Top Five Places in the U.S. to See Spring Flowers

With the weather warming up, you may be planning your next vacation to escape from the bitter cold of the long winter days. If you have an interest in spring blooms, and the wanderlust to find them, you may want to know exactly the best places that are known for their flowers.

Grab your gear and head to one of these destinations to see brilliant colors and beautiful blooms, and you’ll be stopping to smell the flowers at every turn.

Crested Butte, Colorado. This mountain town holds a wildflower festival each year in July where you can see an array of colors like yellows, purples, reds and blues in beautiful flower form. Known as the “Colorado Wildflower Capital,” it’s a gorgeous place to hike and see the colors while you enjoy some crisp mountain air, without all of the snow.

Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. If you want to see more than 850 species of wildflowers, this national park in Virginia is the place to go. While the main road through the park will give you a great view during the summer months, you’ll have to take a hike down to lower areas to see the flowers in the spring.

Fort Pierre National Grassland in South Dakota. For the history buff who is really into seeing the same sights as explorers of the past, these plains in South Dakota will give the viewer the same types of flowers seen by Lewis and Clark on their famous expedition. You’ll be able to gather gorgeous blue daisies and purple prairie clover.

Glacier National Park, Montana. If you want to see an amazing sight, travel here while the snow is still fresh on the flower to see the glacier lily poking through the snow as the first sign of spring. If you want a later trip, go in mid-July to August to see more than a 1,000 types of flowers. Be sure to gather some of the beargrass, which is not a grass at all, but a beautiful white bulb of a lily.

North Cascades National Park, Washington. With the varying heights and rainfall seen in this area, the wildflowers blooms are one of the longest set in the country. Look in low lying areas to see blooms in the spring, or higher elevations to see the pink heather, violets and freckled tiger lilies.

After you’ve visited one or more of these gorgeous places, you’ll want to have plenty of mementos to bring home. Take lots of photos, but be sure to gather some blooms where it is allowed. Frame the photos in a tasteful antique glass picture frame or black oval frame for color contrast, or create a rectangular shadow box of dried blooms with the photos of where they came. If you like the more formal look, try putting your dried pieces in a wooden oval frame with convex glass to keep the blooms intact.