Visit The Florida Museum Of Natural History In Gainesville, FL Red Around the World

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The Museum of Natural History at UF is temporarily closed for renovations and will likely reopen in 2026.

Right next to the Harn Art Museum at UF is the Florida Museum of Natural History, with exhibits on ancient creatures and groups of people that called the area home.

There is also a butterfly rain forest, where you can walk through a small botanical garden type area full of hundreds of butterflies!

Like my last two museum posts, this is mostly just a place to share pictures with some thoughts in the photo captions.

I’ve broken it down to the main museum area and the butterfly rain forest separately.

I actually visited the museum twice (the rain forest once) and really enjoyed it!

It was fairly busy both times I went, but not in a really unpleasant way.

I would definitely plan to spend two hours here, maybe more depending on how much you read when you visit museums.

While the museum is on the UF campus, it is open to the public and it is easy to find.

Florida Museum Of Natural History

I’m starting with the main museum since that’s generally the first part you see when you get there.

It’s pretty easy to navigate the museum without getting lost and covers such a variety of history in Florida throughout time.

Natural history museum gainesville — I always love looking at arrowheads when I visit museums like this.

Butterfly Rain Forest

The butterfly rain forest has an additional fee (the main museum is free) and while I probably wouldn’t visit frequently (it is pretty small), I definitely think it’s worth it at least once.

There is a short path winding through the garden with beautiful plants and water features.

You’ll see butterflies all over and there are some spots with bananas out for the butterflies to enjoy.

There’s a pretty good chance you’ll see quite a few on the bananas. They vary in size and sometimes blend in with their surroundings so keep your eyes peeled!