Ruby's Inn celebrating a century of scenic stays.

• Author: Christensen, Lisa
• Position: Around Utah

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Bryce Canyon City -- A lot can change in a hundred years. But for a century, RUBY'S INN has been a constant for visitors to Bryce Canyon National Park--even before it was a national park--all while staying in the family.

General Manager Lance Syrett says he thinks its longevity is partially luck and partially foresight by each generation. "We're out here in beautiful country, right on the doorstep of Bryce Canyon," he says. "You can't get the same quality of life other places. I think that's part of it, being in such a beautiful place. As a family, we try to keep things in the long-term perspective. You just have to be patient."

When Reuben "Ruby" Syrett first settled in Southern Utah in 1916, he came to ranch, but noticed the beauty of the landscape and saw an opportunity to run a business on the side to cater to visitors to the canyon. A few years later, he got permission to do just that--only to find his new lodge was in the boundaries of what was then Bryce Canyon National Monument.

Instead of accepting defeat and putting his energy back into ranching, Syrett says, Ruby offered the government part of his ranch land to build a road into the park to the north.

"It was one of the best things he ever did, because they built the road there and he could build his lodge along there," Syrett says. There, the lodge thrived through two world wars and the Great Depression. Business was not without its ups and downs, but the family learned how to roll through the cycles of good and bad.

"One thing being in the tourism business is it's kind of cyclical. Right now we're in a high time in tourism, with the national parks, but going back to 9/11, we were in a similar trajectory where things were looking pretty good, but all of the sudden, almost overnight, all that international tourism went away, and it took us three or four years to recover from that,"...