Bloedel Reserve: Following the Trail

If you are in need of a quiet place in the midst of our chaotic world today, visit a garden. In a previous post I suggested three gardens to visit. Today I am suggesting just one, The Bloedel Reserve which USA Today recently named one of the 10 best botanical gardens in the U.S.

The Bloedel Reserve is located at the northern end of Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound. This 150 acre garden and forest area was originally the home for Prentice and Virginia Bloedel who purchased it in 1951. Mr. Bloedel took over his father’s timber company, but as an early environmentalist, he made some significant changes in how the company operated. Later in life he focused on landscaping his home with a series of gardens and buildings that he would later give to the community. Fujitaro Kubota, who developed Seattle’s Kubota Garden, was one of several landscape designers who he worked with. The Reserve opened to the public in 1988.

Visiting Bloedel Reserve does take some planning. The quickest option for visitors coming from the Seattle area is to cross by ferry. There are two options. From downtown Seattle there is the Bainbridge Island ferry. Further north from Edmonds is the Kingston ferry. From further south it is possible to cross over from Tacoma on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and drive north to Poulsbo and over, but it’s always fun to take a ferry ride.

From both ferry docks it’s about a 15 to 20 minute drive to get to Bloedel Reserve. This is not a free garden to visit. Currently guests must purchase tickets in advance from their website for a specific timed entrance. In this way the Reserve can limit the number of guests as well as minimize contact.

Our recent visit to the Reserve was on a cloudy Tuesday. I was not bothered by the clouds as taking photos on a bright, sunny day can actually be more challenging. We crossed over on the Edmonds ferry and with the help of Google maps had no problem getting to the Reserve.

Upon entering the Reserve and parking, guests receive a map which guides them on a specific route that will take them around the property. The trail is about two miles. In most places it is not paved, but it is not particularly difficult. There are a few short steep sections, but overall is a fairly easy walk. There is a shorter marked route for those who can’t walk the longer trail.

The trail begins through a large open meadow of grass. Towards the end of the meadow are some buildings. The map indicates they are old sheep barns.

From here visitors enter the forested part of the reserve. The trail meanders through areas of tall evergreens as well as thick underbrush. The forest is mostly green, but I did notice some rhododendron bushes along the trail. Their flowers were long gone, but visitors in the spring might see some nice color against the green backdrop.

In the midst of this forest is the Buxton Bird Marsh which has a rather large naturalized pond. At the arrival point is a boardwalk that lets one get up close to the water. There were some ducks sitting on fallen logs in the pond during our visit. As the trail continues around the pond there is a bench where visitors can sit and relax as they look out over the pond.

After the pond the trail leads to another meadow, but rather than just grass this one is alive with a variety of wild flowers. The Buxton Meadow flowers are generally small so these are not big showy flowers, but they do create a nice palette of color throughout the meadow.

The trail guides guests back for one last view of the pond and a bench to rest on before continuing through the forest. I must admit about this time I was wondering what it was that I had paid for. So far it seemed that much of what I was seeing I could see on any number of free hikes out in the mountains.

There is one more large man made structure one encounters in the forest section, the Trestle Bridge. This bridge has an interesting shape and form to it as it crosses a ravine. Here the ferns are very thick and pervasive.

The green forest area continues after the bridge. There are a few elements one encounters besides the plants. There is a very mossy bench as well as a boardwalk through a wetland area.

The forest area finally reaches its end, and guests come to an open space with a large pond surrounded by manicured lawns and the large residence in the background. The funny thing to me was the pond had a green algae growth over part of it. This just reinforced the green theme that had been prevalent thus far.

Walking around the right side of the pond visitors will come to the residence. The website says the residence is open to tour, but it was not on our visit, perhaps because of the COVID outbreak. The home is a beautiful building, however, and has a lovely setting. From the back there are striking views of Puget Sound and some sitting areas from which to enjoy it. One of my favorite parts was the beautiful hydrangeas on the back of the house. Their pink and blue colors were a nice change from the green.

From the residence there are steps that lead down to a viewing area of a small waterfall. You can hear the sound of the water better than you can see it. The path then continues through an area known as the Glen. Here there are a few flowering plants with evidence of earlier blooms. There are a lot of three leaf clovers along the way. We didn’t look for a four leafed one. Visiting in early July is perhaps not the best time to see the flowers. An April or May visit might provide better opportunities to enjoy the flowers that are planted along this trail.

The trail next passes a number of birch trees with their distinctive white bark. There is also a small grassy area here with some other plants to see. The trail then continues back up through various plantings. There are a variety of plants to see here, but not as many flowers as one might like. There were rhododendron bushes again, but only a few flowers. Summer flowers seemed few perhaps because so many of the gardens are shaded.

Arriving back up near the residence the trail traverses the opposite side of the central pond guiding visitors to the Japanese Guest House. This is a Japanese style building with a wide porch around it. A glass wall allows you to look inside and see the style and decor. To me it seemed to have a mid-century modern feel to it along with the Japanese influence.

In front of the house is a Japanese sand and stone garden with its carefully raked designs. The various large mossy rocks are what make this interesting for me. Behind the house is a small pond with Japanese plantings around it. There are Japanese maples as well as some trees that have a bonsai feel to them. This Japanese garden is the one designed by Mr. Kubota

The trail continues on through the moss garden. This is the largest public moss garden in the United States. While there are some other plants here, particularly ferns, the ground cover is a variety of colors of moss which seems like a very Pacific Northwest garden to have. In Washington’s forests moss is so ubiquitous that having a moss garden here just seems natural.

From the natural feel of the moss garden one enters a hedged in area containing a reflection pool. It is a long pool and the hedge around it follows the outline of the pool with a grass lawn between. This pool is a feature of the garden, but it seemed out of place to me. The pool seemed dirty and kind of purposeless. It was very formal in some ways, but it was just a pool and a hedge. Perhaps because it was a gray cloudy day, it was not reflecting a blue sky that would make it more appealing.

From here the trail wanders back to the meadow and finishes where it began. The Bloedel Reserve is obviously a place of grace and beauty. I would suggest that July is not the best time for a visit. Flowers blooming in the spring or perhaps the turning of leaves in the fall would offer a bit more color and interest to the gardens. Nevertheless the reserve is considered a major garden in the United States and well worth a visit.

Have you visited Bloedel Reserve? What was your favorite part? Do you have other garden recommendations in the Seattle area? Share your thoughts in the comment section below, and don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t done so already.