CEDAR BREAKS NATIONAL MONUMENT – Cedar breaks is located 23 miles east of Cedar City and is a national monument filled with vibrant red color at an elevation of 10,000 feet, color that reaches new heights every summer when the wildflowers bloom.
This year Cedar Breaks is celebrating its eighth Wildflower Festival. The festival began on July 7 and will end this upcoming weekend on July 21.
“The Wildflower Festival is a celebration of the wildflowers that bloom at Cedar Breaks,” Southern Utah University intern Rob Whitmore said, “Most of (the flowers) bloom in mid-July, so we have our festival now and people come from all over the world to see our wonderful flowers.”
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Videocast by Samantha Tommer, St. George News
Guided tours are offered twice daily at no charge, with the first one at 10 a.m., and the other at 1 p.m. The tours are essential for learning about the different species of wildflowers and give in-depth information on the 260 different flowers.
Self-guided walks are available as well with a “What’s in Bloom” handout.
There are also fun games for everyone of all ages to play, including, “Wildflower Bingo” and “Daisy Defender Gallery” where you can shoot at buckets labeled with things that harm flowers using a Nerf Gun. For example, insects, picking flowers, pollution.
Visitors also have the opportunity to look at the sun through special telescopes during the day and gaze at the stars at night.
One of the positives about visiting the Wildflower Festival is the chance to escape the hot weather in Southern Utah. The temperature at Cedar Breaks Monument has been around 75 degrees during the day for the past week.
Peter Blanchet, a 10th-grade biology teacher from Rhode Island, enjoyed his time seeing a different side of Southern Utah.
“We have been traveling through Utah for the past week,” Blanchet said, “the dry, badlands and all of the heat. We were told to check out Cedar Breaks because it will be totally different.”
There is just one week remaining if you are interested in attending the Wildflower Festival.
Event recap and resources follow the photo gallery. Click on photo to enlarge it, then use your left-right arrow keys to cycle through the gallery.
L-R Jerry Whitworth, Santa Monica, Calif., and his mom Judy, Chanute, Kans., do some "Sun Gazing" while at the Cedar Breaks Wild Flower Festival, Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah, July 13, 2013 | Photo by John Teas, St. George News
The Little Sunflower is a species of wildflower that heavily populates Cedar Breaks at the Wildflower Festival, Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah, July 13, 2013 | Photo by Samantha Tommer, St. George News
The Scarlet Paintbrush is one of the wildflowers most favored by visitors. Wildflower Festival, Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah, July 13, 2013 | Photo by Samantha Tommer, St. George News
L - Jim Hill, a park volunteer and a professor of astronomy at the University of Mississippi. He, along with other volunteers, spend their summers sharing their vast knowledge of the stars and universes with park visitors. The day's programs included close up views of the sun where sun spots and solar flares provided the amazing solar entertainment. Three different telescopes were set up, each priding a different view and purpose. Did you know that the sun is actually white in color? Stars below 3,500 Kelvin are red, while star above 10,000 Kelvin appear to be blue. Stars like our sun, around 6,000 Kelvin are white. When you add up all the photons of different colors, you get pure white. Very narrow wave length filters are used so that viewing the sun is safe. Cedar Breaks Wildflower Festival, Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah, July 13, 2013 | Photo by Jerry Whitworth, St. George News
The sun is approximately 139 Earth diameters across. The sunspots that Jim Hill, park volunteer professor of astronomy at the University of Mississippi, was showing Cedar Breaks National Monument visitors were larger than 8 Earths. Cedar Breaks Wild Flower Festival, Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah, July 13, 2013 | Photo by John Teas, St. George News.
Beautiful open field at the Wildflower Festival that shows off the scenery up at Cedar Breaks. Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah, July 13, 2013 | Photo by Samantha Tommer, St. George News
Wildflower Festival welcomes visitors to the Cedar Breaks visitor center where they meet to take tours, play games, and view the sun through telescopes. Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah, July 13, 2013 | Photo by Samantha Tommer, St. George News
The red rocks and stunning architecture in this National Monument creates a natural amphitheater at 10,000 feet in elevation. Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah, July 13, 2013 | Photo by Samantha Tommer, St. George News
Event recap
What: Cedar Breaks Wildflower Festival
When: July 6-21, Guided tours at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
Where: Cedar Breaks National Monument – Directions / Telephone 435-586-0787
Resources
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @STGnews
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2013, all rights reserved.
Great photos! Thanks!