Utah's national parks after dark: scorpion hunts, moonlit kayaks and star hikes

Utah has the highest concentration of certified International Dark Sky Places anywhere on Earth, and all five of its "Mighty 5" national parks - Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon - hold dark sky status. Now the state's parks are leaning into the night, rolling out after-dark tours that turn the desert into a whole different destination once the sun goes down.

The timing makes sense. Zion alone logged more than 1.4 million visitors in June, July and August of 2026, and Arches pulled in over 445,000 in the same stretch. But when night falls, the temperatures drop, the crowds head back to their campsites and motor lodges, and the stars blaze through the clear desert sky.

Hiking to a stone arch in the dark

Writer Jamie Spain tested the trend on a week-long September road trip linking four national parks and three state parks. At Capitol Reef, she hiked to Hickman Bridge - a natural sandstone arch - at 9 p.m. with guides Samuel and Suzanne Francis, the married owners of Western Whiptails Adventures. "Capitol Reef's landscape takes on an entirely different character at night," Sam says.

The 1.8-mile round trip, which takes about 1.5 hours in daylight, felt brand new in the dark. The guides pointed out petroglyphs and a site where the Fremont people once stored corn, and the nearly full moon lit the stone bridge from above.

Scorpion hunts and moonlit paddles

At Dead Horse Point State Park, the $20 entrance fee covers scorpion searching, stargazing, sunset walks and astronomy talks. Scorpions are biofluorescent, so they glow a bluish color under UV light - ranger Jimmy Burch hands out special flashlights and leads groups down a gentle path to spot them. "If you hear hissing, step away," he cautions, though he says no one has ever been stung on one of these walks.

At Sand Hollow State Park near Hurricane, a monthly full-moon paddle runs from April through September, launching at moonrise. Ranger Callie Mallow says up to 30 kayaks and paddleboards can be on the water at once. "The moonlit paddle is pretty popular," she says.

Spain's takeaway: once you get past the fear of the dark, the height and the critters, the parks feel like a whole new world. "Darkness can make even the most familiar places feel like a whole new world," she writes.