Hike 5: National Arboretum

My new favorite place!  And surprisingly so...the description in the book is very bland compared to the awesomeness of the National Arboretum.  It's not hard to get to, and I definitely recommend driving.  The park is HUGE and I only did about a third of it, but I saw the best third!  I think the rest of the park would be great during the blooming season (assuming you don't have lots of allergies).  I wasn't quite sure where I was going, so I parked at the Mount Hamilton footpath and followed trails through rhododendrons and azaleas.

I didn't want to get lost (entirely probable, given the loopy nature of the paths), so I tried not to venture off too far.  As I cleared the azalea collection, I happened onto a very English-type garden and then looked through some trees and saw gigantic Grecian columns standing in the middle of a field!  Even reading about it in the trail book didn't prepare me for the total cool-ness of this view.

So it turns out these are columns from the Capitol building's east portico from 1830-1960.  They were installed at the Arboretum in 1990.  I kept going around the path behind the columns and stumbled upon the North American Pavilion, which doesn't even begin to describe the most amazing collection of bonsai trees I've ever seen!  I took a picture of every single one.  They were so cute!  I mean, they had a giant sycamore no taller than a foot and a half!

 

There's a little courtyard that's very serene and peaceful and a museum, which was great, mostly because they had air conditioning and I did this hike on the day it was supposed to be 98 degrees.  :)  Then you can walk through another pavilion that showcases how the Chinese used rocks and bonsai and water as garden art. 

Around the back, there a patio with tables set out next to a pond containing water lilies and fish!  There were people setting up tents around here, and I bet this is a really popular events location.

It was getting on toward lunch time at this point, so on my way back to the car, I walked through the herb garden, which featured some beautiful landscaping.

This is definitely number one on my list of places I should take tourists.  My mom might even like it, even though her favorite outdoor motto is: You've seen one tree, you've seen them all!