The red cliffs and spire-filled amphitheaters of Bryce Canyon draw hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. But just beyond the park's winding roads and lookout points lies a quieter, more weathered piece of Utah's story. Scattered across the surrounding high desert and alpine valleys are ghost towns - settlements once full of ambition, now reduced to sun-bleached ruins and fading cemetery headstones. For anyone curious about the lives of early Utah settlers, a visit to one of these historic towns near Bryce Canyon can feel like paging through a dusty journal written in timber, stone, and soil. They don't…