Dow Gardens and Whiting Forest Canopy Walk
3220 Orchard Dr, Midland, MI
Midland, MI
The private garden of a chemical fortune, opened to the public, now crowned by the longest canopy walk in the country, a bridge that carries you up into the treetops.
Dow Gardens began as the private estate garden of Herbert Henry Dow, founder of the Dow chemical company, laid out beginning in 1899 around his Midland home. Over more than a century it grew into a beloved public botanical garden of streams, bridges, flower beds, and a whimsical children's garden, one of the most cherished green spaces in central Michigan.
In recent years the gardens gained a spectacular new crown: the Whiting Forest Canopy Walk, the longest treetop walkway in the United States. Winding among the branches high above the forest floor, it lets visitors experience the woodland from the height of the leaves, a rare and exhilarating perspective, and it has made Dow Gardens a destination well beyond its home town.
What Guests Love
- Walking the Whiting Forest Canopy Walk, the longest treetop walkway in the country, high among the branches
- Historic gardens laid out by a founding figure of American landscape design
- A children's garden, streams, and bridges that make it a favorite family outing
- Seasonal color from spring tulips and blossoms through fall foliage
Worth Knowing
- The gardens and canopy walk are open year round and are especially lovely in spring bloom and fall color
- The canopy walk is accessible and gently sloped, welcoming to visitors of many abilities
- Paths wind through varied terrain, so comfortable walking shoes help
- It sits within Midland, an easy pairing with the Tridge and the city's riverfront trails
Details
Midland, MI
Learn about Dow Gardens and Whiting Forest Canopy Walk
A chemist's garden
Herbert Dow was a chemist and inventor who founded the Dow company in Midland in the 1890s, extracting valuable chemicals from the brine beneath the Saginaw Valley. A passionate gardener as well as an industrialist, he began shaping the grounds around his home in 1899, experimenting with plants, fruit trees, and landscape design just as he experimented in his laboratory.
Dow believed a garden should be full of surprise and movement, and he laid out winding paths, streams, and changes of level rather than stiff formal beds. The gardens he created were opened to the public and have been carefully maintained and expanded ever since, a living legacy of the family whose company built the city.
The Whiting Forest Canopy Walk
The gardens' newest wonder is the Whiting Forest Canopy Walk, which opened at the end of the 2010s as the longest canopy walk in the country. A network of elevated walkways carries visitors up into and among the treetops of a mature forest, reaching well above the ground and offering a bird's-eye view of the woodland and the ponds below.
Designed to be gently sloped and accessible, the walk brings the experience of the forest canopy, usually reserved for climbers and researchers, to anyone who can stroll. Interpretive stops along the way explain the life of the treetops, and the sensation of walking among the branches, especially in fall color, is unforgettable.
Gardens for every season
Below the canopy, the gardens change through the year. Spring brings tulips, flowering trees, and a famous display of blossoms; summer fills the beds with annuals and perennials; and fall lights the forest and gardens in color. The grounds hold a children's garden, sensory trails, a greenhouse, and countless quiet corners.
The streams, bridges, and hidden paths that Herbert Dow loved still define the experience, giving the gardens a sense of discovery around every turn. It is a place designed to be wandered slowly, and generations of Midland families have grown up exploring it in every season.
Midland and the Saginaw Valley around it
Midland is a Saginaw Valley city shaped almost entirely by the Dow company and family, whose philanthropy also gave the city a renowned modernist architecture, museums, and the striking Tridge, a three-legged wooden footbridge spanning the meeting of the Tittabawassee and Chippewa rivers. Riverside trails and parks thread the town.
This is Anishinaabe homeland, long the country of the Ojibwe (Chippewa) of the Saginaw region, whose descendants are enrolled today in the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan, centered nearby. Their communities lived and traveled along the Tittabawassee, Chippewa, and Saginaw rivers for generations before the brine wells and the chemical works transformed the valley.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Midland
The Tridge
About 2 miles south
A distinctive three-legged wooden footbridge over the confluence of the Tittabawassee and Chippewa rivers in downtown Midland.
Midland Center for the Arts
About 2 miles south
A cultural complex with a museum, planetarium, and hall of ideas, set in Midland's noted modernist architecture.
Chippewa Nature Center
About 4 miles south
A large preserve at the meeting of two rivers, with trails, wetlands, a visitor center, and a historic homestead.
Downtown Midland
About 2 miles south
A walkable riverfront downtown with shops, restaurants, and connecting trails.