Springtime in Salt Lake City – if you time it right, it’s a beautiful season filled with colors and scents. We spent a long weekend visiting family and enjoying the sun, warmth, and flowers. Throughout the city we found tulips, daffodils, pasque flowers, pansies, magnolias and redbuds – all with beautiful colors. This has been a later-than-usual spring bloom because of their long and record-setting, snow-filled winter. One highlight of the trip was our perfect timing for the blossoming of the cherry trees.

The Utah State Capitol is surrounded by 433 Yoshino cherry trees, all of which were at peak bloom while we were there. The current trees were planted in 2008, although the first cherry trees were planted on Arbor Day in 1931. The trees are on either side of a walkway that circles the capitol building. On the day we were there the walkway was filled with smiling people taking in the beauty and the smells of spring. There were people sharing picnics on the lawn, as well as people having their photos taken under the trees – including many college and high school graduates in their graduation robes. A slow meander around the capitol was a perfect chance to revel in the promise of spring and it’s beauty.