8 Dark Sky National Parks Fantastic for Camping

See deep into space at these top spots, including Arches, Big Bend and Grand Canyon

Great Basin, Arches and Voyageur National Park

Travelers can camp under the stars at dark sky national parks across the country.

James Ronan/Getty Images/Steve Burns

Veronica Stoddart,

AARP

En español

Published June 27, 2022

/ Updated May 24, 2024

Did you miss the total solar eclipse?

Consider the next best thing: seeing a starry, starry night in a sea of darkness, unimpeded by artificial light, at one of the International Dark Sky Parks in the U.S. It’s a rare treat, since light pollution prevents nearly 80 percent of Americans from seeing the Milky Way from their homes. The International Dark-Sky Association (IDSA) has certified 16 of the nation’s 63 national parks as dark sky destinations. So visitors can take full advantage of such visibility, many of them offer specialized after-dark programs, from astronomy festivals and ranger-led full-moon walks to star parties and astrophotography workshops. If you prefer to stargaze on your own at a park, the National Park Service (NPS) recommends bringing a pair of 7-by-50 binoculars; a red flashlight, which enhances night vision; and a star chart, which shows the arrangement of stars in the sky. Research has found that the feeling of awe from stargazing and staring up at the sky can have positive effects on mental health. To keep the good vibes going, consider spending the night and setting up camp at a dark sky park.

Here are eight of the IDSA-certified parks where you can appreciate how the heavens looked from the Earth before the dawn of electric light.

At night campers can stargaze through sandstone formations at Arches National Park in Utah.

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Arches National Park, Utah

If there’s one state that stargazers should be sure not to miss, it’s Utah, which boasts the country’s greatest number of certified dark sky national parks, with five: Arches, Bryce, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion. Arches stands out, with more than 2,000 signature sandstone arches that form dramatic backdrops for the celestial show overhead. For the best viewing spots, avoid the lights of Moab to the south and head north to the Balanced Rock picnic area, the Garden of Eden viewpoint, Panorama Point or the Windows section. Under the right conditions you might even see Saturn’s rings with standard binoculars. Ranger-led stargazing programs, during which rangers introduce visitors to the wonders of the night sky followed by stargazing and telescope viewing, take place in the summer. These events rotate between Arches and nearby Canyonlands.

Camp: The Devils Garden Campground is the park’s only option, located 18 miles from the entrance. It’s a good idea to plan ahead if you want to stay here because the campground is usually full. You can reserve campsites up to six months in advance for nights between March 1 and Oct. 31. Campsites are first come, first served the rest of the year.

The stars are big and bright at Big Bend National Park in Texas. Here, a photograph of star trails over the park.

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Big Bend National Park, Texas

Thanks to its remote desert location and low humidity, this sprawling park in southwestern Texas has the least light pollution of any national park in the continental U.S. No wonder, as the song says, “The stars at night / are big and bright / deep in the heart of Texas.” You can attend one of Big Bend’s star parties, when amateur astronomers gather to observe the night sky together; take a guided moonlit walk; or use your binoculars on your own to enjoy an evening of meteor showers, constellation spotting or Milky Way viewing. On a clear night, countless stars will dazzle you, including from the Andromeda Galaxy, 2.5 million light-years away.

Camp: The NPS operates three of the park’s campgrounds: Chisos Basin Campground (open year-round), Rio Grande Village Campground (open year-round) and Cottonwood Campground (open November through April). Reservations are required for all three. A full-hookup RV camping area is operated by the park concessioner, Aramark. Big Bend also offers options for backcountry camping, which requires a permit.

Campers who like constellations can enjoy the twinkling lights and colorful hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park.

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Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

Marry the world’s largest collection of hoodoos (irregular columns of rocks) with one of the country’s darkest night skies and you have pure magic. At Bryce you can watch the Milky Way slash a silvery arc across the sky while thousands of stars illuminate the park’s otherworldly rock formations. Stargazing is serious business here. Park rangers and volunteer astronomers operate about 100 astronomy programs per year. They include constellation tours, when rangers with lasers point out constellations visible in the night sky, and one- to two-mile full-moon hikes, when the interplay of shadows and moonlight lend the hoodoos an eerie glow. For an overdose of celestial majesty, plan your trip around the four-day Annual Astronomy Festival in early June and enjoy lectures, telescope stargazing and astrophotography workshops, which are new this year.

Camp: The park has two campgrounds, North Campground (open year-round, reservations required May 19 to Oct. 7) and Sunset Campground (closed in winter, reservations required May 18 to Oct. 14). Both are located close to the visitor center and the Lodge at Bryce Canyon.

Badwater Basin at night in Death Valley National Park

Death Valley’s desert landscape gets a gold star for visibility.

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Death Valley National Park, California

America’s driest national park — a sprawling 3.4-million-acre desert — makes an ideal setting for admiring the stars and, if you’re lucky, spotting meteors. Death Valley nights are so dark that the IDSA classifies them at the highest level (Gold Tier), meaning that light pollution is so low that you see “views close to what could be seen before the rise of cities,” according to the association. Many heavenly bodies viewed from Death Valley aren’t visible with the naked eye anywhere else in the world. For an introduction to the cosmos, join a ranger program during the cooler winter to learn about topics including space science, planetary science, space exploration, light pollution and the lore surrounding our night skies. Or visit during the annual Dark Sky Festival each spring, which includes special ranger programs; guest speakers from organizations such as NASA; and the Exploration Fair, where scientists from NASA, Caltech, the SETI Institute and other groups engage visitors with demonstrations. If you’re on your own, head to Badwater Basin, Harmony Borax Works, Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes or Zabriskie Point, favorite spots for astrophotographers looking to capture their night images.

Camp: The park has seven developed campgrounds. The Furnace Creek Campground is the only NPS option that accepts reservations and has full hookups for RVs. Reservations can be made up to six months in advance to stay Oct. 15 to April 15. The other six campgrounds are open for winter and spring. Three private campgrounds — Stovepipe Wells, the Oasis at Death Valley’s Fiddlers’ Campground and Panamint Springs Resort — accept reservations. Note: Few campgrounds are open in the summer because of the heat.

A person watching the Watching Milky Way in Grand Canyon National Park

Visitors can enjoy views of the Milky Way from one of the designated stargazing spots at Grand Canyon National Park.

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Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Yes, the iconic Grand Canyon, one of the World’s Seven Natural Wonders, is clearly the main attraction at this park. But stick around after dark and you’ll be rewarded with stellar views of another kind. See the Milky Way cast your shadow on a moonless night. Or thrill to a tableau of star clouds, nebulae, meteor showers and even planets like Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Key stargazing spots on the South Rim include Desert View Watchtower, a mecca for snapping award-worthy images of the watchtower with a Milky Way backdrop; Mather Point; and Moran and Lipan points, both right off Desert View Drive. On the canyon’s less-visited North Rim, you can have the stars all to yourself at Bright Angel Point.

In early June visitors can join a free star party — on the South Rim with the Tucson Amateur Astronomy Association and on the North Rim with the Saguaro Astronomy Club of Phoenix — to enjoy astronomy talks, constellation tours and telescope viewings. Night sky photography workshops, telescope viewings and constellation talks take place throughout the year.

Camp: There are four campgrounds on the South Rim. Mather Campground (reservations required March 1 to Nov. 30) and Trailer Village RV Park (RVs only) are open year-round. Desert View Campground is open mid-April to mid-October and requires reservations. Tusayan-Montane Campground is open from May 13 to Sept. 30. North Rim campgrounds DeMotte Campground and North Rim Campground are open mid-May to mid-October, and reservations are required.

Travelers can sleep under countless stars at Great Basin National Park in Nevada.

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Great Basin National Park, Nevada

What makes Great Basin such a stargazing superstar? It has ideal conditions, with high elevation and low humidity. It offers rare deep-space viewing from the Great Basin Observatory, the first research-grade observatory built in a U.S. national park. And as one of the least visited parks — it had only 142,115 visitors in 2022 — you can admire the night skies with hardly anyone else around.

On clear, moonless nights, head to such popular viewing spots as the Baker Archaeological Site and Mather Overlook to be awed by countless stars, planets (note that stars twinkle but planets don’t), meteor showers, man-made satellites, the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way. From Memorial Day to Labor Day, astronomy programs offer ranger talks and full-moon hikes, telescope viewing at the astronomy amphitheater and solar telescope viewing from the Lehman Caves Visitor Center. On select summer evenings, hop aboard the Great Basin Star Train in the nearby town of Ely, guided by Great Basin National Park’s Dark Rangers. Along the way you can disembark and use high-powered telescopes to see distant planets and deep-space objects. Finally, come for the annual Astronomy Festival, Sept. 5 through7, to enjoy guest speakers, photo workshops, telescope viewings, art projects and tours of the Great Basin Observatory.

Camp: The park has five developed campgrounds: Upper Lehman Creek, Lower Lehman Creek, Baker Creek, Grey Cliffs and Wheeler Peak. All operate on a first-come, first-served basis, except Grey Cliffs — you can make reservations for nights between May 25 and Sept. 30 and book up to 30 days in advance. Lower Lehman Creek is the only campground open year-round, but it will be closed for most of 2024 because of ongoing projects. The other campgrounds are generally open May through October.

Mesa Verde’s high elevation and dry climate make it a good place to stargaze at night. Here, the Milky Way shines bright over the park.

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Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

Stargaze at the night sky just like the Ancestral Puebloan who lived here between 550 and 1300, leaving behind evidence of their sophisticated astronomical knowledge. The dark skies above Mesa Verde National Park haven’t changed much since the days of those early observers so long ago. Mesa Verde is at the center of the darkest skies left in the contiguous U.S., thanks to the region’s high elevation, dry climate and sparse population. The park’s archaeological sites and trails are closed at night, but the best spots for star viewing are Morefield Campground and Far View Lodge, which sometimes host ranger-led evening programs.

Camp: Morefield Campground, 4 miles from the park entrance, is managed by Aramark and open from May to October. Off-season camping is limited but available in the spring (April 11 to 25) and fall (Oct. 19 to Nov. 2).

Lucky campers can catch a glimpse of the northern lights when staying at Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota.

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Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota

Stars aren’t the only things that shine at this remote water-based park near the Canadian border. When conditions are right, the aurora borealis lights up the night sky with its shimmering streaks of blue, green, purple and red. These rare light phenomena can’t be forecast, but winter’s longer nights increase the chances of seeing them. While watching for the northern lights, keep a lookout for the Milky Way, satellites, the International Space Station, shooting stars and other celestial objects. Voyageurs hosts star parties with special ranger-led nighttime hikes, meteor shower viewing, constellation tours and solar system walks.

Camp: The park has 147 front-country, 14 backcountry and two primitive campsites that are open year-round. All campsites (except the primitive) require a watercraft or water taxi, a reservation and a camping permit. Front-country campsites are located on the shores and islands of the park’s bigger lakes — Crane, Kabetogama, Namakan, Rainy and Sand Point. Backcountry campsites are located on the park’s interior lakes and offer a more remote and secluded experience.

Editor's note: This article was originally published on June 27, 2022 . It has been updated to reflect new information.

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