COSights

By Astrid · 5 places

Five Dark Skies for Milky Way Season

Dark-sky country for Milky Way season

Real darkness is getting harder to find, and Colorado still has it if you drive far enough from the Front Range glow. These are the places where I have stood under the full arch of the Milky Way with nothing but sagebrush or canyon rim for company.

  1. The Milky Way isn’t visible in this image; instead, it shows a shaded relief map of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison area, with the Gunnison River traced through a deep, narrow gorge and steep ridgelines spreading across the surrounding terrain. The canyon walls and drainage patterns stand out in muted greens, yellows, and grays.
    1

    Montrose

    Gunnison Point - Black Canyon South Rim

    An International Dark Sky Park where the Milky Way arches over a 2,000-foot gorge. Camp on the South Rim, walk to the overlook after moonset, and let the canyon fall away into black beneath the stars.

  2. Sunlit sandstone cliffs rise above a scrubby desert slope dotted with sagebrush and a few junipers, with warm golden light catching the orange rock against a clear blue sky. The low-angle composition emphasizes the rugged scale and solitude of the canyon landscape.
    2

    Cortez

    Canyon of the Ancients National Monument

    Six thousand archaeological sites scattered across sagebrush mesas, and almost nobody there after dark. The sandstone outcrops along Sand Canyon give the night sky a foreground that has been standing since 1300 CE.

  3. A circular stone great kiva sits partly excavated in a wide sagebrush clearing, with low sun warming the reddish masonry walls and the dry grasses inside the pit. Trees and open sky ring the site, emphasizing the remote, solitary setting.
    3

    Cortez

    Lowry Pueblo

    A great house alone on an open sage plain, no facilities, no staff, no lights. The masonry walls against the stars make the kind of quiet frame that needs nothing added.

  4. Sunlit pink and tan hoodoos and spires fill the foreground, their eroded tuff ridges sharply layered against a dark forested plateau. Above them, heavy storm clouds break with a warm golden opening, casting orange light across the jagged formations.
    4

    Creede

    Wheeler Geologic Area

    One of the least-visited landmarks in Colorado, reached by a 14-mile hike or a brutal 4WD road, which is exactly why the sky is so dark. The pale volcanic spires pick up starlight like nothing else in the state.

  5. Sunlit desert cliffs and a deep, narrow canyon stretch across the frame, with pale pink and tan layered rock cut by sparse juniper bushes. A bright turquoise sky with scattered clouds hangs over the rugged badlands, giving the scene a wide, open feel.
    5

    Fruita

    Rabbit Valley - Trail Through Time

    Desert badlands at the Utah line, far from any town of consequence. The eroded Morrison Formation hills make low, strange silhouettes under the Milky Way, and the pullout is right off I-70 when you are done.

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Colorado in Winter, Camera in Hand