Superbloom in Bears Ears

Wildflower with purple center and three large white petals
Tim Peterson

Tim Peterson by Tim Peterson, Cultural Landscapes Director

After ample snow and a wet spring, it’s a record wildflower year in the Bears Ears cultural landscape! It’s a marked change from last spring, when long-term exceptional drought gave us dusty winds and dry stalks. Now, the desert has sprung back to life with healing and life-giving moisture, and this year, just about everything that can produce a flower is blooming. The sights and smells are overwhelming.

Someday, you might be able to smell the flowers through the internet, but until then, you’ll have to imagine the sweet, heavenly perfume of sand verbena and cliffrose. With continuing rain and cool temperatures, the plants bloom on, and we’re thrilled to be able to chase the flowers up in elevation all summer!

Now is a great time to visit. If you’d like to identify species named in President Obama’s proclamation designating Bears Ears National Monument, download and carry this guide with you on your explorations.

Here are some examples of what you might see, captured during the last week of May.

Bananna yucca

Bananna Yucca (Yucca baccata). TIM PETERSON.


flowers in Bears Ears

Mountain pepperweed (Lepidium montanum). TIM PETERSON.


Prickly pear cactus

Smallflower fishhook cactus (Sclerocactus parviflorus). TIM PETERSON.


Flowers Bears Ears

Badlands mule-ears (Scabrethia scabra). TIM PETERSON.


Prickly pear bloom

Prickly pear (Opuntia sp.). TIM PETERSON.


Seedheads in Bears Ears

Colorado four o’clock (Mirabilis multiflora). TIM PETERSON.


Globemallow

Globemallow (Sphaeralcea sp.). TIM PETERSON.


Sego Lily

Sego Lily (Calochortus nuttallii). TIM PETERSON. 


Daisies

Cliffrose (Purshia stansburiana) & thrift mock goldenweed (Stenotus armerioides). TIM PETERSON. 


Bears Ears buttes

Four-nerve daisy (Tetraneuris acaulis). TIM PETERSON. 

Download the Bears Ears Plant Guide ›

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Visit Bears Ears and cultural sites with respect

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