This Park Near NYC Has More Cherry Blossom Trees Than Washington, D.C. [View all]

—and It's a Must-visit This April

from Travel @ Leisure magazine.
Branch Brook Park in Newark, New Jersey, has 1,500 more cherry trees than the nation's capital.

This park is only a short drive from me. I am looking forward to a walk, but it won't be for the whole four miles.

By Rachel Chang
Updated on April 14, 2025

When I first moved to New Jersey more than two decades ago, a friend told me about a park that had more cherry blossom trees than Washington, D.C. I figured she was exaggerating. But then in 2018, I signed up for the Essex County Branch Brook Park 10K and couldn’t believe the vast number of trees in such close proximity to New York City. The following year, I ran the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile in Washington, D.C., and remember being disappointed by the experience.

As it turns out, the nation’s capital may grab cherry blossom headlines with its collection of 3,800 trees, but the far lesser known Branch Brook Park in Newark, New Jersey, actually has it beat by a whopping 1,500 trees.


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Lots of interesting history of the park and others in Essex County in this article. For example:
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The four-mile-long park also has a famous roots, having been designed in 1867 by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, best known for his work on New York City’s Central Park. Plus, Branch Brook Park has the distinction of being the nation’s first county park opened for public use, as well as being on both the state and nation’s register of historic places.
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Link to story.
Good pics at this link.