What to do at the Morton Arboretum in Chicago
When we were traveling throughout the American Midwest, we knew that we wanted to visit Chicago, Illinois. We had been to the city many times before, since we used to live very close by for years before moving to Denmark. It IS a fantastic city, and truth be told; we really missed it.
Though we weren’t new to the area by any means, we had never been to the Morton Arboretum, which was located just outside of Chicago in the town of Lisle, Illinois. However, when we heard that is was hosting not only tree trolls, but also LEGO sculptures that summer of 2019, we knew that we just had to check it out.
This is a sponsored post. We want to thank the Morton Arboretum for hosting us with tickets on our day. We really enjoyed our time. All comments are completely my own. This post may also contain affiliate links, which means that at no additional cost to you, I may make a commission if you click on a link and make a purchase. Thanks for your support!
If you have read my blog before, you may already be aware that we love LEGO and tree trolls. These two very Danish things have taken up many of our days exploring Denmark as well as pages on my blog, so when we realized that we had the chance to experience in the USA the very things that we love about Denmark, we were sold! Let the adventure begin!!
What is an Arboretum?
To be quite honest, I don’t think that we, as a family, had ever been to an arboretum before. We loved forested areas and had been to plenty of state parks and botanical gardens, but never an arboretum. I guess I just thought that there was no difference between an arboretum and a regular park. Boy, was I wrong!!
Going to an arboretum is like going to a tree and plant museum, but instead of looking at displays and pictures of what used to exist, we get to walk around in nature and enjoy the real thing! We spent hours there without a moment of boredom or disappointment. The Morton Arboretum really was a fantastic place for a family day in nature.
Morton Arboretum and the Arbor Day Foundation
I have always been a nature-lover. When we lived in the USA, I was a member of the Arbor Day Foundation, which helped to restore America’s trees. I bought lots of seedlings for bushes and plants through their organization and used them to decorate my backyard/garden.
While we visited the Morton Arboretum, I discovered that the family that started the Morton Arboretum was also responsible for starting the Arbor Day Foundation. It felt that I was fated to find this place and visit, and I was so glad that it was during the summer of 2019.
Let me tell you why the Morton Arboretum was a great place for our family!
Morton Arboretum’s Children’s Garden
If the troll hunt and the LEGO exhibit weren’t enough, the children’s garden at the Morton Arboretum would be reason enough to spend a day there as a family. The combination of playgrounds, educational exhibits, and workshops allowed for my boys to have fun and learn something at the same time.
Take a look at the different gardens that make up the very impressive children’s garden. You’ll see just why we had to extend our stay at the Morton Arboretum.
Kid’s Tree Walk
The Kid’s Tree Walk was a fun path that led the visitors from the entrance to the different areas of the Children’s Garden. The path was paved with informational signs with many beautiful plants along the edges.
The layout of the Children’s Garden helped children understand the life cycle of plants and what their jobs as gardeners could be.
Backyard Discovery Gardens
One of the areas we experienced first was the Backyard Discovery Garden. This section had a few different workshop areas, where children could get some hands-on experience doing something creative. I loved how it was both a real-life, flower garden as well as a play area. It gave my kids lot of options for things to do, and they had fun exploring all the areas.
Because of the Sean Kenney LEGO sculptures, one of the workshops was dedicated to building with the fun Danish bricks. My boys and nephew really had a good time with that. They tried to create images found in nature, since they were inspired by what they saw with the LEGO exhibit.
Curiosity Garden
The Curiosity Garden was a great place to find smaller playgrounds. This is a perfect place for younger children since many of the attractions are closer to the ground.
We also loved that this area had many spitting frogs. We felt as if we had entered into an fairytale land with its magical frogs.
Every Which Way Garden
Learn all about the main ingredients of a plant: roots, stems and leaves in this fun, interactive area of the gardens. The boys loved the little house with large acorns, but I enjoyed all of the different, color-coded gardens. The blue garden was my favorite!
The day was so hot during our visit that the boys really loved the cool mist coming out of the large watering can. This was such a fun area that made you feel like a bug in the garden since everything was larger than in real life.
We also happened to be there on the same day as one of the local summer camps. Though there were many children around, it didn’t take away from our experience and fun! Playing in the caves was a fun, shady activity, but going down the slide was much more fun!
Windmill Garden
A walk through the Windmill Garden was a great way to see some real plants growing. It showed children the ways of gardening different vegetables and herbs. The large windmill also gave you the feeling that you were on a farm and not in one of the largest cities in the United States!
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Children’s Growing Garden
If you are a fan of sound, you can find some fun musical, garden sculptures at the Children’s Growing Garden. Instead of putting your ear to a speaker, you are putting them up to the pedals of giant flowers. This section is very good for hands-on play and allows children to make their own music.
Adventure Woods
The Adventure Woods is a great place filled with fun tree house playgrounds where kids can climb and explore. This playground is much better for mid-sized to larger children.
In this area, you can also find the the Wonder Pond, where kids can hop along the lily pads. The Adventure woods has a path that leads directly back to the entrance to the Children’s Garden where you can find restrooms and a shaded picnic area.
Morton Arboretum’s Maze Garden
Next to the children’s garden at the Morton Arboretum was a really fun maze garden. My boys loved mazes, and if we heard of a place that had a garden maze, we would purposely visit it. Many of these mazes always seemed to have a task. It wasn’t just walking aimlessly along, but you were oftentimes required to find something or fulfill a task.
Check out this post on the Labyrinthia Maze Park in Them, Denmark for more aMAZing fun!
This maze garden at the Morton Arboretum had a map at the beginning that encouraged guests to look for different sections of the maze that seemed to dead-end. At these dead-ends, the arboretum had placed informative signs that told visitors about different plants and trees.
It was fun for us to find these signs as well as to find our way around. In fact, I think my boys and nephew had too much fun, since they ran ahead of me most of the time.
We seemed to catch up with each other in the middle where there was a really cool observation platform surrounding a tree and raised up above the top part of the hedges. We had a nice pause up there to see the maze from above and to see what other areas of the arboretum we could see.
Luckily, we all seemed to finish the maze garden at the same time, which was helpful.
Other Reasons to Visit the Morton Arboretum
There are plenty of other reasons to visit the Morton Arboretum. If we lived closer, I could see us visiting more often.
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Walking Plays at the Morton Arboretum
One such reason would be because of the Walking Plays. They have small, theatrical performances at the arboretum, which would entertain the whole family. One of them is even Danish-inspired because it is about Hans Christian Andersen. These Walking Plays last all summer and into the fall months.
Morton Arboretum’s Events
The Morton Arboretum also has many events planned throughout the year, such as festivals, family nights and seasonal events. Click here to get a list of events that are happening at the Morton Arboretum.
The Gateway to Tree Science
If I lived closer to the Morton Arboretum, I would definitely take advantage of their interactive, outdoor exhibit called The Gateway to Tree Science. Here, homeowners can learn more about how to take better care of their own trees. You can read more about it here.
Overall Impressions of the Morton Arboretum
If this post wasn’t enough to convince you to visit the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois, USA, I don’t know what more you need. This fantastic place in nature was such a pleasant surprise. We had no idea just how much fun our family would have on this trip.
The beautiful grounds, amazing nature, and fun playgrounds and attractions really made our planned, 2-hour visit last nearly 5 hours. We just kept finding more to entertain us.
We want to say a special thank you to the gracious people at the Morton Arboretum for hosting our visit and for working with me on this advertisement feature. If we are ever back in the Chicago area, we would gladly come back to the Morton Arboretum again for some more fun!
Check out my video from the Morton Arboretum here!
Getting in Touch with The Morton Arboretum
Address: 4100 IL-53, Lisle, Illinois 60532 (USA)
Telephone: +1 630-968-0074
Website: https://www.mortonarb.org
Information on The Morton Arboretum
Click here for hours and admission to The Morton Arboretum.
For directions to and hiking maps of The Morton Arboretum, click here.
Click here for videos of The Morton Arboretum.
For a map of the Children’s Garden, click here.
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