Morton Arboretum biking

Yesterday was yet another cloudy, humid day -- no sun, but at least a bit warmer. My oldest son, Scott, invited me to join him at Morton Arboretum for a bike ride on the roads...


In 1922, Joy Morton, the owner of Morton Salt and Argo Starch, established The Morton Arboretum on 178 acres of land adjacent to his estate in Lisle, Illinois. Today the arboretum encompasses 1700 acres and includes over 4,100 different species of trees, shrubs, and other woody plants from around the globe. In all, there are over 186,000 catalogued plants. The Arboretum has 16 miles of hiking trails and nine miles of roadways for driving and bicycling. His father, Julius Morton, was one of the founders of Arbor Day, and the family estate in Nebraska was given to the State of Nebraska as its first state park in honor of his father and Arbor Day.

The colors were marvelous, as was the lunch at the cafe...


Then we walked a bit, enjoying the children's "backyard" and "woods" exhibits, as well as the one acre maze and the "animal houses" displays.