This spring I made it to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Washington state, a must-see experience for anyone who loves nature. If you are doing a road trip in April, make sure this is on your list! Important note to Vancouver residents: it’s only a 2 hour drive from Vancouver and is well worth the trip. Keep reading, because this isn’t just a springtime getaway.
I arrived there on a Friday afternoon in mid April (zero traffic, go figure). After paying a $5 entrance fee I practically leapt into the tulip fields! Rich purple and deep red tulips atop a backdrop of blue sky and white fluffy clouds…. it was a photographer’s dream. Be warned, it can be muddy out there.
I will admit that going into this I was a little frustrated that the festival has no single site, being that the valley has thousands of acres of tulip fields. If you’re like me and need to know specifically where you’re going, let me help you. Your first stop should be the tulip fields and display garden at Roozen Gaarde. Just plug this address into your GPS: 15867 Beaver Marsh Road, Mount Vernon, WA, 98273. The Roozen family business which grows tulips, daffodils and irises is the largest in the world with more than 1000 acres of blooms and 16 acres of greenhouses in the Skagit Valley.They provide an online map showing which flowers are in bloom at which location to help you plan your visit. The tulip festival continues the entire month of April and has been running some 32 years.
Something you probably didn’t know is that they have an amazing display garden featuring another 90 varieties of tulips and 140 varieties of bulbs. It’s also open year-round! I personally think the display garden was equally as fantastic as the tulip fields, if not better.
Their wide-spread tulip fields are directly across the street from the display gardens. If you want to take some of this nature home with you, they’re more than happy to sell you some bulbs or fresh cut blooms. Personally, having less than a green-thumb, I am slightly encouraged by the success of my AeroGarden indoor planter that has produced cascading petunias, colorful mountain meadow flowers, herbs and tomatoes. I wish everything I planted had a 100% growth guarantee like Aero-Garden…. or I could always get my flower-fix by visiting Skagit Valley each year! ♥
Please enjoy a glimpse of the flowers below, and hopefully I’ve convinced you to take a road trip to see them for yourself.
