Red Rock State Park opening monarch butterfly garden

Monarch-butterfly fans should head to Red Rock State Park in Sedona on Saturday, May 28, to celebrate the opening of a butterfly garden.

The garden is an area within the park that includes a fountain and vegetation (particularly milkweed) designed to provide shelter and food for the regal insects. The garden serves as a way station for migrating monarchs and other species of butterflies.

“Migratory stopover habitat is very important because it’s a perilous journey for those small creatures,” Park Manager Heidi Erickson said. “If they don’t have places to refuel and to have shelter, some of them don’t make it up north and don’t make it back south when they’re migrating south.”

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The public is invited to a celebration of the new butterfly habitat.

Throughout the day Saturday a volunteer will be on hand to discuss gardening for people who want to create monarch refuge areas in their own yards. Visitors can also take part in a butterfly scavenger hunt on the park’s hiking trails.

There will be a continuous showing of the PBS program, “The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies” and visitors may witness the release of some captive-bred (non-monarch) butterflies, provided the insects are ready.

For those unable to make the grand opening, the garden will remain active throughout the summer.

“Our plan is to, every year in the early spring, make sure we have the appropriate plants planted so we can provide this necessary habitat every year going forward,” Erickson said. “Those plants, a lot of them, should still be in bloom and be very beautiful and attracting butterflies of all species all through the summer.”

Details: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, May 28. Red Rock State Park, 4050 Red Rock Loop Road, Sedona. $4-$7. 928-282-6907, azstateparks.com/Parks/RERO.