Ohme Gardens, Wenatchee, Washington

We made a trip over to Ohmn Gardens on August 3rd. It is a beautiful place to visit. You do, however, need to be able to walk a lot of steps and some of the trails are a bit scary. They give you a map but it is easy to get on the wrong trail.  Take a walking stick - that helps a lot.

In 1929 Herman Ohme purchased 40 acres of land for an orchard. They had such a wonderful view that they decided to start landscaping it. They tried to get a bank loan but were turned down so they just worked on it a little at a time hauling rocks and planting evergreens as the could. Before they had it done people starting noticing it down below and they had lots of visitors. Before long it was a tourist attraction and kept on growing. The Ohmes continued to perfect the Gardens for 42 years, until 1971 when Herman died at the age of 80. The couple's son Gordon and his family then assumed responsibility for the Gardens, and in 1991 Washington State Parks and Recreation purchased the Gardens and surrounding property. The Gardens are currently owned and managed by Chelan County.

Heading down the trail.  Can you imagine.  The Ohme's carried all these blocks and put them in place.  What a labor of love!  They planned on building a house up here but it never happened but they did leave a beautiful place for posterity.

A small  area for a gathering

This area was set up for a wedding party later on today.

This was probably a beautiful view of the river before the interstate and all the buildings were added.

There were rock benches like this one around the property that the Ohmes also put together.  After hiking all the hills, they were a comfort.

The trail isn't easy in some areas

And the trail got pretty scary in this area.    There wasn't much to keep you from going straight down the mountain.

Lee found a Tree House!

Nice Fire Place

Beautiful Sylan Pool