Theme

Dark Sky

18 destinations along 16 roads

Darkness turned out to be something you can lose, and something you can protect. Utah figured this out first: Natural Bridges became the world's first certified International Dark Sky Park in 2007, and the state now holds more certified dark-sky places than anywhere on earth — with Great Basin, just over the Nevada line, among the darkest of all. These are places where the night itself is the protected resource, kept dark on purpose. Under skies this deep, the Milky Way isn't a faint smudge; it throws a shadow.

Scenic Byway 121

Boulder Mountain

Boulder

A 50-mile forested plateau at 11,000 feet with 80 alpine lakes

Scenic Byway 12 / UT-631

Bryce Canyon National Park

Bryce Canyon City

The largest collection of hoodoos on Earth

UT-242

Capitol Reef National Park

Torrey

Utah's most underrated national park — a 100-mile wrinkle in the Earth

Goblin Valley State Park

Hanksville

Thousands of mushroom-shaped rock formations in a Martian landscape

I-40 / I-171

Flagstaff

Flagstaff

The ponderosa town where they found Pluto and saved the dark

US-501

Great Basin National Park

Baker

Nevada's only national park — caves below, the oldest trees on earth above, the darkest skies overhead

SR-641

Grand Canyon (South Rim)

Grand Canyon Village

A mile down through two billion years — and eleven nations' ground

I-701

San Rafael Swell

Castle Dale

A massive dome of exposed rock layers with slot canyons and natural bridges

US-951

Tonopah

Tonopah

The Queen of the Silver Camps — the 1900 strike that saved Nevada, and the one boom town that never became a ghost: a mine you can walk into, a grand hotel, a clown motel, and the darkest skies in America.

UT-1481

Cedar Breaks National Monument

Brian Head

A 2,000-foot-deep amphitheater of vivid orange and red rock

US-1911

Arches National Park

Moab

Over 2,000 natural stone arches in one extraordinary landscape

UT-261 / US-1631

Valley of the Gods

Mexican Hat

A free, uncrowded alternative to Monument Valley

UT-2751

Natural Bridges National Monument

Blanding

Three massive natural bridges carved by ancient streams

UT-3132

Canyonlands National Park - Island in the Sky

Moab

A flat-topped mesa with views that stretch to infinity

Dead Horse Point State Park

Moab

A 2,000-foot sheer drop overlooking the Colorado River

UT-3161

Goosenecks State Park

Mexican Hat

A 1,000-foot-deep river canyon with impossibly tight meanders

SR-3751

Extraterrestrial Highway

Rachel

Ninety-eight lonely miles of State Route 375 past the back roads to Area 51 — with the Little A'Le'Inn in Rachel, the legend of the Black Mailbox, and some of the darkest skies in the country.

Kodachrome Basin Road1

Kodachrome Basin State Park

Cannonville

A valley of 67 stone chimneys rising from the desert floor

Related tags

StargazingPhotographyScenic DrivingSandstonePaid EntryHikingHidden GemOff the Beaten Path