The World's 100th International Dark Sky Park

The designation acknowledges years of effort, and continuing effort, to keep the park's skies naturally dark. Its skies rank among the darkest that remain anywhere in the contiguous United States.

Stargazing is exceptional here for a handful of reasons: the land is high, the air is dry, few people live nearby, and the skies are often clear. On clear nights, the band of the Milky Way climbs over wooded hills and the mesa called Point Lookout.

The night sky is also a cultural resource. Stargazers here may see much the same sky that Ancestral Pueblo residents looked up at about a thousand years ago. Ancestral Pueblo families lived on these mesa tops and in the cliffs for over seven centuries, and the sky is considered part of that inheritance. Many visitors come specifically to experience the dark sky.

Far View Lodge sits near the heart of the park, about 15 miles from the entrance and roughly half an hour by car. From the lodge, the view to the south reaches across the mesa into Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Morefield Campground is tucked inside the park, not far from the main entrance, and has campsites with RV hookups.

Once through the entrance, Mesa Top Ruins Road winds up onto the mesa, and the first stretch before Far View Lodge has lookout points and hiking trailheads to stop at. The Point Lookout Trail is a good example, giving hikers expansive vistas over Montezuma Valley toward the San Juan and La Plata ranges.