Bloedel Reserve Photo Essay of a 2015 Visit
Kim Bridges & Nancy Furumoto 2019
2019 Š K. W. Bridges & Nancy Furumoto All photos were taken by the authors, except for the Google Earth image showing Bloedel Reserve from the air.
There are more stories about Bloedel Reserve. Find them at www.kimbridges.com
Visiting Botanical Gardens Botanical gardens are, for the most part, quiet retreats. You’re surrounded by vegetation. Often, patches of colored flowers interrupt the infinite shades of green. You get a solitude that is refreshing. Nature comes back into your life. Urban dwellers need a periodic plunge into the organic world. It is with these thoughts that we took the ferry to Bainbridge Island. We left Seattle behind. Crossing the water of Puget Sound was an appropriate transition. What lay ahead? We weren’t sure. This is the photo story of that adventure. Our first visit to Bloedel Reserve. We should have produced this story soon after our visit. But it’s taken a while for Bloedel Reserve to sink in. This wasn’t a simple visit to a botanical garden. In the few years since we walked the Reserve’s trails, we’ve used the Internet to explore more about the Reserve. The more we’ve learned, the more we’re attracted to this place. What started out as a trip to a botanical garden ended up by being much more. At the least, this experience has broadened our view of what a botanical garden is, the effort it takes to build a vision, and how a dedicated community maintains this gem for the future. This photo story is only the start of our journey.
Getting Ready When you’re traveling through the Northwest US, you are likely to get to Seattle. They’ve got a good airport and it is a fun city. Interesting sights. Excellent food. Sometimes you need a break and want to do something different. For us, it meant a search of TripAdvisor. We were at the point where we had an urge to get out of the urban/industrial environment. The city is fine. But we needed a break. How about a trip on a ferry? Bainbridge Island is just a short trip across the water. What will we do when we get there? TripAdvisor lists Bloedel Reserve as the Number 1 attraction on the island. We’re great fans of botanical gardens. But we’ve never heard of Bloedel Reserve. Should we take a chance? Why not. With that decision, we’re locked in. We are going to Bloedel Reserve.
The Adventure Begins Seattle: Saturday, March 7, 2015 Early up! We’ve got a ferry to catch. The Colman Dock is eight blocks from our hotel. That’s a 10-minute walk. The ferry is scheduled to leave at 8:45 AM. We get there and buy our tickets. The timestamp says 7:58 AM. As usual, we’ve erred on the conservative side. We’re here plenty early. The ferry dock is in Seattle’s shipping area. Container ship unloaders stand with their arms held high. On our dock, cars line up and wait to drive aboard the ferry. It’s a cool morning. The winter air is brisk. We’re lucky; the sky is clear. It won’t rain today.
The ferry takes us across to Bainbridge Island. We watch Seattle’s harbor shoreline recede. The Space Needle remains a prominent landmark. It’s a 35 minute trip. Winslow is the community at the Bainbridge Island end of the route. We just discovered that the “BI Ride” bus (Kitsap Transit) doesn’t leave until 10:35 AM on Saturday. Bummer. Well, we’ve got time to visit the nearby shops. Coffee? Nibble some food? Finally, we get the bus and take the seven-mile ride to the Bloedel Reserve. Arrival: about 11 AM. We don’t have lots of time to explore. Let’s get started! There are several distinct areas in the Reserve. We head off on a trail. The grass meadow is an open expanse surrounded by tall trees. We’re nearly alone; this lets us slow our pace and enjoy the surroundings. Ahead, there are a few structures. Look at this roof. It’s growing tufts of vegetation. Is this an intentional green roof? Or is this what happens with all the rain that falls here?
Wandering along the path winds us through groves of tall trees. These block the sunlight and add mystery to our walk. There is a bend in the trail. A pond appears. What a great water feature. It’s a calm day and the trees on the far side reflect in the glassy water.
We pass by more water as the trail continues. Here’s a stream that’s spanned by a modern bridge. More forest. We’re enveloped by calmness. The path is now alongside another water feature. The gravel walkway has become a Japanese structure. Large boards zig-zag through the forest. The Asian feature fits into this Pacific Northwest forest. That was unexpected.
The trail continues. We emerge from the forest into a clearing. Wow. The lawns in the foreground slope down into a large pond. Nestled in the background is a Chateau. This must be where the Bloedels lived. The pond makes a stunning statement at the front of their home. We pause here and absorb this dramatic view. Then we proceed around this beautiful water feature and head toward the house. We glance back. It’s important to see the pond from different angles.
Confirmed: This was the Bloedel home. Now it’s a small museum open to the public. We wander the rooms. One exhibit, in particular, grabs our attention. Bird photography. We didn’t expect that. Time to resume our walk. We’ve seen few flowers. A couple of yellow lily-like blooms. It’s still winter. This isn’t a time for flowers. The landscape is covered with tall trees. There are undulating green lawns. Moss clings to trees and punctuates the ground litter. And there is water. We’ve seen ponds and streams. Look, on the left side of the road. It’s an unusual tree. It’s covered with flowers. Just flowers; no leaves. Large flowers. Faint purple. Time to stop. Look.
Let’s move so we can see the flowers reflected in the water. The property drops off. It’s a steep plunge down on the right side of the trail. Let’s head there. The trail winds along the contours. We meet a stream. Flowers are abundant here. Rhododendron shrubs. Abundant pink flowers. That makes
sense. The Pacific Northwest has lots of these big, bright beauties. The trail continues. We arrive at an opening. The path has led us to the edge of the water. You can see across to … what? … another part of Bainbridge Island? Puget Sound? We’re near the Bloedel house. Lucky people. They had a great view of the water. We’ve looped back toward the house. There’s another trail that heads a different direction. Off we go. The pathway leads us through tall trees. Here, near the front of the house, we get another view of a big pond we saw before. It’s a nice place to pause.
We continue on. The nature of the forest keeps changing as we go. The trail goes around a bend. There’s a gate. It looks like a Japanese gate. Pause. Survey. Are we seeing a house through the trees? We move on and solve the mystery. It is a Japanese-like house. Not exactly Japanese. But maybe a Western interpretation of the style.
There is a Zen garden, too. A bed of white gravel, with lines etched in the rocky terrain and stones placed at strategic positions. We’re compelled to examine the house more closely. It has wide eaves that cover a broad veranda. The building is closed. You can look at the inside through large, floor to ceiling windows. What a comfortable meeting room. Wouldn’t it be nice to attend a conference here?
We walk around to the rear of the house. This side faces a gorge. We can see several ponds. There was a Zen garden in front. Back here is a living Japanese garden. They’ve pruned the trees according to the art of niwaki; to a Western eye, the puffs of leaves resemble clouds. A trail leads through the gorge. This is a great place to walk. We tell ourselves to slow down. Take time. Pause and look at the landscape. This is very much a Japanese garden, complete with water features (stream, ponds) and an appropriate building (the house perched above the garden).
We follow the trail. It leads to a paved road. After going along the road a bit, we head into another part of the Reserve. This time our route takes us by a rectangular pond. This water feature fits well in its context. But is so different from the other “organic” water features. It is a large, perfectly geometric, pond. The water is dark. And the surface is still. It’s turned the water into a mirror. Big trees that surround the pond are reflected; their presence is doubled.
A little farther along, a trail branches and we’re off the pavement and into a forest. Again, the setting changes character. Stumps of old trees. Lots of moss. Then, the trail ends. We’re back near the gatehouse at the entrance to the Bloedel Reserve. We’ve used all our time and must now pay attention to returning to the bus stop. Missing this bus is not an option as it connects with the last ferry we can to take to return to Seattle on time.
An Afterthought We almost got the route correct. Figure 1 shows a map redrawn from the garden’s brochure (which we didn’t get). This version of the map is drawn on top of a Google Earth image. The trails (red) don’t quite match up with the actual trails seen in the satellite image. But that’s OK. It is the flow of the trail that’s important. The numbers come from the brochure map. Roughly, they correspond to named places. Knowing about the places help you understand the structure of the Bloedel Reserve. Following the designated route is recommended. Number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Place Gate House Sheep Barns and Bird Refuge Trestle Bridge, The Woods, and Boardwalk Middle Pond Visitor Center (Bloedel’s House) Waterfall Overlook Birch Garden Christmas Pond The Glen Orchid Trail Japanese House and Garden Moss Garden Reflection Garden and path to West Meadow
8 9 7 1
6 5
10 11 12 4
13
3
2 3
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Figure 1. Google Earth image showing the Bloedel Reserve, with roads (gray), trails (red) and garden areas (numbers).