Fremonsters looking for a reason to slow down and look up during the fall have an option: a free, self-guided walking tour of some of our neighborhood’s trees.
The walk comes from Seattle Public Utilities’ Trees for Neighborhoods program. The program helps residents plant and care for trees around their homes, organizes volunteer stewardship events, and runs workshops on tree care (which we’ve covered here).
Trees for Neighborhoods has built more than 40 self-guided Tree Walks in neighborhoods around Seattle. Each one is mapped and annotated with help from local volunteers.
Fremont’s Tree Walk runs 0.72 miles from Fremont Peak Park at 4357 Palatine Ave. N to Ross Park at 4320 4th Ave. NW. It stops at 19 trees along the way.
It’s an easy route that’s all downhill, with sidewalks the whole way.
The walk starts with a Douglas fir at Fremont Peak Park and continues past neighborhood fruit trees, including apple and fig. Each stop includes a photo and details on the tree’s identifying features, native range and history.
The Fremont route ends at a Big Leaf Maple in the southwest corner of Ross Park. It’s a fitting spot, given the neighborhood history there. In 1883, the Crawford family joined early Fremont settlers John Ross and William Ashworth to build a two-room wooden schoolhouse on the block for the newly formed Ross School District, according to local historian Valarie Bunn.
Walkers can follow along on the Tree Walk Experience map, a mobile-friendly tool meant to be used phone-in-hand as you go, or browsed from home for those who’d rather plan ahead.
Anyone with questions, or who’d prefer a printed version, can email TreesforSeattle@Seattle.gov.
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