If you are in the Orlando area for any reason, and you enjoy peace, tranquility, beauty and gardens, then the Bok Tower and Bok Gardens are an absolutely must visit. Located in Lake Wales, Bok Tower is about 1 1/4 hours (55 miles) drive from downtown Orlando Florida. Two main roads get you to Lake Wales. Take I4 South/Westbound until you reach highway 27, and then take highway 27 South to Lake Wales.
Watch for the Bok Tower signs on highway #27 as you arrive near Lake Wales. It will be a left turn from #27 for Southbound drivers. Once you leave #27 it’s a short drive (but quite a few turns – so watch for the signs) to both Bok Tower and the impressive Bok Gardens.
The Bok Tower pages on this site contain many images, yet we regret that the photos do not do justice to the beauty of Bok Tower and Bok Gardens. You really must visit to fully enjoy this wonderful attraction.
Entrance to Bok Tower and Bok Gardens
When you arrive at the spacious 250 acre grounds of this National Historic Landmark – located at the top of Iron Mountain and in existence since the late 1920’s – you will access the grounds through the drive-in gates as shown below.
There is a per-person fee for entering Bok Gardens & Tower. In 2014 that fee was $12.00 per adult, and $3.00 per person under 12 years of age.
What struck us immediately as we passed the gates were the orange groves. The Tower and visitor complex are about 1.5 miles past the entrance gates, and the grounds surrounding the gardens and tower are rich in citrus trees.
The image above depicts some of the thousands of citrus trees that surround Iron Mountain and Bok Tower. During our visit large, plump oranges festooned hundreds of trees on both sides of the drive, the fruit glinting like orange diamonds in the sun and the bouquet of oranges filled the air. A wonderful beginning to a wonderful visit to Bok Tower.
Parking at Bok Tower
We don’t believe we’ve seen a parking lot as beautiful as that of Bok Tower’s. Nothing about the pavement is remarkable. It’s the trees, lining the parking area boulevards like gnarled sentries draped luxuriously in Spanish Moss, their branches dripping fat, sage icicles. That and the marvellous Bok Tower rising majestically in the distance.
There is no charge for parking at Bok Tower gardens. Immediately adjacent to the parking area is the visitor center.
Start your Bok Tower visit at the visitor center
You can wander at will – through the gardens or to Bok Tower – after you exit your vehicle in the parking lot, yet we recommend that you spend some time in the visitor center first.
“Make you the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it” is the inscription over the entry way to the visitor center at Bok Tower Gardens. And Edward Bok certainly did.
The visitor center at Bok Tower Gardens offers the visitor a wealth of information about the history of Bok Tower, the gardens, Iron Mountain and the surrounding area. You can spend quite a bit of time in the visitor center as there is an excellent video about Bok Towers to enjoy, an adjacent display area that is reminiscent of a high quality museum, some hands on displays, and the Blue Palmetto cafe for hungry or thirsty folks.
The photo below shows part of the museum-like information area in the visitor center.
Bok Towers and Bok Tower Gardens have been described as America’s Taj Mahal, a monument to beauty and serenity in the US., similar in concept to the Taj Mahal in India, itself a memorial to Arjumand Banu Begum – beloved ornament of the palace – an Empress of India during the Mughal Dynasty in the 1600’s.
Displays are found throughout the visitor center, with some being hands on. In the following photo is the carillonneur’s bench, showing how the pedals and keys are interconnected to the 60 bells that make up the Bok Tower carillon.
How big is the biggest bell in the Bok Tower array of 60? The lovely visitor standing inside the actual-sized silhouette of that bell is 5′ 6″ tall. A big bell indeed, weighing in at 12 tons.
The smallest bell in the tower weighs in at 16 pounds.
The immediate grounds of the visitor center are beautifully landscaped, as is to be expected as part of the Bok Tower Gardens. Like the gardens themselves, the visitor center offers spacious comfort to enable visitors to rest between wandering the trails.
The Bok Tower & The Bok Tower Gardens
There is lots more to see in the visitor center yet now, let’s have a look at Bok Tower itself. This page continues here.