22 US Towns Where The Sky Is So Dark You Can Pretty Much Always See The Stars

The people of Torrey took a cue from the nearby Capitol Reef National Park, a designated International Dark Sky Park, and made a stand against the harsh artificial light polluting the area's skies. The result is a community with outdoor lighting rules that ensure stellar nighttime views both in town and in the neighboring park.

Also known as Big Park, the Village of Oak Creek sits just outside Sedona among red rock buttes and cliff-walled canyons. It may be near the city, but it's managed to keep light pollution to a minimum. Visitors — who come to fish, climb, and camp in the stunning desert terrain — are rewarded with optimal nighttime views. To call it pretty is an understatement.

Serious stargazers should skip the big-city draw of nearby San Diego for the glittering skies of Borrego Springs, home to the 600,000-acre Anza-Borrego Desert State Park (the state's largest state park). Thanks to the desert’s sweltering summers and frigid winters, the area is largely undeveloped, leaving the night skies dark and clear. Just make sure to pack a jacket — even during the heat of summer, the temperature drops at night.

You’ll find the small and wonderfully dark town of Helper a couple of hours south of Salt Lake City, near the Wasatch Plateau. The town has a rich mining and railroading history — and a legend that involves transporting illegal goods through tunnels during Prohibition. These days, you can enjoy your drink of choice worry-free, with entertainment provided by Helper's carefully preserved dark, starry sky.

Sitting next to the remote and rugged Sawtooth National Forest is the small mountain town of Ketchum. Here, it’s all about skiing the nearby Bald Mountain in the winter and heading to the woods and rivers in the summer. But no matter when you find yourself in Ketchum, when night falls, the stars and Milky Way have everyone doing one thing: looking up.

Flagstaff was the world’s first International Dark Sky Community — a designation that now extends as far as Niue, a tiny island nation in the Pacific Ocean. It was here in Arizona in 1958 that the world’s first outdoor lighting ordinance was put in place — regulations that have kept the city's night skies so dark, both the Lowell Observatory and US Naval Observatory call Flagstaff home.

Fountain Hills is located surprisingly close to the bright lights of Phoenix, but thanks to the McDowell Mountains, the town has been able to maintain its revered starry skies. And here, there's more than one reason to tilt your chin toward the sky — the city is also known for its massive fountain, which can shoot water 560 feet in the air.

Just an hour from its fellow Texas Hill Country and dark sky counterparts — Dripping Springs, Wimberley Valley, and Fredericksburg — is the community of Horseshoe Bay. The town, which sits on the shore of Lake Lyndon B. Johnson, takes pride in its lack of light pollution and the resulting dark, starry skies. Here, there are no streetlights to be found and most commercial properties forgo brightly lit signs.

At the base of the San Juan Mountains, in an open valley that remains largely untouched, is the small mountain community of Ridgway. The combination of open space and endless mountain trails are more than enough to keep locals and visitors entertained, but the real magic happens when the sun drops behind the jagged peaks and the Milky Way glows against the inky black sky.

What was once envisioned to be a golf course community north of Dallas and Fort Worth has evolved into a fully residential town of around 900 people. The lack of commercial businesses in Lakewood Village keep the night skies dark, and its location on Lake Lewisville only makes the stargazing that much more magical. Grab a drink and a blanket, and enjoy the show.

Offering a true Old West feel, thanks to its jutting red rock buttes and steep canyon walls, Sedona has long drawn tourists who come to hike, bike, jeep, and golf in its mild climate. Somehow, amidst all the hubbub, Sedona has remained committed to the preservation of the area’s dark skies. Just another thing to keep adventure seekers coming back for more.

The high altitude of these sister communities — both at just under 8,000 feet in elevation — get stargazers that much closer to the cloudy Milky Way and Orion’s sparkling belt. Thanks to their rural setting and focus on agriculture and ranching, when the stars come out to play, it's hard to do anything but stare.