A deep ravine drops away below you, carved land now known as Nichols Arboretum, the Arb, on the University of Michigan campus. The grounds spread across 128 acres (52 ha) of varied, hilly landscape, lying adjacent to the Huron River and shaped around a deep ravine that leads down from Forest Hill Cemetery. Take in the scale: the Arb features over 400 species, including 110 species of trees, planted and preserved across these slopes.
Its signature is the W. E. Upjohn Peony Garden, home to the largest collection of heirloom peonies in North America — a horticultural treasure you can seek out among the beds. The Arb was designed by University of Michigan alumnus O. C. Simonds and opened in 1907, after Esther Connor Nichols and her husband Walter donated part of the land in 1906 and gave the place its name. The idea of a large botanical garden here goes back even further: plans from the 1830s showed the university’s early desire for such a garden, though the first botanical garden was not established until 1897.
Somewhere below, the Huron River keeps moving through the ravine, patient beneath 128 acres of trees planted since 1907.