Red Butte Garden Tours and Activities

Red Butte Garden and Arboretum is a university-owned botanical garden in Salt Lake City covering more than 150 acres. The garden was founded by Dr. Walter P. Cottam in 1930. Cottam was not only the chair of the University of Utah's botany department; he was also a co-founder of The Nature Conservancy. By 1961, the collection of plants had grown so significantly that the state recognized it as the State Arboretum. In 1985, the garden was relocated to a new – and larger – site in Red Butte Canyon, and given a new name – the Red Butte Garden and Arboretum.

Today, Red Butte Garden features several different garden spaces, hiking trails, paved walking paths, and an amphitheater which hosts concerts on a regular basis. During the summer, films are also often shown in the garden. Visitors are treated to an ever-changing display of plants as different things bloom year-round, but the garden is particularly well-known for its spring bloom made up of some 400,000 bulbs.