship with the Humphrey program at Arizona State University. This is one of the things I have learned here, exploring life in the desert in all ways possible, and enjoying the time with excellent international friends. This adventure was possible thanks to the English Corner is excellent place for learning and building relationships with beautiful American friends also getting more experience, knowledge, and motivation from friends around the world.
In this trip, I had a chance to meet girls from Afghanistan, who must leave their country and stay here in Arizona after time in different places. I think this program allows us to know stories such as part of the beauty of multiculturalism.
