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Two-wheel Through the Tulips

Itching to get out on your bike and enjoy the spring weather, but concerned because you aren’t really in biking shape yet? Fields of blooming tulips await, on a flat, scenic ride through Skagit County.

The full tour in Biking Puget Sound is nearly 40 miles, which is ambitious for an early season ride. But that tour takes in the river-bottom flats of Fir Island as well. You could amend the tour to simply ride as far as you felt comfortable, and still get the amazing waves of tulip color. Here’s how:

Use the book’s driving and parking directions. Once parked in Mount Vernon, head west out of town, rather than south toward Fir Island. Take McLean Road due west. If that’s too busy, turn left onto Penn Road in just under a mile. This will take you south along the river 1.5 miles to Jungquist Road, where you can turn right and head west again. In minutes you’re into the grid of flat, straight roads that ring the tulip fields.

I recommend a stop at the two major display gardens, Roozengarde and Tulip Town.

At the Roozen family’s gardens, you’ll find a courtyard filled with small patches of individual tulip varieties, clearly labeled so you can take notes and plan your own plantings. A huge windmill pays homage to Dutch heritage.

Tulip Town has a new attraction this year: an international peace garden, which includes flags of all countries that have planted tulips as peace gardens in their capital cities.

To learn more about the attractions and hear from leaders of these two bulb farms, see “ Skagit Valley Tulip Festival is Bursting with Bulbs — and Ideas,” my article that appeared in this Wednesday’s Seattle Times.

For even more details about the tulip scene, visit the Web site of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.