As I left Harry Reid International Airport on a bright March afternoon, my hands shot up to protect my eyes, which had become accustomed to the dull light of a long, gray Tennessee winter. I headed west in search of the sun, but more importantly, I was looking for the night sky and hoping for clear skies. I boarded a shuttle bus and he headed east for two hours to Utah, where we planned to spend a starry night at Under Canvas Lake Powell Grand Staircase.
This glamping resort, one of 12 Under Canvas locations, is located on a canyon rim plateau in southern Utah and is the first resort in the world to be certified by DarkSky International, a non-profit organization focused on light pollution. My goal was to beat the heat and crowds, but what I really wanted was to get early access to a certified starry resort.
The DarkSky Approved Lodging Program marks another step in the nonprofit organization's history of light pollution reduction advocacy. Broadly speaking, certification requirements include being in a “very” dark location. Approved measures to reduce the effects of night light. Provide guests with educational materials about night sky conservation.
At Canvas, DarkSky program manager James Brigagliano said the company's site is well-suited for the project because it is in a dark location and already has environmentally friendly practices in place. Since the Lake Powell site was approved in August, the National Park Service's other Underground Canvas sites in the Western Park Area of the Circle have also been approved.
wishing for good weather
I rented a car in St. George, Utah and headed southeast, with the Pine Valley Mountains looming to the north. The second half of the two-hour drive was on Route 89, which runs from Mexico to Canada. My 60-mile section was marked by sienna-colored mesas and buttes and cornflower-blue skies.
By 3:30 p.m., I was bouncing along the red dirt road until an under-canvas cream-colored tent came into view. A total of 50 locations are scattered across 220 acres, all with views of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a huge geological formation that covers approximately 1.87 million acres of public land ranging from desert to coniferous forest.
When I got out of the car, I looked up at the sky in horror. Clouds are gathering.
There were vehicles from the western states and some from the northeast on the dirt lot. Like me, these travelers wait until resorts open for the season to take advantage of the cooler weather and outdoor activities like horseback riding, hiking, rappelling, and private tours of the Grand Staircase in nearby Elephant Canyon. Then he came early a day later. Lake Powell also offers boating and fishing, but water levels are greatly affected by the drought.
Like me, there are many people who came primarily to see Utah's night sky. Utah's vast landmass means minimal artificial light, and its dry climate means there's less water vapor to blur the stars.
But will the weather cooperate?
reach for the stars
Under Canvas isn't the first hospitality company to promote access to the night sky. Over the past 20 years or so, hotels and permanent glamping sites have been working to offer guests stargazing in an idyllic setting. These include the Astronomical Observatory at Primland Resort in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains and an astronomy dinner at Soneva His Jani in the Maldives. Erqui Domos in northern Chile has geodesic domes and huts open to the sky.
With stargazing in mind, Under Canvas began working with DarkSky in 2021 to arrive at a lighting design plan.
“Obtaining certification from DarkSky was altruistic in its intent,” said May Lilley, Chief Marketing Officer at Under Canvas. “Part of our mission is to have our guests leave with a slightly different philosophy, even if that means just turning off the lights when they leave their rooms.”
Brigagliano said DarkSky's hope is that the new certification program will become the de facto standard for all accommodations that are dark enough to pass the organization's protocols.
The focus on the night sky could not have come sooner. A study published in the journal Science in 2023 found that the sky glow from cities and towns increased by 10 percent each year from 2011 to 2022, increasing the number of people living in densely populated areas around the world. Ninety-nine percent of the time, most, if any, stars will be invisible.
The lodging categories complement DarkSky's existing international DarkSky Places certification program, which includes more than 200 locations, including Zion National Park and Yellowstone National Park. Arkarloola Nature Reserve, Australia. Namibrand Nature Reserve in southern Namibia. Even in urban areas like Mont Belvieu Park in Sherbrooke, Quebec.
Brigagliano said the program's reaction to the news was fairly immediate. “So far, we have received inquiries about the program from approximately 100 resorts, retreat centers, ranches and other lodging properties in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Thailand, Australia, India, Germany, Saudi Arabia and the Cook Islands. We have received interest from a variety of companies, from commercial organizations to high-end luxury real estate.”
where are the stars?
Inside the common area (a large tent that serves as the front desk, restaurant, snack bar, and hangout area), a couple from San Francisco with a dachshund had just finished registering. The woman who registered me took me on an ATV to a safari-style tent.
All tents are within a quiet shouting distance of each other and feature decks, private bathrooms with showers, and four vertical walls that offer more space than traditional pyramid-shaped tents. My room had a king-sized bed, two leather chairs, and a wood stove. The Stargazer I chose (I paid $432 including taxes and fees) also has an arc-shaped window above the bed that looks out at the sky.
I went out on deck. The valley was dark under thick clouds. When I went back inside, I could hear the rain falling on the canvas. I abandoned my plan to walk to the slot canyon on the property, which can be flooded, and slipped under a viewing window dotted with raindrops. The prospect of starry skies seemed far away.
I zipped up my hoodie and walked to the main common area, wishing I had brought better shoes for hiking in the rain. The roasted trout ($25) looked appealing, but the cafeteria was uncomfortably cold. I grabbed a protein bar from my backpack and sat under one of the sheltered gathering areas, noting how the rain turned Utah's veined Navajo sandstone into deeper shades of coral and ecru. The wide valley between me and the Grand Staircase might have been two or twenty miles wide, its scale was immense. A couple from Idaho joined me, wearing oilskin jackets and hiking boots, looking like they could climb Mount Everest with an ice pick. Unlike me, they were well prepared for bad weather and it didn't interfere with our hike through the nearby canyon.
By 8pm, the rain had turned to a drizzle. Hoping for the best, I set my alarm for 3:30am. This is about the time when the outer regions of the Milky Way appear in the Northern Hemisphere (if conditions are right).
My alarm went off and I opened my eyes to see stars shining through the still damp window. I got dressed, grabbed my battery-powered lantern, and headed out into the night. Above me, the sky in all directions was finally unobstructed. I couldn't have been more surprised.
I descended a dirt path lit by small solar ground lights and approached the rim of the canyon. Smoke wafted from the stoves in several tents and disappeared. A jackrabbit crossed in front of me. I sat on a dry scrub. This is the Colorado Plateau, one of the darkest regions in the United States, and even though there was only one or two clouds left, thousands of stars illuminated the darkness. Was it the solitary veil of the Milky Way above me? I had a good view to the west, and I was almost certain I could see Venus. Using the stargazing app SkyView, I was able to spot the constellations Orion and Leo.
I lay there and remained there until the stars disappeared in the pre-dawn sky and the morning light began to move beautifully across the wide valley.
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