Soos Creek Botanical Garden

Described in their brochure as a "unique pairing of garden and history," this is another out-of-the way place we've somehow missed. It's about a 45 minute drive from Seattle, in the city of Auburn. 

The garden is located on a 22 acres of former farmland.  Maurice Skagen acquired the first 5 acres in 1968, and began to develop the current gardens.  At the time it was overrun with blackberries and alders, although it had some large native trees such as Western Red Cedar, which are still there.

Maurice toured gardens in England and Japan, where he was inspired to create these "stroll gardens."

He also purchased unusual plants and trees on his travels, and bought many more from Northwest specialty nurseries.

It's a peaceful setting, and we had the place pretty much to ourselves.

Afterwards, we ate a drive-thru hamburger in the car then headed home. It was a peaceful little nature break smack in the middle of busy urban area.