Drive around the forest-laden Bainbridge Island and it’s easy to forget that downtown Seattle is just 30 minutes away. A well-to-do suburb across the Puget Sound, Bainbridge is home to a quaint downtown area, hiking, and biking paths. It’s also home to a garden labyrinth based on the 13th-century French Chartres Cathedral. 

Designed by the Portland-based garden designer and stone artist Jeffrey Bale, the garden sits on a hilltop overlooking the Puget Sound. Consisting of 12 circles that tie the labyrinth to both lunar and seasonal cycles, the labyrinth also features Native American symbology and celestial references. 

It’s said that the path has three stages, the inward journey, the outward journey, and a place for meditation and contemplation.

The garden also has a network of paths, several stone sculptures, and a Buddhist prayer wheel that when turned nine times rings a 500-pound bell. The bell contains the inscriptions:

“Faith is the daring of the soul to go further than it can see.”

“I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion.”