We are excited to share a brand new collection of four digital tree tours for the Washington Park Arboretum! Developed by our AmeriCorps member, Thuy Luu, these tours feature some of the Arboretum’s iconic collections and seasonal attractions. This new free public programming invites visitors to dive deeper into the stories of the Arboretum’s tree collections and offers a variety of routes and themes to fit different schedules and interests.

Visitors can plan a route before arriving or just hop on a smartphone and explore on-site! A QR code linking to the tours can be found at the Graham Visitors Center kiosk, and printed copies of the tours are available at the front desk for visitors without a smartphone.

A total of four tours were created with more anticipated to come:

• The Ancient Trees tour highlights five species that appear to be very closely identical to organisms only otherwise found in fossils.
• The Champion Trees tour includes seven of the Arboretum’s many champion trees, which are the largest specimens of their kind in Washington State.
• The Nature of Love tour visits several plants and places that inspire love, sex and romance through their lore, form and reproduction.
• The Spring Flowers tours (short and extended version) showcase some of the Arboretum’s best spots to observe spring blooms.

Google Maps were created for each tour with pinpointed specimens and locations. A visitor can use the tree tours website to take the tours which include specimen photographs and more detailed information on the identification of each species. They may also take the tours directly on the Google Maps phone app which better shows their location relative to the tour points.

The goal of creating these digital tours is to enhance the accessibility of the Arboretum’s collections to our visitors. These tours are free to access and viewable on browsers for both desktop and mobile devices. They encourage people to explore the Arboretum at their own pace whether in-person or remotely.

We hope you get a chance to explore the Washington Park Arboretum with these digital tours. If you have an idea for another tour theme you would like to see, email us at urbhort@uw.edu.

Happy touring!