Zion National Park, Utah

Zion National Park has stunning scenery with a majestic landscape, and plant life in the park only accentuates the landscape’s beauty. Despite the fact that the national park is in a desert, there are many green trees and wildflowers of many hues that add colors to the red backdrop here during the summer months. The park’s location also adds an interesting variety to the park. At the borders of the Colorado Plateau, Mojave Desert, and Great Basin, Zion National Park is home to plant life from all of these distinct ecosystems.

Visitors to Zion Canyon – perhaps the most visited area in the national park – has a nice tree canopy that helps cool down the canyon floor. This helps make visiting the canyon more bearable during the summer when the temperatures are very hot. This canopy also provides a home for the many birds in the park, and visitors can easily see these birds as they constantly fly through the canopy.

Hikers on several of the trails in the park will enjoy a chance to see beautiful wildflowers along the way. In fact, many wildflowers grow in the rocks. For instance, along the Emerald Pools trail, there are hanging gardens where wildflowers grow in small pockets of soil in the rock. The small waterfall at the end of the Lower Emerald Falls trail helps water these flowers in the hanging gardens. Red rock walls peppered with small bunches of hanging gardens have a distinct beauty from bear rock edifices – however the plain red surface is gorgeous as well.

The plant life in Zion National Park is protected, and picking flowers is prohibited while unnecessarily handling them is discouraged. Plants add to the great beauty of the park, and it is important to leave the park as beautiful as it was when you arrived at the park. This not only helps preserve its beauty, but this helps ensure that others can enjoy the park as well.

Check out our photo gallery to see pictures of plant life in Zion National Park. Visit the flora and fauna page to get a thorough list of plant species that are found in the national park.