Dawes Arboretum

Labor Day weekend is always a good time to take a little trip.  Summer is almost over, but the days are still very warm.  Luckily for us, we picked a day to travel that was seventy-degrees and perfect for day outdoors.

I remember looking through old pictures at my parents house and seeing some of me and my parents at Dawes Arboretum.  I was very small, which would mean it was about thirty years ago (!).  I asked my mom about it and all she could remember was that it was hiking trails, it was near Newark, and that there were huge hedges that spelled out the name of the arboretum.  I knew it would be a good day trip to take with my husband.  He and I both enjoy being outdoors and hiking.  I enjoy taking pictures of nature. Should be a good day for both of us.

I did my research and found directions to get there.  According to the Dawes website, there is road construction around where we needed to be.  Uh oh.  Even with a few extra minutes of driving time and with a quick stop to Subway to get some lunch, we should have arrived before noon.  Well, the detour was very confusing and we went though a lot of new towns to get there.  Then, we drove past the road because it looked like it was closed when it really wasn't.  We finally arrived ten minutes til one.  Yikes.  We were already annoyed.

After arguing about the best place to park and finishing our lunches in the car, we finally were ready to check out the arboretum.  If you are a little confused what this place is, I'll break it down.  The arboretum is landscaped nature.  Gardens, plantings, ponds, trails, and thousands of trees.  If you plan to visit, be prepared to walk.

The arboretum is broken in to different sections.  The picture above is the Japanese garden.  There is a pond, big rocks, and shaped trees.  The map we picked up was a little confusing, be we headed into the woods next and hiked a few miles, passing a holly garden.  We came across a cute little log cabin in the woods on the way.  We headed toward the far end of the property to the lookout tower with the huge hedges that spelled out "Dawes Arboretum".  We passed another pond on the way.  By the time we reached the tower, I was exhausted.  We climbed it and took a few pictures.

We looked for the trail markers to take us back to our vehicle.  After almost another mile, we reached the welcome center, near where we parked our car.  I looked inside the visitor center but didn't spend too much time because we were tired and anxious to get home.  Hubby and I had a fun day but he said he never wants to go back.  It mostly had to do with the road construction.  Luckily, he figured out a shorter way to get home and we make it back in record time.  See you in another thirty years, Dawes!