Ruby’s Inn: The Syrett Family Has Welcomed Bryce Canyon Visitors for More Than 100 Years

Most people meet Bryce Canyon at sunrise, standing at the rim while the hoodoos light up orange below them. But before there was a national park, a paved road, or a visitor center, there was a ranch family who saw the canyon and decided the world should see it too.

That family is the Syretts, and their business, Ruby’s Inn, has been welcoming Bryce Canyon visitors for more than 100 years.

A Sunday ride to the rim

In 1916, Reuben C. “Ruby” Syrett brought his family to Southern Utah and set up a ranch near where the inn stands today. A neighbor told him about a canyon nearby, the one people called Bryce. After the family rode out to see it one Sunday, they started telling everyone they could about it, and hosting the visitors who came to look.

By 1919 and 1920, Ruby and his wife, Minnie, were feeding and housing guests near Sunset Point. Their Tourist’s Rest grew into a lodge with a handful of cabins and an open-air dance floor, right on the canyon rim.

When Bryce became a park, Ruby’s Inn was born

In 1923, President Warren G. Harding declared Bryce Canyon a national monument. The Union Pacific Railroad, which was building lodges across the region’s parks, bought the Syretts’ Tourist’s Rest. Ruby didn’t leave. He moved his operation just outside the new park boundary, onto his ranch, and named it Ruby’s Inn. A post office opened there, and it still runs year-round.

Bryce Canyon officially became a national park in 1928. Along the way, Ruby offered up ranch land for the road into the park, the route visitors still drive today.

Four generations, one fire and a town of their own

Ruby’s son Carl took over the business, followed by Carl’s children and grandchildren. Not every chapter was easy. In 1984, the original 100-room lodge burned, and the family, led by then general manager Bob Syrett, rebuilt.

The business kept growing. By 2016, Ruby’s Inn had nearly 700 rooms across three buildings, and fourth-generation general manager Lance Syrett was explaining the family’s approach to Utah Business: “As a family, we try to keep things in the long-term perspective.”

That long view even produced a town. In 2007, after years of effort by the family, the area around the inn incorporated as Bryce Canyon City. Rod Syrett, president of the company’s board, became its first mayor. Most of its few hundred residents are Syretts or people who work at Ruby’s Inn.

Giving back to the park

The Syretts have never forgotten what their business owes to the canyon next door. Since 2003, Ruby’s Inn has invited guests to add a dollar a night for a park nonprofit, raising tens of thousands of dollars a year. And during the 2013 government shutdown, when the park closed, the family opened its own private land inside the park so visitors who had traveled across the world could still see the hoodoos.

How to do Ruby’s Inn right

• Browse the General Store. It’s the heart of the place, with groceries, gear, souvenirs and the post office.
• Catch the rodeo. The Bryce Canyon Country Rodeo runs Wednesday through Saturday evenings in summer.
• Stay for dinner and a show. Ebenezer’s Barn and Grill pairs cowboy dinners with live music most nights from April to October.
• Ride into the park. A paved bike path runs from the inn toward the canyon, and the park shuttle stops right here.

National parks belong to everyone. But the story of how people first came to know Bryce Canyon is, in large part, the story of one ranch family who opened their doors and never closed them.

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This spotlight draws on the National Park Service, Utah Business, KSL and Ruby’s Inn’s own history. Top photo: Fabio Achilli, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.