There were still patches of snow in the shady areas of Yampa River Botanic Park on Monday afternoon as Ames Williford worked to clean up plant debris.

“Every week it’s so different,” said Williford, assistant horticulturist for the botanic park. “Almost every day you see something new. There’s always new stuff blooming or kind of going to seed. I’m a little biased, because I do love this place, and I love working here, but I just think it is such a little gem to have in Steamboat, and I recommend it to everybody that comes to town.”

Williford was part of a small staff working in the garden Monday afternoon as the park looks to open for the season at 9 a.m. on Friday.

“We’re mostly just cleaning up a lot of the plant debris that we left over winter,” Williford said. “A lot of insects and small critters will use old plant stems as a habitat over the winter, so we like to leave as much of that as we can. Then we’ll cut it down in the spring, once everything has started to move out of there.”

She said it’s been an early spring in the Yampa Valley, and this year’s opening is a little ahead of years past. She said guests stopping by will be greeted by plenty of colorful, spring blooms. Visitors should expect to see weekly, if not daily changes to the landscape as more flowers bloom.

“We have so many bulbs that are coming up right now that you really don’t see any other time of year,” Williford said. “We have tons of crocuses, our tulips are coming up and we have some daffodils — these are things that you really aren’t going to see later on in the season.”

Williford said she hopes visitors will come to the botanic garden Friday and suggests stopping by the bulb garden, which is by the entrance off the Yampa River Core Trail, as well as the Garden of All Seasons, which has “a lot of cute little guys coming up right now.”

On the other side of the park, Brooks Mason held a rake in hand as he took a short break from cleaning up one of the walking paths in the park and prepared for Friday’s opening. Mason has been the facilities lead for the past two years.

“The things we’re dealing with at the beginning of the year to the end of the year in the fall are completely different,” Mason said. “That’s another reason I love working here, because every day is a little different.”

Mason said his favorite season at the park is the fall because of the cooler temperatures and the colors, but he said the park is in a constant state of change, and every season is filled with beauty.

“The gardens,” Mason answers when asked why he wants to work at the park. “It’s just how beautiful (the gardens) are and how peaceful it is here. It’s such an amazing place to work.”

On Monday, Jennifer MacNeil, the manager at the botanic park, said she has spent the past couple of weeks watching the Yampa River Botanic Park come to life. She was also working to get a recently donated osprey viewfinder installed as soon as possible.

“I watch people every day walk by, and they’re eager to get inside and see what’s blooming,” MacNeil said. “We have some interesting things along the core trail in bloom, but there’s a lot of things internally in the park. I’m excited that people can come in on Friday and access the viewfinder.”