Dow Gardens and the Whiting Forest of Dow Gardens

Dow Gardens is an absolute gem! 🌸 The entire place is beautifully maintained with vibrant flowers, peaceful walking trails, and well-designed landscapes that change with the seasons. The canopy walk is a must-try it gives you a stunning bird’s-eye view of the trees and gardens. It’s such a refreshing spot to relax, take photos, and enjoy nature. Perfect for a family outing, a quiet stroll, or even just some “me-time.” The staff is friendly, and everything feels thoughtfully taken care of. Truly one of the most beautiful places to visit in Michigan! 🌿✨

Dow Gardens and Whiting Forest is beautiful. We had a very tranquil day walking the length of the park and then some. We enjoyed seeing the different plants, flowers, and trees. The Canopy Walkway was also a treat to the flowers and trees from above. I enjoyed the Children's Garden tremendously. I learned a bit about some vegetables it may be easy to incorporate into my landscape and harvest for food - bonus! Highly recommend a visit to commune with nature and beauty for a few hours.

Beautiful environment, trees, flowers, water/ water features, everything. The canopy walk was pretty cool. There are very well-maintained trails and places to sit and relax everywhere, plus a few hidden/unmarked sculptures to find. Entry prices are very reasonable and it's well worth visiting. Would definitely recommend.

This was an absolutely amazing experience. The grounds were gorgeous. Prepare to get lost in the vast gardens and venture down hidden paths amongst the flowers. I might have visited a quarter of the place in my almost 2 hours there, and I am already planning my next trip back. It's definitely worth the cost of admission.

Such a beautiful place. We spent several house just walking along the paths and enjoying the views. The canopy walk was interesting and the gardens, beautiful. Its a little bit of a hike to get to the canapy walk so plan accordingly.

Beautiful visit to the gardens and area. Many trees, flowers and garden attractions. Friendly staff and nice gift shops. The cafe was a refreshing stop for a coffee or choice of flavored hot or cold tras and drinks. Forest and canopy walk was awesome!

This was our first time to the butterfly exhibit and it was enjoyable to say the least We had an awesome time! The butterflies are so delicate and they're just fluttering around you and if you sit there long enough they will land on you and then you can gently urge them onto your finger and walk around with them if they will stay on you I had a couple land on me It was very beautiful! The walk to the conservatory is quite a jaunt but it's a wonderful walk with the waterfalls and the little streams and all these giant rocks. It was just such a great thing to see the little kids with the butterflies zooming around them and their eyes and their faces just light up and it's just so adorable and the staff is so knowledgeable about the butterflies it's just a really great experience I recommend this to anyone! They do have wheelchairs if you need it and you can take the wheelchair into the conservatory you just have to be careful of the butterflies on the floors.

These gardens are lovely! Fairly cheap, especially if you get a year pass, it makes the gardens just a lovely place to relax, walk, picnic and reflect. I’ve done yoga here that’s guided and I visit the butterfly exhibit when it’s in town! The children’s garden is interactive: you’re allowed to pick some fruits and vegetables! The flower beds are immaculate. The whiting forest canopies are fun, but can be pretty busy with kids. I take everyone who visits midland here! It’s the best of the best!

Such a wonderful place for the entire family to enjoy!! Definitely a must to buy their yearly pass!!

This is a beautiful little heaven in Michigan that I'm so happy I've discovered! The lush gardens, little brook that flows through, the amazing children's playground, canopy walk... little cafe... everything made me fall in love with this little enchanted garden. Nothing but love for this place.

Wow!! I love it here! My hubby planned a day trip here for us. I had never heard of Whiting Forest before. I didn't honestly know what to expect but loved it all. The canopy walk just blew us away. I love the hammock area where you can sit suspended above the ground, that was my favorite. It was so unique and interesting as were the other areas they had to climb into. Besides the beauty that surrounded us everywhere. The thing that really stuck out to us was how well the whole area was taken care of. The gating was clean, no spiders or cobweb's hanging anywhere, as is the case most places. And for someone who hates spiders. I can't tell you how much it's appreciated. If you are looking for pricing. It's $10 a person $2 for students. Or $20 a year per person. We had purchased a day ticket. But after 10 minutes knew that we had to change that. So before we left we went and purchased the year passes!! This also includes the Dow Gardens

This Whiting Forest was just opened last fall, and I am glad that I visited it today. The admission costs $10 per adult, and you can visit both Dow Gardens and Forest by paying one ticket. Very well maintained walking trails with nice outlook spots. Beautiful pine trees and lakes. I enjoyed sitting on lakeside and watching the beautiful trees and clouds reflections on the water. There is a nice cafe inside the Forest. Coffee and pastries are delicious and prices are reasonable. If you buy annual pass for $20, you can visit the garden all year round. I definitely will come back to visit.

I moved to Michigan soon after construction began here, so I have been eagerly awaiting its completion. Even though I hate people and it was crowded on opening day, I had to see for myself if it was worth the wait. At $10 (for now) for an annual pass, you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not checking it out. It is awesome! Not in the surfer bro kind of way; rather, a result of the beauty of nature invoking the actual feeling of awe. Looking out through the trees and over the ponds is very peaceful even with all the people around. I love that trees are allowed to grow through holes built into the canopy walk so as to disturb as little as possible. After you get your fill of views, there is plenty of trail to walk on the ground as well. Surprisingly, almost the entire canopy walk is wheelchair-friendly and there is even one paved trail on the ground. The toilet situation in the visitor center consists of separate family bathrooms, baby-changing stations, and extra sinks; easily one-upping the nice bathrooms at Dow Gardens. However; the ones in the cafe are nowhere near as nice. The cafe is actually the only thing I could complain about. I get that it will be busy on opening day, but the reason that the line was so long was that patrons were also paying for and asking questions about admission in addition to ordering food and drink. Separate registers, please and thank you. Or else just bring your own picnic. Parking was obviously difficult but you can park at the library and enter Whiting Forest by bridge. There is another bridge under construction that will connect to Dow Gardens, where admission is also covered by your entrance fee here. Even though the price of the annual pass will increase to $20 next year, it's still well worth the price to enjoy the unique views in this lovely forest.

If you have elderly grandparents without a handicap card or license plate, or if you are a young family with little kids, this facility is not convenient to access. They have closed down the parking lot entrance at the GA Dow Library. Now, everyone must use the Dow Gardens entrance and traverse the hundreds of yards around to the Canopy Walk and the Playground.

Such a neat place! It wasn't as large as I thought it would be, but it's connected to Dow Gardens, so you'll definitely have an opportunity to get your workout in. My legs are giving me the middle finger right now. First time doing the canopy walk and it was so cool. There's even a see through bottom on one side of the canopy, and it made me a little dizzy. I had to stand on it though! There's even a side that has netting that the kids love to jump and lay on. Great views for sure.

What a great place to take a family or even go yourself to enjoy nature. Do you want to talk about when the best canopy walks that I've ever seen. One of the nicest little nature centers around and even a great area for the kids to enjoy. It also has a nice little café so you can joy a little bite to eat while the kids go run around. I'm kind of curious to see what this place looks like during winter so I might make a trip back up here. But for fall time it was amazing and I'm happy I got to experience it finally. For me it was worth the 2 hour drive to go. I hope they will build one around this way so I can enjoy it myself more often. I would for sure recommend going to this place if you want a different experience on enjoying nature but not at a crazy scale.

Dow is known for making sure things are safe and clean. This is no exception to that rule. Whiting forest will also buy you a ticket to the gardens, which is a steal if I do say so myself. The canopy walk is well executed. They had the foresight to build things around the trees but make sure that the trees have room to grow. The kids playground will make even adults want to play in it. They have a little water feature with over-sized rubber duckies and some pretty sweet slides. The canopy walk has some great features but it doesn't take too long to get through. They have a few walking trails that wind through the trees once you're over the walk. There is also a café near the playground if you're feeling peckish. I enjoy that they heat your pastry without request. I would also suggest trying the soup, it comes with your choice of bread.

Excellent spot to explore. Beautiful and unique, everyone in my family enjoyed it. The children's garden was incredibly cool.

I'd been looking forward to checking out Whiting Forest's new tree canopy walk for quite some time as I've seen it pop up in my social media feeds regularly throughout the summer and had a business trip in Midland in late October. What a beautiful place to enjoy the fall color, since you are literally walking amongst the leaves up in the tree tops. There are a couple of fun rope areas: one is supervised by a volunteer and offers three separate zones to bounce or lounge. It would be a great spot to read a book on your lunch break, the are there is a thin rope bridge that leads to a fort of sorts, and on my Friday morning visit the foot traffic coming in and out of there was bananas. I can't imagine how hectic the spot gets on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. It would be wise to install a second form of ingress and egress to that station. Speaking of this place being bananas busy, when we left at around noon on a weekday there was a line of about 25 people queuing and we noticed some people were purchasing their time frame for the weekend in advance. Entrance is only $5 for a day or $10 for a year and includes entrance to both Whiting & Dow Gardens. They are working on a canopy walk that will connect the two parks. Annual fees will double to $20 starting in January so now is a smart time to get one (they'd make a great stocking stuffer, too.) They're good for year from the date of purchase. Bring a good camera -- the reflections of the fall leaves on the water is breathtaking.

Had the best time exploring everything they had to offer! The canopy walk was extremely accessible for all and was very well cleaned and maintained. Was well worth the cost and would recommend coming here for a day of adventure to anyone!! We drove an hour away and found plenty to do while we were there. The playground for children looked hands-down like the best play spot and the cafe was good and affordable. The walking trails were all very well maintained and easy to navigate.

We absolutely LOVE the canopy walk here! Really neat place! Highly recommend checking it out.

First off. They only offer an active military discount. the problem with this is sure they can use it for marketing they offer this but are no where close to an active duty base. There is a reserve base here but since they are not active they also are not eligible..so no they really dont have to give out a discount. Which is sad because Mac Whiting him self was a veteran yet they offer. Very disappointing. This is somthing that may be good in spring or early fall when things are in bloom. Late fall I would not go again. There is really nothing to see and the canopy is not supper big and geared more for little kids. The student prices are good at only 2.00 but 10.00 for adults I think is a bit excessive. Deffenatly getting more hipe than it deserves ..

Worth the wait for the renovations to be completed. Absolutely love visiting here to traverse the canopy walk as well as wandering around the pond loop. The pond overlook is probably one of the most picturesque views between Whiting Forest and Dow Gardens. Definitely worth getting an annual pass.

What a great way to enjoy a beautiful sunny fall day! We were traveling back from a trip up north and this was a half way stop. We stretched our legs walking over the gardens and enjoying the view. We also took the time to visit the rose garden and children's garden too. It was a delightful day stopping to smell the Rose's.

Ah maze ing!!! Took the kids on a last minute trip. We had an absolute blast. The canopy walk was awesome. Kids enjoyed climbing and exploring. Beautiful views. Then we ended at the kids area splash pad playground. They literally played for over 4 hours and didn't want to leave. This is a must see if you live in Michigan or are visiting. You will not be disappointed

First time visiting. Just a few miles from the casino & you feel like you are waking through the trees on the Forest Moon of Endor. Fun & Exciting. Definitely coming back. We even visited in the rain

Part of Dow gardens and a beautiful place to just wander around and explore. The canopy walk is stunning and the staff really care.

The new canopy walk at Whiting Forest is phenomenal. The architecture is impressive and the scenery is breathtaking! I could spend hours wandering around the canopy walk and the serene wooded trails. Great place to take visitors of any age when in the area!

My family adores Whiting Forest! My son loves the play area full of whimsy and I love the tasty coffee available in the cafe. Everyone wins! The Canopy walk is always so fun and the "giant people spider webs" at the top are super fun to play in. A favorite for sure!

the canopy walk is great for people who think to themselves, "wow, this sidewalk is lame. if only it was 20 feet in the air."

This park is an amazing combination of family friendly adventure, beautiful nature, and brilliantly designed playground. The elevated bridges, creatively designed "sky nests," rope bridges, and glass floors on the canopy walks were so fun for the kids and adults. This is a rare nature and design gem!

LOVE this place so much that I purchased an annual pass! I particularly love that it feels so relaxing/like you're someplace far away, while being in the heart of Midland!

I loved walking around with my family and it's very wheelchair accessible , very convenient and great family activity to get everyone out of the house. Coming to and end of our excursion we stopped at the cafe as the kids where out on the playground and there espresso machine was broken food was rock hard and staff was very rude. The "cafe" was very nice decorated and comfy.

I didn't get to go on the canopy walk I was just picking my kid up from hanging out with grandma. But the park for the kids was great. I will definitely make it back with a packed lunch and make a day out of it. My 4 year old keeps asking when we are going back.