All Over Albany

Pine Hollow Arboretum

It's a charming little park -- privately owned but open to the public -- near the Bethlehem Price Chopper in Slingerlands. But unless you have driven right past it -- actually, even if you have driven right past it -- you would probably have no idea it existed.

The Pine Hollow Arboretum is a 45-year-old project by John Abbuhl, and it was his charming wife who let us in to investigate on Mother's Day afternoon.

Here's how our visit went (complete with some lovely pictures)...

The entrance is in an unlikely-looking suburban house on Maple Avenue -- the only indications that it is not a house like any other being the small sign outside advertising the arboretum's opening hours and an even smaller sign inviting you to enter through the front door. Inside, we were asked to sign in, given map leaflets and talked through the layout of the park with the aid of a large map on a stand. From there we exited through a back door, walked across a fairly normal looking suburban back-yard and descended into the arboretum proper.

**You can read more of The Exile's adventures at Exilesny.blogspot.com**.

The trail leads down a fairly steep hill (we were offered the option of driving to a more level starting point if we wished) and into a mixture of grassland and woodland with many specimen trees -- several in flower at the moment -- with ponds, boardwalk bridges and delightfully un-manicured trails.

It is park and wilderness and tree-museum all rolled up in a tiny space surrounded by suburbia. A real gem! The entire park is about 20 acres, but the walkable section is about five acres.

The Pine Hollow Arboretum is open weekends from 10-4 and weekdays by appointment.
Donations are requested but not required.

Here are some more photos from our visit: