If the westbound bridge stops at Montlake for a whole weekend, what is there to do that doesn't involve a car?
Quite a lot, as it happens. The closure starts Friday night, November 13. The same night, the Arboretum runs an after-dark program for adults. Saturday brings a guided walking tour and a free-admission morning for kids at the Seattle Japanese Garden, which is in its last few weeks before the season ends. Every one of these sits inside the Arboretum, or along Madison, within walking distance of Broadmoor.
What closes, and where the westbound cars go
WSDOT's notice from October 27 lays out the weekend:
- What closes: Westbound SR 520 between Montlake Boulevard and I-5.
- When: 11 p.m. Friday, November 13, until 5 a.m. Monday, November 16. Traffic will be affected around the clock, and WSDOT expects noise.
- Where the westbound traffic goes: Every westbound car crossing Lake Washington will exit at either Montlake Boulevard or Lake Washington Boulevard. Drivers who need I-5 have to find another route.
- What stays open: Eastbound SR 520 and the SR 520 Trail.
- Why: Crews are repairing expansion joints on the mainline and moving the westbound off-ramp to northbound I-5 farther north. The work is part of the SR 520 Portage Bay Bridge and Roanoke Lid Project.
That project is the newer job, separate from the Montlake work WSDOT now lists as complete. WSDOT's October 21 update says piling near the Montlake lid and temporary roadway construction are continuing through fall and winter. It also says traffic is planned to shift onto a temporary bridge in early 2027. So this weekend isn't the end of the work near Montlake. Construction Corner also has a standing alert that the westbound off-ramp to northbound I-5 and E. Roanoke St. is closed most weeknights.
For a Broadmoor household, the useful point is where those two exits are. Both lead off the highway at the Arboretum's north end, and the weekend described below is at the south end and along Madison.
Friday night begins in the dark
The closure starts at 11 p.m., and UW Botanic Gardens' evening program ends well before then. Park in the Dark (for grown-ups!) runs Friday, November 13, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. in the Washington Park Arboretum. Tickets are $10 per person, and anyone 12 and up can come. It takes the activities from the Park in the Dark program UW Botanic Gardens built for kids ages 6 to 12 and their caregivers. The UW Botanic Gardens events calendar says it's for people who don't have a younger child to bring "and/or are kids at heart."
In mid-November, 6 p.m. is fully dark, which is the whole idea. You can walk home afterward and never touch the boulevards before the cones go up.
Saturday, in the order the day unfolds
Saturday, November 14, is the busiest day of the weekend, and the times fit together neatly.
- 10:00 to 11:30 a.m., Arboretum Walking Tour. UW Botanic Gardens lists a casual walk through parts of the 230-acre Arboretum. It covers history, botany and plant collections, with a focus on what's in season. Catherine Nelson presents. The first ticket costs $20 and each additional ticket is $15. Financial aid slots go first-come, first-served. It's aimed at adults, but minors are welcome.
- 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., Family Saturday at the Seattle Japanese Garden. Kids 12 and younger get in free during those hours. The Garden is at 1075 Lake Washington Blvd. E.
- Before 3:15 p.m., last entry at the Garden. November hours are Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and final entry is 45 minutes before closing.
The Garden is upfront that this month's Family Saturday has no special program. Its Family Saturday listing reads:
"While there is no special programming this month, this is a wonderful opportunity to come enjoy the waning autumn beauty at the Garden."
At the north end of the pond, a new stone wall is going up. The Garden is open in Phase 2 of its ishigaki wall and Accessible Pathway project. The $2.8 million project replaces the deteriorating retaining wall and adds an accessible looped walkway. Suminori Awata is building the stone walls. The Garden describes him as one of the last remaining stonemasons of a 15-generation lineage that builds traditional Japanese dry-stone walls without mortar. When the pathway is finished, wheelchair users and families with strollers will be able to reach the shoreline area for the first time.
Because of the construction, the Garden is about 80% open, with the north end closed off. The season ends November 29. The closure weekend is one of the last chances this year to watch the wall going up before the Garden closes for winter. The Garden's banner also says it's running at limited capacity during the construction, so the free-admission hours may be the most crowded part of the day.
What's on the paths in mid-November
You don't need a ticket for the Arboretum itself, and what UW Botanic Gardens points to in autumn is mostly reachable on foot from Broadmoor.
UW's seasonal guide points first to the Woodland Garden, which has one of the largest collections of Japanese maples in North America. It also lists the fall color of sour gum, buckeye and witch hazel. The guide sends visitors to the oak collection too. Many of those oaks were among the Arboretum's first plantings and have grown to a magnificent size.
A 2022 UW fall-color post gives a more detailed map. It puts witch hazel and purple-berried beautyberry around the Witt Winter Garden, and sweet buckeye between the Viburnum Collection and the Pacific Connections Garden. Every fall's color runs on its own schedule, so take these as where to look, not a promise of how things will look on the 14th.
One plant is worth a small detour by nose. UW's November 2025 plant profile covers Osmanthus heterophyllus 'Sasaba', the bamboo leaf osmanthus. Several grow at the southeast corner of Arboretum Drive E and E Foster Island Road. Its small white flowers are fragrant, usually peak in early November, and carry their scent several feet. The profile calls it one of the few plants blooming in the landscape this time of year. By mid-month the peak may have passed, but the spine-tipped, bamboo-like leaves look unusual all year.
Foster Island Road is also the spot to remember the trail work. Seattle Parks said in May that Phase 1 of the waterfront trail restoration centers on the Foster Island floating walkway, that part of the trail is closed during construction, and that Phase 1 should open in early 2027. Our September post on Broadmoor's back-gate Arboretum walk has the route that worked around it.
Facilities for the walk: the Graham Visitors Center and the Arboretum Gift Shop are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., though UW notes that limited staffing can change those hours. The visitor center's restrooms are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and are reached from outside the building. There are more restrooms at the bus turnaround in the Pacific Connections Garden, at the Washington Park Playfield and at the Japanese Garden.
The Madison side, and one corner in Montlake
When the walk ends at Madison, there's a new name on a familiar storefront. Girdie's Cafe, at 2811 E Madison St, is the Madison Valley spot that used to be Cagette, now painted kelly green. The Infatuation listed it on October 14 as a wine bar and bakery-cafe serving soups, salads, tartines and pasta. After a 10 a.m. tour, it's the kind of menu that makes lunch an easy walk.
Up in Montlake, near where the westbound traffic will be exiting, a familiar corner is changing hands. Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reported on October 14 that the neighborhood's Fuel Coffee is becoming Taru, a cafe for parents and young children led by Montlake resident Filisha Shah, at 2300 24th Ave E. CHS reported that Taru will keep serving Stamp Act coffee. It will also add family-friendly food, caffeine-free drinks and bubbly, plus "The Grove," a custom wooden playscape built into the cafe for kids ages 1 to 5. The building used to be a grocery and later served as the Montlake branch of the Seattle Public Library until the early 2000s. The Taru website advertises a soft opening this fall and has an email sign-up for updates.
By Monday at 5 a.m., the westbound lanes reopen. The Japanese Garden will have about two weeks left in its season, and the Portage Bay work will keep going toward its early-2027 traffic shift.
Living next to the Arboretum means the 520 project's timeline matters, along with the Garden's season and whichever trail section is fenced off this year. If you're weighing how that construction calendar fits into your own plans in Broadmoor, whether you're staying put or thinking about a move, Exact Home Team is glad to talk it through with you. Let's Get Started.
