National Park Lodges Open
Some of America’s most beautiful national parks are in the mountain West, where harsh winters can make it difficult for lodging staffs to offer full service to visitors. And though parks such as Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Glacier National Park in Montana are open to visitors year-round, it is the opening of park lodges that marks the beginning of spring and the busy tourist season for these destinations.
Yellowstone has become known as a bit of a winter hot spot, so Old Faithful Snow Lodge offers accommodations for selected weeks during cold weather. But most of the park’s other accommodations, including Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and Lake Yellowstone Hotel, begin to open in late April, with others opening in May.
In Glacier, Apgar Village Lodge and the Prince of Wales Hotel open in May, with other accommodations following in June.
Chicago in Bloom
After the brutal cold and snow that a Lake Michigan winter can deliver, spring is especially pleasant in Chicago. In addition to warmer weather and sunshine, the season brings displays of floral and botanical color at several garden attractions in the Chicagoland area.
The Morton Arboretum, a 1,700-acre site in Lisle, has thousands of trees that are beautiful all year long, but spring brings blooms of virbinium and forsythia, as well as a spring bulb sale that is popular with the public. The Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe sits on 385 acres and includes six miles of lake and river shoreline, all of which bloom beautifully in spring. And the Anderson Japanese Garden in Rockford comes alive with traditional Asian plants and water features.
Major Food Festivals
With the ascendance of the culinary arts in popular culture, large-scale and star-studded food festivals have become headlining events in destinations large and small throughout the country. Many of these events take place throughout the spring, marking a delicious kickoff to warm-weather months.
Arguably the most prestigious culinary event in the country, the South Beach Wine and Food Festival takes place in Miami at the end of February — still winter in many places but well into spring for southern Florida. It is followed by other popular celebrations, such as Charleston Wine + Food in South Carolina in March, California’s Pebble Beach Food and Wine in early April, the Austin Food and Wine Festival in late April in Texas and the New Orleans Wine and Food Experience in May.
