For our May photo walk, let's head east to Tyler TX and visit the world famous Tyler Rose Gardens. From what I can tell by research, early May should be a great time to visit for peak bloom, although I've been doomed by research before. After lunch at Celso's Mexican Restaurant, those who want to can go to the Caldwell Zoo, which is an excellent zoo - large and open enough to get good photos, but small enough to be easy to take in. Hopefully, it won't be so hot the animals are hiding. For those who don't want to visit the zoo, you can head home or into downtown Tyler to look around and photograph.
Here are the details:
For those leaving from Rowlett who want to carpool/caravan, be at the Rowlett DART Station in the parking area near Martin and Industrial at 8:30 am. If you want to meet at the Tyler Rose Gardens, plan to meet at the entrance area by the Gift Shop about 10:15 am or so. The address is 420 Rose Park Drive; Tyler. There is no entry fee to visit, but donations are welcomed. We will walk around and shoot in the gardens for about 2 hours or until everyone returns to the gift shop area.
We will then go to lunch at Celso's Mexican Restaurant located at 1015 W. Gentry Pkwy.; Tyler - it has excellent reviews! I expect we should be heading over there about 12:15 pm or so.
After lunch at about 1:30 - 1:45 pm timeframe, those who want to go visit the Caldwell Zoo will head over there; the address is 2203 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.; Tyler. It's about 1.5 miles or 5 minutes from the restaurant. The entry fee for the zoo is $19.99 for adults or $17.99 for seniors (55+); you can buy tickets online ahead of time (suggested), but if you aren't sure you want to go or want to see how hot it is that day, hopefully, there will be availability to buy once there.
Equipment needed will be a regular all purpose or specialty lens for the flowers at the Rose Garden and a longer lens for the zoo if you have one.
Hope this sounds like fun and I know several have mentioned wanting to go back to the Caldwell Zoo since our last visit there was November 2019! I realize we just visited a zoo in March, but it was a disappointment and I guarantee this one is much, much better. Hopefully, it won't be too warm that day and we can enjoy being outdoors before the North Texas Summer Hell sets in.
