Houston Walks: Houston Garden Center and Marvin Taylor Exercise Trail, Section 1

We were lucky this morning to catch a short walk between downpours. We have both been out of town recently so a quick walk in the familiar surroundings of Herman Park proved very relaxing. We parked in car park H on the golf course side of the road across from the zoo car parks, which do not open until sometime after 8:30 am.

Houston Garden Center

Confucius

From there we headed off to the Houston Garden Centre, an imposing white building dating from 1941, set in some 6 acres of gardens. The center is home to the international sculpture garden featuring a series of busts and statues of historic figures, the most recent of which is a life size bronze sculpture of Confucius which was given to the City of Houston as a token of goodwill and friendship between the Chinese people and the people of America.

Monument to Dr. Martin Luther King

This morning, the plants seemed particularly fresh and fragrant after such heavy rain and we found ourselves quite literally stopping to smell the roses in some of the many rose beds for which the center is so well known.

The Rose Garden

We then doubled back on ourselves and headed down the Marvin Taylor Exercise Trail. In total this trail is about 5 ¾ miles long and can be divided into 3 sections; the Hermann Park loop, the path from this trail to Rice University and the trail around the outside of Rice. But today we just walked the first section of the trail which is approximately two miles in length, starting out along the wonderfully shady avenue of live oak trees leading through the golf course and continuing round the outside of the course - then hurrying back up Herman Park Drive to the cars as the next downpour started.