Washington Park Arboretum — Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020

Wanted to take advantage of a beautiful day but don't have my car over here yet, so I grabbed the #8 bus from downtown and went up to the Arboretum. 

Restrooms are available at a few locations throughout the Arboretum (link to map below). 

Trails are mostly wide and either asphalt or hard packed dirt/ gravel.  Very stroller friendly from what I saw. 

I made a somewhat random loop around the Arboretum, making it up as I went along.  Overall the trails were in good condition. There were a few slightly damp spots, but nothing that would require more than sneakers (probably sandals would do frankly).  The only significant water issue was the west portion of the Pinetum loop near where East Lynn St meets up with it. There was about a 25 ft portion of the trail that's under what looks to be about 4 inches of water.  Of course, people have already started killing off the grass and creating a boot path around it... come on, it's a 1/2 mile loop - just go around the other direction and stay on the trail.

There was also a small section of trail closed a bit northwest of the lookout gazebo as a large tree had fallen down over the trail.  Sounded like they plan to remove it in the near future, though, so this might not be closed for long. It does mean at the moment you need to go a little farther around to get to the small duck pond to the west of the gazebo, but it's still a short trip worth taking.

There were a handful of trees/ flowers in bloom or starting to show sings of blooming, which was very nice to see.  Also, while there were many, many people out and about, the trails within the Arboretum didn't really feel as crowded as I was afraid they would be... though I did go in with pretty low expectations...

Saw a couple eagles, several squirrels, lots of ducks, and a few other birds.

Overall a very nice way to spend a gorgeous day!

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://botanicgardens.uw.edu/washington-park-arboretum/visit/maps-trails/