University of Washington Botanic Gardens

After visiting the more natural, northern section of the UW Botanic Gardens at Union Bay I wanted to see what the rest of the gardens were like.  Located east of downtown, between Broadmoor and Montlake, the gardens can be accessed from numerous parking areas.  I enjoyed the diversity of trail types that ranged from mowed grass to dirt to paved.  Most of the park is free to access, but the Japanese Garden often charges a fee.  I wandered aimlessly through most of the main areas of the gardens and can't say that I had a favorite area, but I did prefer the smaller trails to the main Azalea Way trail that forms the backbone of the park.  The dirt trail behind the Japanese garden was quite overgrown, so much so I'm not sure it is an official trail.  One complaint I have about the park in general is that very few of the trees are labeled.  Why bother to organize the sections of the park by families of trees and shrubs if you aren't going to label them?

Example of Grass Trails

A Very Shiny Cherry Trunk

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