Dow Gardens and the treetop walk

When Herbert Dow wasn’t running his chemical company, he was gardening. The garden he started around his Midland home in the early 1900s grew into Dow Gardens — today a 110-acre public garden full of flowers, ponds, winding paths, and little bridges, with tens of thousands of fresh annuals planted every summer. His old house, “The Pines,” still sits in the gardens and is a national landmark.

Right next door, and part of the same place, is Whiting Forest — land Herbert and Grace Dow first bought back in 1905 — and its star attraction is a canopy walk billed as the longest in the country. Opened in 2018, the elevated walkway stretches 1,400 feet — about a quarter mile — and climbs as high as 40 feet above the forest floor. Its three arms each end at a different view: one over a pond, one at a giant cargo net strung in a grove of spruce trees, and one at a glass-floored platform looking out over an apple orchard. The whole thing is barrier-free, with gentle ramps that let strollers and wheelchairs roll right up into the trees. There’s a small admission for the gardens and canopy walk, and one ticket covers Dow Gardens, Whiting Forest, and the walk together. It’s one of the nicest ways to spend an afternoon in Midland, in any season — even in winter, when the bare branches let you see the whole forest floor laid out below your feet.