The snow and rain have mostly been no-shows. It’s cold and breezy, but the trees are doing just fine.
So there’s not a lot new. And that’s a good thing. The trees are still beautiful and the flowers look strong. If you look very closely, some are moving past their prime, but so far the breeze is only taking very few petals down. So things are shaping up nicely for what promises to be a busy day tomorrow.
The photos below were taken early this afternoon. Normally, I tried to post the updates in the morning, but I wanted to delay it a little later than normal today so as to be able to give a better sense of how the weather was playing out and the effects, if any, it was having on the blossoms.
Want to Submit Your Best Photos?
The reader photos submissions are now open. If you’d like to share some of your best shots of this year’s cherry blossoms, you can find more information as the submission form further down this page. And you can see some examples from last year here.
Weekend Prospects
This weekend is the prime cherry blossom viewing weekend. Expect big crowds. On Sunday morning you’ll have to contend with some logistical challenges getting to and from the Tidal Basin caused by road closures for the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler.
Next weekend (April 14-15). They peaked this past Thursday (April 5). In ideal conditions they can last a week or more beyond that, but the weather has been all over the place lately, so it’s hard to know what’s going to happen. It’s certainly possible there’ll still be flowers out to on the weekend of April 14-15, but the odds are leaning against it.
There’ll be plenty more updates before then so we can see how they’re tracking, so it’s worth checking back.
How Things Look Today
Here are some shots from early this afternoon.
Logistics: Sunday’s Cherry Blossom 10-Miler
The Cherry Blossom 10-Miler is on Sunday morning. It typically sees about 20,000 or so runners and the course goes on the roads all around the Tidal Basin area and up around Hains Point.
The race doesn’t prevent access to the Tidal Basin, and you can still access the cherry blossoms on foot during the race. But it adds some logistical challenges to getting to and from there.
For one, there are significant road closures in the neighborhood of the Tidal Basin throughout Sunday morning. You won’t be able to park anywhere along Ohio Drive or Lots A, B, and C (or get to them in the first place).
Here’s a map of the road closures for this year’s race:
Metro will be the best way to get around downtown and then walking to the Tidal Basin.
For another, even when walking you might run into delays if you’re trying to cross the course. And please do be careful. There will be a lot of runners, many of whom have enough to contend with without trying to dodge pedestrians darting across in front of them.
The roads around the Tidal Basin are scheduled to reopen at 11am. You can expect traffic bottlenecks to last well beyond that as cherry blossom traffic picks up.
Logistics
The Maine Ave parking lot (near the paddle boats) is still closed for parking to make way for the Welcome Area. It will remain in place at least through April 15.
The special one-way traffic restrictions are in place along Ohio Drive, so you can’t enter down by the John Ericsson Memorial (the Lincoln Memorial end). Instead, you’ll have to do the circuit around the Jefferson Memorial. You can still park there, although during the day midweek you’ll be battling for spaces with all the tour buses bring school groups on spring break and during the weekend there’s a lot of competition for spots. Which makes an argument for using alternative transportation, especially on weekends, but even weekdays this week are shaping up to be very busy.
One other thing worth noting if you plan to park in Lots A, B, and C is that the NPS has changed the traffic flow a little. You used to access these by going past the Jefferson Memorial and turning left at the T-intersection at the George Mason Memorial. But that left turn is now blocked off. Instead, to access Lots A, B, and C, you have to turn left before the Jefferson Memorial and go the long way around. You can follow the signs to parking. Once you go past the Jefferson Memorial you have no option but to continue right, down past the FDR Memorial.
Early Bloomers
I’ve been tracking this specific cluster of buds/flowers for a couple of weeks now. At top is this morning’s shot, with the previous ones below for comparison. This tree is by the FDR Memorial.
Alternative Locations for Cherry Blossoms
The cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin aren’t the only cherry blossoms in town, and if you miss the ones there by a few days you might have more luck at some of the alternative locations nearby. The ones I’ve seen elsewhere in town have been behind the ones at the Tidal Basin, so if you’re coming into town next week or next weekend, you still might be able to catch cherry blossoms elsewhere around town. You can find some suggestions here.
Videos from the Tidal Basin
I’ve started posting some short video clips from the Tidal Basin showing how things look using the Instagram Stories feature. So if you want an alternative view, you can find them there. I can also post them more quickly, before the more detailed updates post to the website.
You can find the Instagram account at @cherryblossomwatch.
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