Travel Spotlight: Pacific Bonsai Museum is one of two in the United States

written by Vanessa Salvia

Bonsai trees are living art, an artform that will never be completed or finished. It can take years to create an envisioned tree shape, followed by a lifetime of care. The Pacific Bonsai Museum in Federal Way, one of only two bonsai museums in the United States, presents bonsai as fine art pieces. The elegant, architect-designed outdoor setting offers seasonally rotating displays of fifty to sixty bonsai out of the museum’s 150 trees, some hundreds of years old.

The exhibit was a private collection established in 1989 on the state of Washington’s 100th birthday. The exhibit transitioned to a nonprofit museum in 2014. Trees are protected by acrylic enclosures when the temperature drops and are watered multiple times a day on hot days. Though it’s open-air, it’s still a museum, complete with themed exhibits, talks, demonstrations and tour guides. Admission by donation.