The Matthaei Botanical Gardens Trail, a paved, two-mile hiking and biking path connecting the botanical gardens with a network of trail systems throughout the area, opened this fall.
The trail provides a nonmotorized link from the gardens to Washtenaw County’s Parker Mill Park to the south, with connections to the regional Border-to-Border Trail, the local Gallup Park pathway, and the University of Michigan’s Nichols Arboretum and Central Campus. The trail also provides a safer travel route that parallels but avoids Dixboro Road, a busy Washtenaw County artery with a narrow shoulder inadequate for safe biking or walking.
Beyond local trail systems, the pathway expands on existing nonmotorized connections to U-M’s Medical Center and Central and North campuses, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, Eastern Michigan University, Concordia University and Washtenaw County Community College, as well as public transportation to these destinations.
