There are a lot of colorful names for many of Balboa Park’s attractions that make one wonder, “Where the heck did that name come from?” One of my favorite names and places is the “Gold Gulch,” where park visitors can now view up close the many cherry blossoms now bursting with their own color.

The shady tree-lined ravine extends south from the Zoro Garden, just west of the R. H. Fleet Science Center. Gold Gulch actually got its name from being the site of a gold mining camp. But before you grab your pickaxes and shovels and start digging, Gold Gulch was really an elaborate re-creation of an Old West gold-mining town during the 1935 California Pacific International Exposition.

Now part of Trail #5 of the Park’s trail system, Gold Gulch is traversed via a paved walkway that takes trekkers behind the Japanese Friendship Garden, where you’ll find the glorious cherry trees now in full bloom. Thanks to all the blossoms, as well as the Grevillea, Acacia, Callistemon, Eucalyptus, and other trees in the Gulch’s Australian Garden, this area is prime bird-watching territory!

More energetic hikers (like me!) will want to follow the trail as it continues past the police department horse stables and up a steep slope that leads to President’s Way.

If this were a video blog, you could see just how vigorously my tail is wagging as I think about the first-ever park-wide Family Day in Balboa Park, this Saturday, March 21. Over 20 museums, performing arts, and other cultural groups have planned a day chocked full of stimulating, engaging, and fun activities for your entire brood. All are included in regular admission prices, where charged, and a new Stay-for-the-Day Pass provides a mini-Passport to any four museums for only $29.

Some activities, like the free music and dance performances in the Organ Pavilion, presented by the House of Pacific Relations International Cottages, will even be outdoors so I can take part. In addition, kids can get dinosaur-drawing tips from a famed Hollywood conceptual designer at the Natural History Museum; watch live performances and make puppets at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater; create fantastic critters in origami at the Mingei International Museum; construct nifty kites in the manner of Leonardo da Vinci at the Air & Space Museum …

Oh my! I could fill several weeks’ worth of blogs telling you about all the great stuff going on. Fortunately, a complete list is found on Balboa Park’s Web site. I would be remiss, however, if I failed to mention the 2-for-1 ice cream deals going on at the Village Grill and Time Out Café … and you know who will be making the rounds.

Scarlet writes: Dear Cosmos, In anticipation of all the fresh sights and scents spring ushers into the Park, can you point me to the best places to experience the new blooms?

Cosmos: Like you, I always look forward to seeing all the new plants and flowers the season brings to Balboa Park’s glorious gardens. One of the best places to start is the Alcazar Garden, which boasts thousands of newly planted flowers, including 1,600 Delphinium “Guardian Blue” in the two large beds, 1,200 mixed hybrid Foxglove in the four smaller beds, and a colorful assortment of perennial flowers in the perimeter beds.

The first blooms of the season should also already be budding in the Rose Garden, which may have its best year ever. (My inside sources tell me some of the lower performing varieties have been replaced.) Also, keep an eye out for the Sally Holmes roses, featuring soft white single blooms, climbing up a newly installed fence in the garden.

Of course, one of the best places to head this spring is the Botanical Building where you’ll be greeted by over 125 new orchids that have been added to the collection, shipped in from a specialty grower in Hawaii. Already blossoming is a Tropical Orange “Apricosa,” a fragrant and prolific bloomer that produces large 5- to 6-inch flower heads.

Those are just the highlights, but be sure to stay tuned to this blog for updates on all the latest blooms in the Park throughout 2009.

As if the resumption of the House of Pacific Relations’ weekly Lawn Programs this month wasn’t enough for me to blog about it, two of my favorite countries, Mexico and Ireland, will be front and center for the first two Sunday events. In case you haven’t followed this blog, the 32 cultures that make up the HPR International Cottages each take turns from March through November putting on a colorful Sunday afternoon Lawn Program. Starting at 2:00 p.m., each program features traditional food, arts, music, and other entertainment of the hosting “House.”

It will be a true fiesta this Sunday, March 8, when the House of Mexico celebrates “Dia de los Niños” (Day of the Children), which in Mexico falls on April 30. The entertainment will include mariachi musicians and folklorico dance groups representing different regions of Mexico. As you can imagine, and I can’t stop thinking about, the food available for purchase will range from tostadas to enchiladas and everything in between.

Wear your best greens the following week (March 15), as the House of Ireland serves up an early St. Patrick’s Day celebration. Celtic music and traditional Irish step and ceili dancers, festively attired, will abound. While there, be sure to sniff around inside the cottage and cozy up to their replica Irish hearth from the old country.