Gilroy Gardens
3050 Hecker Pass Hwy, Gilroy, California; 408.840.7100
More information about visiting Gilroy Gardens (formerly Bonfante Gardens) click here.
THEME PARKS for Wild West aficionados. Theme parks for thrill seekers. Theme parks for fish lovers. From Sea World to the Wild Animal Park, almost every twist of nature has been exploited to sell a few tickets, get a few suckers coming through the gates. Almost.
Then along comes Michael Bonfante and his trees. And, apparently, a heartfelt desire to share his branched beauties rather than exploit them.
Twenty years after Bonfante began to dream it, the gates have finally swung open to Bonfante Gardens, a 75-acre theme park in Gilroy celebrating the arboreal splendors of the world.
Bonfante made his money building up the family grocery business into a 27-store chain called Nob Hill Foods until he sold it to Raley's Foods in 1998.
The highlights, scattered between the ponds, greenhouse and other plants, are the beloved and world-famous "Circus Trees." Created by an eccentric farmer named Axel Erlandson, the 74 trees were grafted, trained and pruned to grow in bizarre and twisted shapes. After Erlandson died in the 1960s, many of his trees began to wither from neglect in the following decades.
Fortunately, Bonfante arranged to have the 25 remaining trees shipped from their home at the former "Lost World" theme park in Scotts Valley to the future horticultural theme park in Gilroy.
Although Erlandson's curly-cued tree trunks are eye-catching, the weirdly coifed conifers throughout the Gardens are also worth a double take. Imagine if Jean Paul Gaultier cut loose with a pair of pruning shears and arboreal girdles—the result might be trees disciplined to resemble candy canes, icicles, hands and skateboard ramps. It is not topiary, but for the purist, there is plenty of that, too.
Bonfante gives a nod to his Gilroy roots when it came to designing the rides. Kids and youthful adults can get their kicks on the Garlic Twirl, the Artichoke Dip or the Mushroom Swing, or take antique model cars through the South County Backroads, replete with miniature billboards and services stations from days gone by.
While the success of Knott's Berry Farm or Great America may elude Bonfante Gardens, it will win loyal followers for its offbeat, hometown charm. It may be one of the few theme parks in the world neither conceived nor owned (yet) by a huge conglomerate.
—Kelly Luker
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