University of Michigan Nichols Arboretum

The Nichols Arboretum, near U-M hospital and downtown Ann Arbor, offers trails, riverfront, picnic area, restrooms, and peony and lilac gardens. The Arb allows cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, canoeing and kayaking but does not provide rentals. It has extensive but dispersed collections of native and exotic trees and shrubs masterfully crafted into a naturalistic landscape begun by O. C. Simonds in 1907.