Amanda Paule
- I visited Branch Brook Park in Newark, New Jersey, during its spring Cherry Blossom Festival.
- The park has around 5,200 Japanese cherry trees, compared to around 3,800 in Washington DC.
- The cherry blossoms were breathtaking, and the park was busy but not too crowded.
On Saturday, I visited the Essex County Cherry Blossom Festival in Branch Brook Park, the largest public park in Newark, New Jersey.
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Branch Brook Park spans about 360 acres from Newark's North Ward up to the southern portion of Belleville.
Amanda Paule/Google Maps
Locals started the Cherry Blossom Festival in 1976, and Branch Brook Park has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1981.
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Source: Branch Brook Park Alliance
As a Jersey native, I was surprised I'd never heard of Branch Brook and its 5,200 cherry-blossom trees — that's more than any other park in the US.
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Source: Travel + Leisure
The trees arrived in 1927 when local philanthropist Caroline Bamberger Fuld returned from a trip to Japan and donated more than 2,000 of them to the park.
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This festival sees only a fraction of the visitors that flock to DC this time of year — about 100,000 attendees compared to DC's 1.6 million.
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Source: Jersey's Best, Washington Post
The park now has 18 varieties of the Japanese cherry tree, with blooms ranging in hue from white to bright pink.
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Source: Branch Brook Park Alliance
To start my visit, I found parking along the street near the under-construction Cherry Blossom Welcome Center (set to open fall 2023).
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The park is open from dawn until 10 p.m. each day, but I arrived at 10 a.m. after driving from South Jersey.
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The views were gorgeous, and the paths were perfect for a romantic stroll or a day trip with family and friends.
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There was plenty of space on paths and in open fields for gazing at the blossoms and posing for photos.
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I saw photographers snapping pictures for maternity photoshoots, family portraits, and a quinceañera.
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Most of the trees are planted in the southernmost and northernmost sections of the park, so I walked 45 minutes along a path between the two areas.
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I saw dozens of people walking cute dogs along the way.
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Several groups had laid out picnic blankets throughout the park, including a few near Newark's Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
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Near the lake, a group was playing traditional Japanese music and dancing with parasols.
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And a massive crowd had assembled for a community Easter egg hunt.
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On certain days during the two-week festival, the park hosts events like Japanese cultural performances, a 10k run, and a bike race.
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A few visitors were fishing on the lake.
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Calling the number on this sign brought me into a guided tour of the park. At this stop, I learned about a nearby gazebo's architecture.
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I especially loved the weeping cherry trees, like this one near the gazebo.
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I ended the afternoon with a treat from a nearby ice-cream truck.
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I'll definitely be back to Branch Brook Park for next year's festival, and I'll probably visit throughout the year to walk along the trails or find a green space to read.
Amanda Paule
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