Photos: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. Pollard / CC BY 4.0 · Yinan Chen / Public domain · Julietvbarbara / CC BY-SA 4.0
Where to go when you want the Milky Way instead of a glow on the horizon. Time it for a new moon: a full one washes out the sky even at the darkest of these.
15 places · United States
Must-seeNo sky measured in the lower 48 has less light pollution. The park is a long way from anywhere, and the $30 car pass is good for seven days, so stay more than one night.
Must-seeCome between October and April, when the heat breaks and rangers run night-sky programs. There's a lodge in the park, so you can stay out late and sleep close by.
Must-seeThe park system's most developed astronomy program is here, with its own Astronomy Rangers and a festival every June. The rim is over 8,000 feet up, where the air is thin and dry.
Must-seeNine thousand two hundred feet up a dormant volcano, above the cloud layer, where the sky reads Bortle 1 to 2. Free, open until 9pm, and reachable in a rental car.
Must-seeOne of the darkest and least visited parks in the country, where 4,000-year-old bristlecone pines stand against the Milky Way and an astronomy festival runs each September.
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63 placesAll 63, for anyone keeping count, with the famous ones up top and the quieter ones further down.
9 placesDon't try to fit all of this into one week. You'll spend it watching southern Utah through a windshield.
21 placesA summer list, mostly. Several of the high roads here close for the winter. July and August are the safe bet for driving all of them.
15 placesAntelope, Buckskin Gulch, the Narrows and Peek-a-boo with Spooky are the true slots here; the rest are the red-rock parks around them. From July into September the monsoon can flood a slot under a clear sky, so go after it's over.