We visited Washington, DC in the morning today to see the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin. It was, unfortunately, well past peak bloom.
The weather was forecast to be good today with highs in the low 80s and partly cloudy skies. We decided to visit Washington, DC to see the cherry blossoms. Peak bloom was officially declared by the National Park Service last Thursday.
We left early to beat the rush hour, taking the Silver Line to the Smithsonian station. It was not too busy and we arrived a bit before 7:30am.
We walked west from the station past the US Department of Agriculture, which was displaying a large banner for the 250th anniversary of the United States of America.
It was looking to be a nice morning as we approached the Washington Monument.
Unfortunately, we could immediately tell that we were a bit late to the party. The cherry blossoms never last long. However, this was pretty bad for five days after peak. There were even many leaves that had sprouted on this particular tree!
These trees at the southeast corner of the Washington Monument are usually a pretty good indicator of what we can expect to see by the Tidal Basin.
The Blossom Kite Festival takes place every year during the cherry blossom season. This year, it was held this past Saturday, the same day as the No Kings protests. We saw a few remnants of the kite festival in the trees around the National Mall.
At least it was not busy today. This area is usually quite a zoo during weekends around peak bloom!
We normally manage to visit when these trees are dense with cherry blossoms and the leaves have not started appear.
We continued on to the south to head to the Tidal Basin. We walked by the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing which, like the USDA, also had a banner for the 250th anniversary.
We arrived at the Tidal Basin at around 7:45am. The paddle boat concession had not yet opened at this early hour.
We decided to walk counter-clockwise around the Tidal Basin, which is the direction that we walk in most years. We were a bit surprised that there were not more petals visible on the ground.
We could tell that many trees on the other side of the basin were in the same condition. But, we still did see white and pink.
Looking more to the south, we could see planting activity near the Jefferson Memorial. This coincides with the completion of the reconstruction of the seawall on the west side of the memorial. The project began in 2024 to address constant flooding in this area. We got our last view of Stumpy, a famous cherry tree, that year in this area.
The dome of the Jefferson Memorial still looks beautiful and clean after a cleaning project that began back in 2019.
Looking to the southwest, we could see cherry trees in the foreground and the Air Force Memorial in the background.
Many cherry trees have a few clumps of flowers growing out of the tree’s trunk.
Although the cherry blossoms were past peak, we did see many beautiful tulips nearby at the Floral Library.
There were quite a few people walking through and photographing the tulip beds.
There are some cherry trees that have pinker flowers than the rest. This seems to be one of them.
This spot to the west is usually nice to photograph from afar. We could see it was still a little bit busy but not crowded like it is on a weekend.
We crossed the northern end of the Tidal Basin via the Kutz Memorial Bridge. There are cherry trees on the north side of the bridge, although that area usually is less busy than the rest of the Tidal Basin.
The trees are still popular even when past peak bloom. Its probably pretty hard for tourists to schedule visits to see the blossoms when they aren’t from the area as peak bloom is hard to predict exactly in advance.
Quite a bit of leaves! It definitely seems that the leaves are out earlier this year given the quantity of petals still on the trees.
A few nice pinkish clumps of cherry blossoms.
We continued on to the west. This area is always quite popular with many cherry trees.
We soon reached the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.
What would he think if he was alive today? What speech would he have given this past Saturday?
So peaceful compared to busy cherry blossom season weekends! Just a few people here and there.
We continued on through the memorial. There was one model that was walking up and down by memorial the wall, which reminded us of being in Rome.
More nice pink flowers as the path along the Tidal Basin curved to the south.
The view looking back towards the Washington Monument. The location of the Sun isn’t great in the mornings for photography in this direction.
And, the view looking back at the MLK memorial. That tree in front has lost almost all of its petals!
A few more cherry blossom clumps as we continued on…
The view looking back to the north, maybe a bit to the northeast.
We noticed this lone male Mallard just floating around idly.
Again, the Washington Monument from afar.
A variety of colors, from very white to very pink!
The Washington Monument is the tallest structure here by far!
We walked past one of the reconstructed areas at the southwestern end of the Tidal Basin, basically directly to the west of the Jefferson Memorial. We noticed they had planted a few cherry trees along the new wide paved path above the new seawall. We also noticed they had installed many life preservers along the path. How many people actually fall into the Tidal Basin each year? Or are these temporary during construction in case a worker falls into the water?
Looking to the east towards the Jefferson Memorial and Stumpy’s former home, we saw what seems to be a denser section of trees. This area was pretty barren in the past.
The west side of the Jefferson Memorial. So clean!
Again, the Washington Monument.
We had a better view of the new seawall to the west as we crossed a bridge on the way to the Jefferson Memorial.
We noticed that the National Cherry Blossom Festival stage was set up here by the Jefferson Memorial this year. In the last few years, we’ve seen it by the MLK memorial.
We continued on past the Jefferson Memorial. This section of the Tidal Basin doesn’t have as many cherry trees as the northern and western portions of the route. We did have a nice view of the cherry trees to the west with the buildings of the Rosslyn area of Arlington in the background.
Almost back to the paddle boats!
Again, the view to the west with MLK on the right.
After returning to where we started, we headed back to the north.
The light around the Washington Monument was better now compared to earlier in the morning. Of course, the cherry blossoms were not any better!
We were too early to visit the gift shop by the MLK memorial when we passed by earlier. We typically try to buy the yearly National Cherry Blossom Festival magnet. Unfortunately, the tiny shop to the east of the Washington Monument did not have it, although they did have it in postcard form.
These cherry trees near the gift shop had the least petals of any of the trees that we remember seeing today!
But, just a little bit to the northeast, there were some nice cherry trees on the south side of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Unexpectedly, we saw a pair of Mallards standing atop the overhanging canopy near the bottom of the building. They appear as two little dots here below the upper opening in the building’s facade. Zoom in and you can see its definitely a male and a female!
It was still pretty early, not even 10am! We decided to get something to eat before heading back home via the Metro. We walked a few blocks to the north to visit Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken.
Fried chicken breast, honey butter and hot sauce”
We ordered one of their chicken sandwiches, the Fried Chicken Honey. The chicken was unfortunately a bit dry. Even though it was not freshly prepared, it was still decently crispy though and not greasy like everything at a place like KFC. Overall, not as nice as many of the new hot chicken restaurants that seem to be popping up all over the place.
We also ordered two donuts. One was the season cherry blossom donut and the other was chocolate. The cherry blossom donut had a nice filling that was sweet but not as sweet as it looked like it would be. The chocolate donut had a texture that was a bit more like brownie than donut. It was extremely sweet as one expects from a donut in America.
Overall, a decent snack, particularly at this hour when there aren’t many options available for food that isn’t the typical breakfast food.
We then headed into the nearby Metro Center station to head home. We had hoped to see Metro’s cherry blossom train, however, the special train finder showed that it was at the far end of the Green and Yellow lines at Greenbelt station. Maybe next year, if they have this special train again.