A sprawling garden hidden in the Irish Hills

Near Tipton, in the rolling Irish Hills, there’s a botanical garden you might drive right past without knowing it’s there. Hidden Lake Gardens covers hundreds of acres of gardens, woods, and an arboretum, and it’s owned and run by Michigan State University. It started in the 1920s as one man’s project: Harry Fee, an Adrian businessman, bought the land around a little glacial lake for his retirement, found it too rocky to farm, and spent two decades shaping it into a “series of pictures” instead. He gave it to the university in 1945.

Today you can drive the winding park roads, walk miles of trails, visit a domed greenhouse full of desert and tropical plants, and see collections of bonsai and rare dwarf evergreens. The newest addition is a canopy walk that lifts you up into the treetops. It’s open all four seasons, on Monroe Road (M-50) near Tipton.