Do you love Utah State Parks like we do? We have found that the Beehive State is home to some pretty epic stargazing spots!
On this page, Alison has compiled a list of the state park campgrounds located all over Utah, and it includes some of the best places to stargaze in Utah based on a dark sky scale and lack of obstruction from trees. It is a useful guide if you are looking for a place to sit out and enjoy the stars or even shoot astrophotography.
Where Can I See the Stars in Utah?
Looking at a light pollution map of Utah, you’ll quickly realize the state is a fantastic place to see the stars. Once you move away from the major urban areas in the north around Salt Lake City, Ogden, Orem, and Logan, the skies are beautifully clear. In the southwest part of the state, St. George is your only major spot with lots of light pollution, but it’s a reasonably short drive to some of the darkest skies in the country from there.
Scattered all over Utah, you’ll find state parks in Bortle 2 and Bortle 1 skies that make the perfect spots for camping and stargazing. With dozens of parks to choose from, you will enjoy lots of options such as going fully primitive with a tent or hooking up your RV with water, electricity, and sewage. You can also take advantage of the excellent park programs in Utah state parks including astronomy at numerous locations throughout the state.
The cool part is, several of our favorite stargazing campgrounds in the entire U.S. are actually on this list.
We hope this guide helps you better plan your stargazing trip to Utah. It’s a great place to enjoy the stars at a state park.
Utah State Parks Dark Sky Guide
If you love to camp specifically to enjoy the night sky, we have shared our personal camping spreadsheet to help you quickly find the best campground to see the stars.
Listed below the Google Sheet, we share what each categories represents.
If you are on a mobile device, slide the graph left or right to see more data.
Graph Key
Name: This is the name of the state park.
Region: This is the general region of the state where the park is located.
Dark Sky: This is the approximate Bortle level. Read this article first if you aren’t sure what we mean. Typically avoid red, orange, and yellow for the best stargazing.
Obstruction: How many trees will block your view of the sky? “Open” gives you the best chance of having a clear view at almost all campsites. “Partial” means there are some sites with clear views and some without. “Obstructed” means most campsites have a blocked view of the sky.
Special Notes: Since we mainly camp in an RV, this column of the spreadsheet helps you see if it is a state park that only offers tent camping or if there is no camping. We have also used a strikethrough to cross out the parks currently where no camping is allowed.
About the Authors
We are avid stargazers Jason and Alison Takacs also known as Roadtrippin’ with Takacs. With our two boys Preston and Grayson, we seek out some of the darkest skies in the country while also going on many incredible hiking and other outdoor adventures. As part-time RVers, we try to see as much of this amazing world as possible in our spare time and hope you will join us through this blog on RWT Adventures and other forms of social media as we explore the night sky and other natural wonders as hardcore astrotourists.