Stargazing is a popular activity, and our national parks provide some of the best opportunities for it. The requisite for the very best of them is a combination of low levels of light pollution and weather that produces lots of clear skies.
Accordingly, those places tend to be in mountainous and desert areas of the West. At the following national parks, you’ll be dazzled by the night sky, which reveals the Milky Way and all kinds of stars you almost never see in the city.
Lassen Volcanic, California
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This park in northern California is far from any big cities, and the sunny climate means lots of clear night skies. For the best experience, grab a headlamp and some extra batteries to view the stars after a night hike up Lassen Peak.
Yosemite, California
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The high walls of Yosemite Valley effectively block out what little light pollution there is from nearby communities. For even more clarity, head up into the high country around Tioga Pass; for some reasons, night skies seem to be darker and clearer at higher elevations.
Kings Canyon-Sequoia, California
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Much of these parks’ paved roads go through forested terrain, limiting unobstructed views of the night sky. The real place to go is the backcountry, and several trails on the eastern side of the Sierra crest provide access.
Death Valley, California
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The clear, dry air of this park makes for one of the most amazing tapestries of stars and planets you’ll ever see. Unfortunately, the glow of Las Vegas is visible to the southeast, but the skies above and in other directions are still amazingly dark.
Great Basin, Nevada
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You can drive to high elevations with open views of the sky here. The nearest city, Ely, is more than an hour away, and it’s pretty small, so forget about light pollution.
Glacier, Montana
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From most places in this park on the Canadian border, you can’t see the night lights of nearby towns and cities. Even after stormy days, skies usually clear up at night. Bonus: you may also get to see the Northern Lights.
Yellowstone, Idaho-Montana-Wyoming
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Most of Yellowstone is isolated from civilization by a high plateau and mountain ranges all around it. One of the most unique stargazing experiences you’ll ever have is a nighttime visit to Old Faithful or another active geyser to witness both stars and eruptions.
Great Sand Dunes, Colorado
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The remote location of this park, where the closest small city is about an hour away, guaranteed great stargazing on clear nights. The best way to enjoy it is to lie back on the cool, soft dunes and admire the show.
Bryce Canyon, Utah
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High, remote, and far from any big towns or cities, Bryce is famous for its colorful hoodoos but also makes a great site for stargazing. Choose an open meadow or one of the various overlooks of the park’s world-famous amphitheater for this.
Capitol Reef, Utah
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Just about all of Southern Utah is really remote, and Capitol Reef is in the middle of it all. To get away from what little crowds there are here when you go stargazing, drive a ways on one of the unpaved roads penetrating its far northern and southern reaches.
Grand Canyon, Arizona
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Vast and open, especially in the South Rim portion, the Grand Canyon offers spectacular nighttime skies. Thunderstorms are common in the summer, but like in most other desert locations, the skies usually clear up in the evenings.
White Sands, New Mexico
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Light pollution isn’t much of a concern here since the closest small city is about 40 minutes away. An extra-special effect at night here is moonlight and starlight lighting up the famous white gypsum sands.
Theodore Roosevelt, North Dakota
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Remote and arid, this is another park with famously dark night skies. And as with other northern states, you get a fair number of nights when the Aurora Borealis is putting on its amazing show.
Badlands, South Dakota
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The closest city is an hour away. The climate is arid. There are a lot of clear nights and days. Thus, the stargazing is excellent, and you may get to hear the howling of coyotes as a soundtrack.
Big Bend, Texas
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This huge national park bordering a section of the Rio Grande has only tiny towns anywhere near it, and the clear, dry desert air only compounds the excellent conditions for stargazing. Find an open spot out in the desert so that nearby mountains don’t block much of the display.
The 30 Most Beautiful Places in the World That Everyone Must See
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There’s no way you could ever come up with a definitive list of the world’s most beautiful places. However, if you ask around, some places come up a lot more frequently than others do.
The following are some of the places that people mention over and over again, not in any particular order.
30 Breathtaking Places You Must See Before You Die
The Two Best Scenic Wonders in Each of the Mountain States
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The Mountain States– Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico– have some of the wildest and most rugged landscapes in the United States. Because they’re so big, it can take a lot of time to visit them, so it helps to be able to plan for some specific destinations.
Following are our choices for the top two must-see outdoor locations in each of these seven states.
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