Sr. Forestiere

Springtime is one of the best seasons to take a tour of the Forestiere Underground Gardens. All the foliage is grown in just right and if you time it right the fragrance of the blossoms from all the citrus trees wafts through all the tunnels and it feels like the most magical fort ever.

 And since Z. made the official move to the Fresno territories, I felt that this was the best first Fresno adventure to go on. We took the last tour of the day and as an additional bonus my parents, brother and nephew joined us.
 The best part of our entire tour was when my dad asked our tourguide about animals that might come down there. We were thinking coyotes and foxes, her response was "mostly blue bellied lizards" and right at that very moment a baby garter snake slithered out of a tunnel and right to our feet. Of course pops had to grab it's tail which freaked the tour guide out and sent her into a repetitive 'let's move along folks.'

I love this underground place so much, and it's one of those elements of Fresno that makes me proud to have spent so much time here. I think my first visit was with my family at about age 7 and my 7 year old imaginative memory always takes over, I expect the tunnels to go on forever, I expect more fruit trees and more secret nooks. My absolute favorite space is the bed thats nestled into the rocks.