Paul Minsker

Review of Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Pa...

At ALL costs, only go to Gilroy Gardens if you hav...

At ALL costs, only go to Gilroy Gardens if you have young kids and/or family with you. I went here as a single, young adult male to take pictures of the Circus Trees and study them for both my environmental fields of study and my own personal interests, and, from the start, I was treated like a child molester by their staff simply because I was a single male with a camera pointed at the trees. Their young female workers (all about my age) gave me nasty glares when I tried to smile and nod at them as I passed by to indicate that I am not a threat to them, and the park security guards tailed me for most of my two hours in the park gabbing on their radios and staring in my direction. The young woman I bought my ticket from was also nasty to the max as soon as I told her that I was buying just a ticket for myself--a young adult male with no kids and/or family--and it was plainly evident to me the switch that occurred as soon as she found out that I came to Gilroy Gardens alone.

The strangest part about all of this was, in fact, that--despite the park staff evidently having a problem with me checking out the Circus Trees and trying to be civil and friendly to vendors I passed by nodding at them and saying "hi", NONE of the families at the park seemed to have a concern that I was there.

Gilroy Gardens is in DIRE need of not profiling people just because of their age, gender, race, marital status, and general physical appearance, and NEEDS to realize that EVERYONE can enjoy trees and nature, and the people wanting to pay (a boatload of) money to enter their park one time are not always going to be families with young kids.

It is truly a shame that this park is no longer following the visions and ideals that it was founded upon. It has gone from a nature-based theme park to a lock-and-key excuse to stare down anyone that seems "out of place" among families with kids. Should I ever have children, this will be the last place on my list to take them.