Michigan Travel · Midland
Dow Gardens is closed today. The canopy walk is Tuesday.
MIDLAND, Mich. — Dow Gardens is closed today, as it is every Monday. It reopens Tuesday at 9 a.m. and closes at 6:30 p.m., and the same ticket covers the Canopy Walk in Whiting Forest.
That schedule runs until winter hours start Nov. 1. From then through April 14, the gardens are open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Adult admission is $15, according to the gardens’ visitor page. Children 4 to 17 and adult students with ID pay $5. Children 3 and under are free. An annual pass is $30 per person, and the gardens’ admission FAQ says there is no family rate. Dow Gardens does not take part in Museums for All, the page says, and it offers discounts to active military members and adult students.
The bigger draw is Whiting Forest, 54 acres of woods, ponds, orchard and meadow inside Dow Gardens. The Canopy Walk there is 1,400 feet long and rises as high as 40 feet off the ground, according to Dow Gardens, which calls it the longest canopy walk in the nation. It has three arms. One looks over a pond from 25 feet up. One holds a large cargo net in a grove of spruce, also 25 feet up. The orchard arm ends at a platform with a glass floor and railings 40 feet high.
Plan on walking. The visitor page says the Canopy Walk is about 0.7 mile from the Welcome Center, and some features are up to a mile from the Visitor Center entrance at 1809 Eastman Ave. A smaller lot at the Education Center, 2203 Eastman Ave., sits near the orchard and forest. Most of its spaces are marked for handicapped parking, first come, first served. The forest has 1.5 miles of accessible hard-surface paths, and the gardens have more than 3 miles of barrier-free paths. A limited number of wheelchairs can be reserved at no charge by calling ahead, 989-631-2677.
The orchard came first. Herbert H. Dow, founder of the Dow Chemical Co., and his wife, Grace, bought the first piece of the property in 1905, according to Dow Gardens. He planted an apple orchard and dug two ponds for irrigation, and both ponds remain. One century-old Mother Apple tree still stands among 228 trees planted over two acres. The forest opened to the public in 2004 and had a grand reopening in October 2018.
A few house rules. No pets, except service animals. No drones. Leave balls, frisbees, scooters and kites at home. Bike racks are at the Visitor Center. The gardens ask visitors not to run or jog. Picnics are welcome, though outside food is not allowed indoors. The Welcome Center has a café.
It is closed Mondays. Tuesday is the day.
Sources:
Dow Gardens, plan your visit, https://dowgardens.org/plan/
Dow Gardens, Whiting Forest, https://dowgardens.org/forest/
Dow Gardens, annual admission frequently asked questions (PDF), https://dowgardens.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Annual-Admission-FAQ.pdf
Photo: Bscorsone, “Alden B Dow house and studio in Midland MI,” Oct. 2016, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and color-corrected, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alden_B_Dow_house_and_studio_in_Midland_MI.jpg
