Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
Mon, May 5, 2025, 9:30am
3675 Arboretum Drive
Chaska, MN 55318
We are so fortunate that Peter Moe, retired Minnesota Landscape Arboretum director and UMRA member, will be leading a hiking tour of the Arboretum again this year. This was our most popular hike last year with 28 hikers attending. Let’s top that number this year!
We will meet on the welcoming terrace in front of the Oswald Visitor Center at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, May 5, to start our hike.
We will travel through the Arboretum's display gardens to the beginning of the Three-Mile Walk, which starts near the Sensory Garden and continues through the woodland Wildflower Garden and the Shade Tree Exhibit. We will leave the Three-Mile Walk and take a loop around the perimeter of the Tall Grass Prairie and then return to the Three-Mile Walk to visit the Harrison Sculpture Garden and many other plant collections.
Every spring is different
At the Rhododendron Garden we will head up to the Farm at the Arb to see the 1920 Red Barn and Tashjian Bee & Pollinator Discovery Center. We will return to the Three-Mile Walk for a short distance, and then cut across the Sphagnum Bog on the boardwalk to the Green Heron Trail and back to the Display Gardens and Oswald Visitor Center. The total of all segments is approximately 4.5 miles. There will be options to head back to the visitor center early for those who want a shorter hike.
Every spring is different in Minnesota but on this date last year, the amazing tulip display was at its peak, and we will undoubtedly enjoy seeing many spring-blooming trees, shrubs, wildflowers, and perennials.
Peter will arrange for group tickets at a discounted cost of $17 per person for non-members of the Arboretum. Plan to pay Peter your entrance fee in cash at the event. Hikers who are Arboretum members need to reserve their entrance to the Arboretum for that day (at no additional charge).
Plan to stay for lunch together (optional) after the hike at the Rootstock café on the second floor of the Oswald Visitor Center. It’s a lovely place to gather.
Please sign up for this hike (required). Your completed form will be used to buy tickets, and to be sure everyone who signs up has arrived before the start of the hike. Registrations will be accepted up to 24 hours before the hike.
—Bev Moe and Michael Luxenberg, UMRA Hiking Club co-leaders
Upcoming Events
"Third Wednesdays in the West Wing" is a pilot program for spring 2026.
The UMRA Breakfast meeting on Thursday, April 16, will be a discussion of technology for older adults: what works best, what is confusing, and what are the best resources for seeking help.
UMRA’s Book Club I will discuss Rin Tin Tin by Susan Orlean when it meets via Zoom on Friday, April 17. Diane Madson-Kay will lead the discussion.
On April 20, we will welcome guest leaders Bion Beebe and Linda Bjornberg from Twin Cities Hiking Meetup, to show us their favorite trails from the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge trailhead in Bloomington.
The satisfaction of eating food that you grow or tending a plant that gives you beauty is nourishing in every way. And, according to Terry Straub, the guest speaker for UMRA’s April 21 workshop, we can have this satisfaction throughout our lives, our changing abilities, and wherever we live.
Across 15 years, Ilene Dawn Alexander has made at least a dozen visits to England and Wales, all with longer sojourns in Manchester and Liverpool. Each journey has disproved the dismissive description of Manchester as “the armpit of England.” Join UMRA’s Armchair Traveler program on April 22 to learn what Alexander has discovered what these outside-of-London cities have to offer.
Ever wonder what goes on behind the shiny walls of the Weisman Art Museum on the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus? What its mission is, and how the museum staff and its collections relate with our community? Join us for UMRA’s April 28 luncheon forum at Midland Hills and hear Weisman Art Director Alejandra Peña Gutiérrez explain it all.
May 4 is a beautiful Urban hike around Minneapolis’ Cedar and Brownie Lakes.
Join us for the Doors Open Minneapolis photo shoot.
Family history with Craig Moody. A tale with many dead ends.
Peter Moe, retired University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum Director and UMRA member, will lead this hike.
Third Wednesdays in the West Wing" is a pilot program for spring 2026.
Bev leads at Hyland Lake Park Reserve.
Abandoned and discarded is the theme for the UMRA Photo Club meeting in June. Newcomers are welcome.
Michael leads this hike at Afton State Park.