Red Butte Garden and Arboretum: A Must-Do In Salt Lake City

May 24
2 min read

Whether you’re visiting Salt Lake City or just passing through, make time to visit the Red Butte Garden and Arboretum.

But first, a bit of history...

The Red Butte Garden and Arboretum (Garden) is part of the University of Utah campus. In 1961, the Utah Legislature designated the campus landscape as a state arboretum, and in 1985, the Garden officially opened to the public. According to its website, the Garden consists of 100 acres with the Red Butte Creek running through it.

Where is it?

Like I mentioned, it’s part of the University of Utah. That's about 20 minutes east of Salt Lake City Airport. The Garden is also next to the Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU), which I highly recommend - check out my post on my visit to the NHMU.

What’s there to see?

A lot. The Garden website states it contains 2000 trees and approximately 600,000 blooming bulbs. There are 10 areas to see. We strolled down the Floral Walk, through the Rose Garden, the Water Pavillion Garden, the Children’s Garden, the Terrace Garden, and the Water Conservation Garden. The website has a garden map, and another map that let's you see what’s in bloom at the moment.

Tip: If it’s a nice day, remember your hat, shades, sunscreen, and water!

Visiting Info

Hours: Open 7 days, but hours vary depending on the day of the week and time of the year. Check the website when you're ready to visit.

Tickets: $18 per adult

There are free admission days, so make sure to check the website.

And, even though it’s next to the NHMU, you can’t combine tickets for a discount.

Side note on whether the Garden tickets count as travel for credit card bonus categories: On my credit card, the Garden tickets coded as “Educational”. So, if you have a Chase card it won’t count as “Travel”. Even if it codes as museum, tourist attraction tickets don’t count toward travel for bonus points for Chase.

If you have a Bank of America card, the definition of travel is slightly broader, and it may include museum tickets. BUT you may need to select “Travel” as a bonus category, depending on the card. If tickets code as “Educational”, you could be out of luck. Even more of a bummer, the garden is not on the list of Bank of America Museum on Us that grants card holders free entrance once a month to certain museums. I get it, it's a garden, so not technically a museum.