7 Best Places to See Spring Flowers in Utah
Spring in Utah is a beautiful time of year, as long as you don’t mind that the weather can be a little bipolar. Yesterday it was 70 degrees and sunny, but this morning I woke up to snow on my lawn! Nonetheless, Utah has an incredibly diverse array of places to view spring blossoms of all kinds, from traditional symbols of spring like tulips and cherry blossoms to the surprisingly striking beauty of the desert blooms. If you’re looking for a little splash of color in your life, here are our favorite places to view spring flowers in Utah:
Spring Flowers in Utah – Southern Utah
Snow Canyon, Ivins
Snow Canyon is one of the most popular state parks in Utah and for good reason. We go to St. George multiple times during the spring every year and we always make time to visit Snow Canyon. It’s a great place to hike, jog, ride bikes, or just enjoy the scenery. But in April, the desert comes alive with colors when all cactus flowers bloom. Our kids love to joke about whether the correct form of the plural for cactus is cactuses or cacti, so we settled on cactusi thanks to our three year-old. You could really see this anywhere in southern Utah with lots of cactusi – Zion, Red Cliffs, you name it. But our personal favorite is Snow Canyon. It’s a surprisingly great place to view spring flowers in Utah.
Red Hills Desert Garden, St. George
This free botanical garden is another spot we love to visit in St. George when it’s springtime. They have all kinds of native desert flowers, swings, a water feature with fish, dinosaur tracks, and man-made slot canyon. It’s right next to Pioneer Park, so it’s an easy add-on to a couple of other fun, kid-friendly hikes nearby. One evening when we visited, someone was serenading visitors with the Navajo Flute and it was one of the most serene, relaxing experiences you could want in the desert.
STILL ON THE BUCKET LIST: Factory Butte, Hanksville
This is a place that’s on our Utah Bucket List that we have yet to visit in the springtime. Factory Butte is a fascinating rock formation located in Hanksville near Capitol Reef National Park. It’s best known for the towering monolith but I learned recently that it’s a great place to see wild spring flowers in Utah. If it was a particularly wet winter, you might even get to witness a superbloom.
Spring Flowers in Utah Near Salt Lake
Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City
Red Butte Garden is a popular botanical garden located near the University of Utah and costs $14 for admission. March-May they have their Bulbs & Blooms event featuring over half a million bulbs, including 230,000 daffodils. Check out their blog to see what’s blooming now.
Utah State Capitol cherry blossoms, Salt Lake
After WWII, the Japanese gifted the state of Utah with hundreds of cherry trees as a symbol of friendship. Today, those cherry trees line the walkway circling the Capitol building. Early April is typically the best time to see the blossoms. Between the cherry blossoms and the architecture, you’ll get a taste of what it’s like to be in Washington, DC, during the famous Cherry Blossom Festival.
Spring Flowers in Utah County
Alpine Poppy Field, Lambert Park
We discovered this not-so-secret hidden gem when we first moved to Lehi. The poppy fields at Lambert Park in Alpine gained popularity first on Instagram then on KSL News a few years ago. Now it’s a popular place to visit in late May / early June to see the bright red flowers against the beautiful backdrop of Alpine’s mountains. They used to be a little difficult to find but now there’s a luxury subdivision being built right above the park, so the easiest way to get there is to park there and just walk down the short trail to the fields.
Ashton Gardens at Thanksgiving Point, Lehi
The annual Tulip Festival at the 50-acre Ashton Gardens is hands down our favorite place to see spring flowers. You could easily spend a few hours roaming the grounds and enjoying all the blooms. Besides all the flowers, there’s the largest man-made waterfall in the Western Hemisphere, the huge koi pond, and the I Am the Light of the World sculpture garden. Brittany’s birthday is in April, so we’ve made it a tradition every year to eat lunch on the patio at Trellis Cafe overlooking the gardens and then going to the Tulip Festival.
Our family is on a mission to experience the best our home state of Utah has to offer and help other families find affordable, kid-friendly adventures in the process. You can follow us on Instagram @theminivanbucketlist or download our free printable The Ultimate Family-Friendly Utah Bucket List with the top 100 things to do in Utah, both kid-friendly and more adventurous.
