Rice Paper LbNA #65527 (ARCHIVED)

The Rice Paper letterbox is located outside the Cockerill Butterfly Center, part of the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Hermann Park. If you have never been inside the rainforest conservatory, I highly recommend a visit. Admission is $8 for adults. Thanks to the waterfall it's even more hot and steamy in there than outside, but it is beautiful. You will be surrounded by hundreds of butterflies from all over the world. It is common for one to land on you. One butterfly I always spot there is the Rice Paper Butterfly (Idea leuconoe) from tropical Southeast Asia. It is large and has a distinctive slow, floppy flight pattern. It is a striking black & white butterfly with almost translucent wings.

There is free parallel parking right in front of the Cockerill on Hermann Park Dr. If you have trouble finding a spot, continue around the traffic circle surrounding the statue of Sam Houston to find a free parking lot across from the museum. You could also take the MetroRail or park in the paid garage on the opposite side of the museum complex.

Begin at the museum entrance with the Kugel Ball. Take the sidewalk west with Sam Houston on your left and the museum on your right. As soon as you pass the glass façade of the Cockerill building, take a right onto a curving sidewalk. You will see a small butterfly bench on your right. A plaque which reads "In memory of Karen Stockton" is beneath it. Sit on the bench. Directly in front of you on the opposite side of the path is a planting bed with two trees. There is a hollow at the base of the tree on the right. You can see it from where you are sitting. The box is in there, behind bark.