Let North Dakota Sunflowers Brighten Your Day
Yellow spread out as far as the eye could see. This isn’t a brick road, but North Dakota sunflowers following the sun as it heralds another glorious summer day. Think about it; the sunflower seeds you’ve been snacking on while driving may have come from the field you’re admiring.
Did you know that North Dakota produces 762 billion pounds each year? That’s a lot of sunflower seeds and sunflower oil.
Sunflowers help make August a colorful time in North Dakota. They appear as millions of individual suns spread out across the prairie. Other crops bloom and mature at this time as well. Flax turns a blueish purple giving fields a lake effect, and conolacanola turns yellow, like sunflowers, but hugs the ground while they’re cousins reach for the sky.
Sunflowers are the most popular crop among travelers, and they aren’t hard to find, growing in large swatches alongside the state’s highways and byways. Their large yellow heads face the sunrise, creating a yellow mosaic against a vibrant blue sky.
Like all crops, sunflowers have a peak growing season that varies across the state. Visitors plan trips around the peak for photo opportunities and even marriage proposals.
North Dakota Tourism updates a report weekly (https://belegendary.link/sunflowers) detailing the progress of fields across the state.
Regular events in the state that attract tourists include Norsk Høstfest in Minot, billed as North America’s largest Scandinavian festival; the Medora Musical; and the North Dakota State Fair. The state also receives significant visitors from the neighboring Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, particularly when the exchange rate is favorable.
International tourists now also come to visit the Oscar-Zero Missile Alert Facility.
Don’t let August get away without one last road trip. Make the amazing sunflower one of your must-see attractions.
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