Washington, DC's best park you've never heard of: Dumbarton Oaks
Technically speaking Dumbarton Oaks is a private garden not a city park. You have to pay to enter. But it is fantastic, and is well worth the price of admission. It's a formal garden in the European Romantic tradition. I went on Sunday and took some pictures. Hope you enjoy.
The garden is in Georgetown, by the way.
Here is a map of the grounds. The garden is really a collection of several small outdoor rooms, each with its own character.
Entry gate:
The gardens are on the grounds of an old mansion, which has since been turned into a museum showcasing the owner's private collection of ancient Mesoamerican and Byzantine artifacts.
The rose garden is excellent:
Leaving the rose garden...
A small pool and amphitheater:
There's a more formal pool closer to the mansion (this picture, as well as one or two others in the thread, are from a set I took in March, 2008):
Statues and ornate vases are throughout.
I was trying to get a picture of a chipmonk in this frame. I failed (mostly - you can just barely see him sticking his nose out), but thought the picture turned out nice anyway sans chipmonk:
Another one of the "rooms":
Each of the rooms are separated by a wall somehow. Sometimes hedges, other times brick or stone.
The trellis from the background of the previous picture:
More rooms:
(Sorry for the blur.)
Dumbarton Oaks is one of the places locals go to see cherry blossoms (late March - early April) and avoid the throngs of tourists on the National Mall.
Threaded Mode