Ethel M Chocolate Factory and Botanical Cactus Garden

Chocolate Factory Founded By Forrest Mars Sr., Named For His Mother Ethel, With A Free Self Guided Viewing Aisle And A Botanical Cactus Garden · Henderson, Nevada

Ethel M Chocolates is a chocolate factory and shop in a light-industrial park in Henderson, about 20 to 25 minutes south-east of the Strip, founded in 1981 by Forrest Mars Sr. of the Mars candy family and named, the company says, for his mother Ethel. Visitors walk a free self-guided aisle past viewing windows onto the production floor, then end in the shop, where paid tastings and boxes of chocolates are sold. The bigger draw is next door: a free botanical cactus garden of a few acres, often described as holding several hundred species of cacti, succulents and desert plants from the American Southwest and other dry regions, laid out along shaded paths. From about November to early January the garden becomes the Holiday Cactus Garden, strung with lights and very popular with local families. It is a small, pleasant stop rather than a major attraction: an hour here in the cooler months, perhaps on the way to or from the airport, Hoover Dam or Henderson, is the right way to use it. Production does not run every day, so the windows may show a quiet floor.

2 Cactus Garden Drive, Henderson, Nevada, 89014, United States

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: the shop, factory viewing aisle and garden are open daily from mid-morning to early evening, roughly 9 or 10 am to 6 pm, with longer evening hours during the Holiday Cactus Garden season from about early November to early January, and reduced hours or closures on some holidays such as Christmas Day and Thanksgiving. Production on the factory line runs on a schedule of its own and is most likely on weekday mornings. The traps that ruin a visit are coming on a weekend expecting to watch chocolates being made, arriving at 7 pm on a December Saturday into a full car park, visiting the garden at midday in summer, and leaving chocolates in a hot car. Confirm current times before relying on them.

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