On our August trip back East, we visited some of our favorite places and discovered a few new loves. One of them is Winterthur (pronounced "WinterTOUR") the 1,000 acre estate of Henry Francis DuPont, home to stunning gardens and an incredible museum of American decorative arts.
We only had a couple hours so rather than try to take it all in at a rushed pace, we opted to limit our range for our first visit. If there's ever an option with the word "enchanted" in the title, it's a safe bet that's where we'll be headed. So off we went, to Winterthur's Enchanted Woods. We got there via the Garden Tram, which is a guided shuttle tour and offered us a wonderful introduction to Du Pont's way of thinking, his plan for his estate, and the things that set it apart from similarly-sized historic properties.
Faerie House & Toadstool Circle
The Enchanted Woods is made up of 12 areas: Story Stones, S-s-serpentine Path, Troll Bridge, Water's Edge, Gathering Green, Bird's Nest, Fairy Flower Labyrinth, Faerie Cottage, Frog Hollow, Tulip Tree House, Acorn Tea Room, and Green Man's Lair. We were eager to explore them all. If you're a fan of fairy tales, the Enchanted Woods is the type of place you'll want to linger, so be sure to allow time. We could easily have spent half a day playing in the Faerie Cottage alone.
Acorn Tea Room, Tulip Tree House, Bird's Nest
Winterthur offers a map of the Enchanted Woods, which is good to have on hand to be sure you don't miss anything. For fun, we did our exploring first and then, when we thought we might've seen the whole area, checked the map to be sure we hadn't overlooked any pockets of wonder (which, of course, we had!) We almost missed the Fairy Flower Labyrinth and might not have realized we were on the S-s-serpentine Path if not for the reminder from the map to look closely at where we were treading.
Water's Edge, Story Stones, Green Man's Lair
There's also a relaxing fishing game outside of the Faerie Cottage that Bella had great fun with. You take a net and fish for corks, which you then deposit in a little tree stump. The back-and-forth fun of that, along with finding tiny frog sculptures and two actual, living tree frogs, could have kept us entertained for far longer than we allowed. There are stones with imprinted words to follow (some even from the Bard himself) in a meadow nearby and also a lovely labyrinth with a Navajo blessing a little further along. We enjoyed walking both and reading the words of wisdom imprinted there. The Navajo blessing in the labyrinth reads:
In beauty may I walk
With beauty before me
With beauty behind me
With beauty above me
With beauty all around me
May I walk
We explored as much as time would allow on our way back from the Enchanted Woods and found many other little pockets of beauty, and we didn't even go indoors to see the majestic house up close! The reflecting pool and tower below were two of our favorite places outside the Enchanted Woods. Walking Winterthur's grounds is akin to being in a living painting. Just exquisite.
The only thing I would do differently on our next trip to Winterthur is to allow more time (and maybe bring a picnic). You certainly can see quite a bit to enchant in a limited time but it would be marvelous to relax into the stunning gardens and walkways and spend as much time as your heart desires. There's a reason that your entry ticket is good for two days! Let us know if you've been, and if so, what your favorite part of the property is.
Happy journeying!
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