If you’re looking for a Pacific Northwest day trip that feels a world away from Seattle, head across Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island to visit the Bloedel Reserve. The highlight for nature lovers is the reserve’s extraordinary Moss Garden: the largest public moss garden in the United States.
Spanning about two acres, the Japanese-inspired garden is home to more than 50 species of mosses and lichens. Different shades and textures of green blanket the landscape, spilling over decaying tree stumps and creating an almost otherworldly, ancient-forest atmosphere. Dark huckleberry stems and towering trees add contrast to the velvety carpet below.
The garden dates to 1982, when 275,000 plugs of Irish moss were planted. Native mosses soon moved in, transforming the garden into something far more natural and diverse. Prentice Bloedel, who helped shape the reserve, had a particular fondness for alder trees. Rather than removing every stump when the forest was cleared for the garden, he left many behind as habitat for birds and as distinctive features within the moss-covered landscape…