At Cedar Break National Monument, one of Utah’s renowned “dark-sky parks,” another quote features in the park’s own master astronomer handbook, this one from William Bragg, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist: “Light brings us the news of the universe.” Standing under gleaming starlight amidst the wildly vivid landscape of Southern Utah, it does feel as if the universe is whispering a message: You are a part of this unfathomable and immeasurable space, a speck enmeshed in the vastness.

There is a sense of something foreign yet familiar here: foreign because a starry night is no longer visible to much of the world (a third of Earth’s population hasn’t seen the Milky Way, and 80 percent live amidst light pollution that obscures most of the other celestial bodies); and familiar because gazing at a star-filled sky is a kind of primordial experience. We come from the stars; we are made of them. Atoms of elements in the human body – carbon, oxygen, iron, calcium – are, quite literally, stardust.

Utah is an ideal place to get back in touch with this elemental part of us. Besides the billions of years of geological layers on display – from sprawling mesas to narrow slot canyons – the billions upon billions of stars in the universe seem to burn brighter here. The state’s 26 designated “dark sky” locations – including the national parks collectively known as the “Mighty 5” – offer some of the best glimpses on the planet of the 5,000 stars that are actually visible to an Earthling’s naked eye.

Certified by DarkSky International – a non-profit that preserves darkness and combats light pollution through education and public policy – these parks, communities and sanctuaries are prime stargazing spots. In the state’s southwest corner, Zion National Park’s multi-hued sandstone protrusions are the backdrop for a starscape of asterisms, planets, moons, clusters, galaxies and nebulae.

The stars beckon throughout Southern Utah. Just east of Zion, along the must-drive Scenic Byway 12 (also known as the Journey Through Time Scenic Byway), Bryce Canyon National Park (another of the Mighty 5) has fantastical formations that include a towering hoodoo called Thor’s Hammer. A sunset hike into the park’s aptly named Bryce Amphitheater – where geological wonders amass in a thrilling jumble of otherworldly beauty – is a dramatic preview of the nightly show of the Milky Way arcing from one canyon wall to another. It might not surprise you if Thor’s arm emerged from the heavens to grasp his huge hammer.

Also off of Scenic Byway 12 is Kodachrome Basin State Park, part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument’s spectacularly rugged and remote terrain. Here, Utah’s pristine air quality, high elevation and aridity come together in another haven of darkness. Farther east, the Natural Bridges National Monument – Utah’s first darksky preserve – is one of the darkest national parks in the U.S., according to a National Park Service study.

This story has been edited and condensed for clarity. Read the original version in the Fall/Winter 2024 edition of driver magazine.

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