Death Valley's Dark Skies: An RV Traveler's Guide
PickRV Editorial
The small team behind PickRV
Death Valley National Park, in eastern California, is a certified International Dark Sky Park with some of the darkest night skies in the United States. Its vast, low-population desert basin and dry air make for exceptional stargazing, alongside an extreme landscape of dunes, salt flats, and below-sea-level valley floor.
Why is Death Valley good for stargazing?
Death Valley is a certified International Dark Sky Park with very little light pollution and dry, clear desert air, giving some of the darkest skies in the country. The official NPS site has current campground and road status.
- ·Certified International Dark Sky Park
- ·Some of the darkest night skies in the US
- ·Summer is dangerously hot — cooler months are the season
State
California (extends into Nevada)
Night sky
Certified International Dark Sky Park
Landscape
Below-sea-level desert basin
Far from city lights and shielded by surrounding ranges, Death Valley offers wide, dark horizons that make the Milky Way and meteor showers especially vivid on clear nights.
The same desert that makes the skies so dark is brutally hot in summer, so most visitors come in the cooler months; the official source has current road and campground status.
Official sources
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