If you’re an outdoorsy person like myself, finding places to hike around Denison is harder than it seems. Luckily, we have the biological reserve, a couple hundred acres of forest devoted just to the college. It’s full of small walking trails and big expanses of woods, and it’s my favorite place to go for just about everything, whether that be walking for exercise, ambling, thinking, doing work, or journaling. It’s usually pretty empty, too, whenever I am there I only cross paths with a maximum of two people.
As amazing as the bio reserve is, there are times when this campus still feels too small. I think we have all felt like this before, and the craving to be far away from school kicks in. This past year, with the help of some environmental classes, I have found some parks and trails and nature preserves that I never would have known were in the area otherwise. There are a ton of great trails just down in Granville that are easy to access from campus, but my favorite spot is about twenty minutes away from Denison: The Dawes Arboretum.
An arboretum is a botanical garden dedicated to just trees. Dawes is no exception to this definition, as it holds over 5,000 different types of trees and plants. It is laid out in sections, ranging from a Japanese garden to marshlands to grasslands to deep woods. I was first introduced to the place last year through a service event with my sorority where we planted trees. I went back last semester on a field trip with my class, and then again just last week on yet another field trip with a different class. Each time I’ve been, I see something I haven’t before and learn something new about trees, plants, myself, and the world around me. The land itself is wide, but it’s entirely manageable to walk the entire arboretum in one visit. The best part about Dawes is every time you enter a new section, there’s no remnants of the one you have just come from; it feels like you’re in an entirely new place.
I’ve been there in the spring, fall, and winter, and each visit is just as beautiful. There is something different to admire with every season. In the spring, the wildflowers are in bloom, in the fall, the leaves are just like the ones on Denison’s campus. In the winter, the ponds and lakes freeze over, leaving intricate patterns and designs in the ice. The one thing that never changes about Dawes is how I feel when I am there: it’s the perfect place to clear my head and just admire what is around me. On campus, my mind runs a million miles an hour, and there is no place to escape the busy culture. At Dawes, and really any place in nature, I can sit with myself and contextualize whatever is giving me stress and anxiety with the rest of the world. I always come back feeling ten times better. If you ever have the chance to get to Dawes, or just outside in nature, it will do more for you than you would ever expect.