An incredible variety of plants and animals thrive in Zion National Park due to the park’s diversity of habitats. Within Zion, you will find lush riparian ecosystems flanking the Virgin River with mature cottonwood groves and herbaceous plants and grasses. Natural springs seeping out of the canyon walls create hanging gardens and wetlands ripe with ferns, mosses, and wildflowers. Throughout Zion’s lower elevations, desert shrubs, grasses, and cacti use clever adaptations to survive hot, dry conditions. Above the arid grasslands and desert scrub, slow growing, drought-tolerant pinyon-juniper trees cover the hillsides. But look up. High on sandstone ledges, massive ponderosa pines grow right out of the rocks, pushing their powerful roots into the soft Navajo sandstone. Higher still, on the park’s plateaus, ponderosa pines mix with Douglas fir, white pines, and aspen groves.