Butterfly Wonderland

Butterfly Wonderland opened in 2013 at 9500 East Vía de Ventura in Scottsdale, on the land of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. A Meetings Today article of 18 September 2013 presents it as a recently opened attraction, the first piece of a 170 million dollar entertainment district along the Salt River, then planned over five to eight years of development. The radio station KTAR, reporting on the tenth anniversary celebrated on 10 and 11 June 2023, calls it the first attraction to open at the Arizona Boardwalk in May 2013, while a local blog of the time dates the opening to 1 June 2013.

The district has since grown: the OdySea Aquarium, immediately next to the conservatory, opened in September 2016, and the whole is now known as the Arizona Boardwalk, with combined tickets across the attractions. From the start Butterfly Wonderland presented itself as the largest butterfly pavilion in the country; KTAR described it in 2023 as the largest indoor glass butterfly conservatory in America. In ten years, according to the same source, more than 600,000 butterflies have flown in the habitat and more than 2.3 million guests have come through the doors. The bee exhibit was enhanced for the anniversary, and the attraction supports a monarch conservation programme.

The heart of the attraction is a free-flight atrium of about 10,000 square feet, close to 930 m², described by the radio station KTAR as the largest indoor glass butterfly conservatory in America. Inside this glasshouse a rainforest setting is laid out around a koi pond and a waterfall, with walkways alongside; more than a hundred plant species are grown to feed the butterflies and recreate a humid forest environment, each plant labelled with its name.

The visit unfolds in stages: a 3D film in a 193-seat theatre, then the emergence gallery, where glass cases along the wall show the whole cycle from caterpillar to butterfly and let visitors watch blue morphos leave their chrysalises, and finally a holding room from which visitors enter the conservatory in groups so that no butterfly escapes. On the way out everyone is checked for stowaways. The venue also has meeting rooms and hires out the conservatory for receptions.

Up to 4,000 butterflies fly in the atrium at once, and 150 to 200 species pass through over the year according to ABC15; the official website announces more than 60 species present at a time. None is native to Arizona: about 1,300 chrysalises arrive every week from butterfly farms in South America, Asia and Africa, and are placed in emergence cabinets in full view of the public. The bright colours of many species warn predators of their toxicity. Blue morphos and atlas moths, whose adults do not feed and live one to two weeks on the reserves built up as caterpillars, are among the most noticed.

Around the butterflies live koi, one of them named Hoover, rainforest reptiles (hingeback tortoises, a mata mata turtle), axolotls, and a tropical-waters observation pool with rays and a horn shark called Agatha, fed at set times; one exhibit is devoted to bees.

Butterfly Wonderland stands on the Arizona Boardwalk, near Highway 101, next to the OdySea Aquarium, with which combined tickets are sold. Allow an hour to an hour and a half: the 3D film comes before the emergence gallery, then the conservatory, where feedings of the koi, the rays and the reptiles punctuate the day. Wearing orange attracts the butterflies, which must not be picked up. In October a plant sale offers plants for butterfly, hummingbird and bee gardens. Children receive a punch card stamped each time they ask a volunteer a question, exchanged for a small prize at the Butterfly Treasures shop.