These Are the Best National Parks for Stargazing
There are so many reasons to love our national parks, including natural beauty, history, and park architecture. But opportunities to take advantage of them don’t end at sunset: Several national parks are also great spots in the night sky. But which ones are the best?
If you like astronomy and are in the mood for a trip (or at least planning one), you may be interested to know if you have a better chance of seeing stars and planets from multiple parks. Here are the 10 best US national parks to gaze at the stars .
Parks with the best stars
After analyzing 62 national parks across America, sky mapping company Under Lucky Stars has released a guide to the best parks for stargazing. Parks are ranked by visitor numbers, accessibility and light pollution.
Top 10 National Parks for Stargazing (in order of ranking): Great Basin (NV), Big Bend (TX), Redwood (CA), North Cascades (Washington), Voyageurs (Minnesota), Volcanic Lassen (CA) , Guadalupa Mountains. (Texas), Great Sand Dunes (Colorado), Crater Lake (Oregon) and Canyonlands (Utah). More information on each park can be found in this chart (for your information, the Bortle scale measures light pollution):
Other features on the site
This guide not only includes a list of the top 10 parks – it provides information on all 62 analyzed parks. If you want to plan a trip to the parks to gaze at the stars, the site also has a location search so users can compare the nearby parks to where they live to determine where they will go next. Or there is an interactive map on the guide home page where you can check your options based on geographic location.