"These certified trails give residents a new way to enjoy places they already know," Kristina Hudson, CEO of OneRedmond, said in the release that 425 Magazine reported this fall. The places are Farrel-McWhirter Park and Redmond Watershed Preserve. According to that coverage, they now hold Washington's first and only trails certified by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy.
Both loops already appear on the city's trail maps. What the certification adds is numbered signs and a free guide, and the guide asks you to cover less ground than you normally would. The City of Redmond posted the news on October 15, 2026.
A trail you measure in stops
Forest therapy draws on the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or "forest bathing." 425 Magazine notes that it isn't about mileage, elevation gain, or reaching a destination. ANFT certifies a trail after reviewing the site and designing a self-guided experience with it. Its criteria include sensory engagement, restoration, accessibility and inclusivity, the history of the place, and room for reflection.
On the ground, that means signs with a numbered pinecone icon. Each number matches an "invitation" in a downloadable guide. You stop at the sign, read the matching passage, and stay as long as you like. The brochure says plainly that you can adapt any invitation or skip it. OneRedmond hosts both guides as scrollable PDFs on its forest therapy page, along with a guided meditation recording for each loop by Cascadia Forest Therapy.
| Tree Frog Loop | Lowland to Upland Loop | |
|---|---|---|
| Park | Redmond Watershed Preserve | Farrel-McWhirter Park |
| Address | 21760 Novelty Hill Road | 19545 NE Redmond Road |
| Distance on the city trail map | 0.3 mile | No length listed for the certified loop |
| Surface | ADA-accessible boardwalk | Forest trail with a creek crossing at the start |
| Where it begins | South support facility off Novelty Hill Road, with parking and restrooms | A bridge, where the guide asks you to "linger" before crossing |
The 0.3 mile is the number to remember. Walked at a normal pace, the Treefrog Loop is a warm-up. With nine stops and a 20-minute recording at one of them, it becomes an unhurried visit on an ADA-accessible boardwalk.
The Tree Frog Loop, stop by stop
Certified guide Michael Stein-Ross created the Tree Frog Loop brochure. ANFT says he founded Cascadia Forest Therapy in 2017. The guide lists nine invitations in order:
- Welcome, which opens with gratitude to the cedar
- Fern Alley, where the guide suggests greeting the ferns
- Lines, a prompt to look for patterns in the trees
- Pleasures of Presence, the stop with the guided meditation recording
- What's in Motion?, which asks you to notice movement
- Sit Spot, for sitting still and noticing
- Textures, a touch-focused invitation
- Forest Pairs, which points you toward trees that grow in pairs
- Tea Ceremony, a spot by the water to slow down at the end
The last stop assumes you planned ahead. Both guides end with a tea ceremony, and the Farrel-McWhirter version says, "If you brought tea, enjoy it with all your senses." A thermos earns its place in the car on a cold November morning.
At Farrel-McWhirter, the loop starts at a bridge
The Lowland to Upland Loop opens with an instruction most trailheads never give: "Linger at the bridge for a while." Before you cross, the Pleasures of Presence stop links the 20-minute guided meditation. For anyone who would rather not use a phone, it describes a do-it-yourself version, sitting by the water on a log or against a tree.
Past the bridge, the stops have names you'll remember. At Orchestra Bench, you sit on a stump or a nearby log and listen to the forest. Tree Complements plays on two words. "A compliment is a polite expression of praise. A complement is a thing that completes or brings to perfection." Trace Your Roots asks you to follow a tree's roots by touch. The guide also opens with a land acknowledgment naming the Duwamish and Snoqualmie peoples.
The setting adds history that ANFT's place-history criterion seems made for. The city's Farrel-McWhirter park map traces the property through the Hutcheson family from 1890 and the Peterson Sawmill around the turn of the century. The McWhirter family bought it in the 1930s. Elise Farrel-McWhirter left the 68-acre parcel to the city in 1971, and the park opened in 1978. The same map describes trails through old-growth forest, resident barnyard animals, and the Big Red Barn.
Two loops, one trail system
The two certified loops are closer together than their separate addresses suggest. The city's Watershed Preserve trails page says the preserve's west entrance is for hikers and equestrians, and that west entrance parking is at Farrel-McWhirter Park. You can treat them as two separate outings or as two ends of the same morning. The easiest plan is to drive between trailheads. The Tree Frog Loop's boardwalk, parking and restrooms are all at the south support facility off Novelty Hill Road.
The rules differ by park, and they shape who comes along:
- Farrel-McWhirter hours: 8 a.m. to dusk for the park. The barnyard is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Dogs at Farrel-McWhirter: must be leashed and aren't allowed in the barnyard area.
- Bikes and horses at Farrel-McWhirter: bikes stay on designated bicycle trails and yield to pedestrians and riders. Horses stay on marked equestrian trails and arenas. Drones aren't allowed.
- Watershed Preserve uses: bikes ride the Powerline and Gasline multi-use trails. Trillium is for riders and hikers, and Siler Mill is for hikers only. The city's description of the Trout Loop Trail says "No pets allowed," so check the signs at the trailhead before bringing a dog.
The Farrel-McWhirter rules also ask visitors not to collect or disturb plants, animals or fish, and not to block waterways. That fits trail stops built around touching roots and sitting by the creek.
Hotel stays pay for it, and it costs you nothing
The program is free. OneRedmond says it's funded through the Redmond Zone of the Bellevue-Redmond Tourism Promotion Area, which collects lodging charges from qualifying Redmond hotels. In effect, visitors who stay overnight in Redmond paid for the signs, guides and recordings that residents can use on any weekday at 8 a.m. Hudson's quote in the 425 Magazine piece speaks to both groups, with locals gaining a new way into familiar parks and visitors gaining a reason to look past "the traditional activities."
For a session with a guide in place of a PDF, the Farrel-McWhirter brochure points local readers to Cascadia Forest Therapy. Cascadia's website advertises public guided sessions on a calendar. The nearest public session this month is across the lake. The Garden Love calendar lists Forest Bathing @ Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle on Saturday, November 21, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Questions about the Redmond trails go to OneRedmond at [email protected].
On the Eastside, a short walk somewhere familiar can still turn up a stop you've never paused at. If you want to talk about how Redmond's parks and trails fit into everyday life here, or just compare notes on a favorite loop, the team at Macdonald Group is glad to help. Get in Touch.
