Colorado has spent decades protecting some of its darkest skies. Now it’s giving travelers an easier way to experience them.
The state has launched the Colorado Stargazing Trail, a new self-guided itinerary that connects all 21 of Colorado’s certified International Dark Sky places.
Rather than following a single roadway, the trail is built around an interactive online map that lets travelers create their own route between national parks, state parks, mountain communities, and other protected landscapes. Along the way, it also points users to stargazing overlooks, astronomy festivals, ranger-led telescope programs, observatories, and campgrounds and nearby lodging for planning an overnight visit.
Created by the Colorado Tourism Office in partnership with DarkSky Colorado, DarkSky International, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the trail is free to use through the state’s tourism website.
The Dark Sky Places span nearly the entire state. In southern Colorado, travelers can climb North America’s tallest dunes at Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve before returning after dark, when the Milky Way often stretches overhead with almost no competing light.
Farther west, the remote Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park boasts some of the darkest skies in the Lower 48, while Mesa Verde National Park combines stargazing with evening ranger programs that explore how the Ancestral Puebloans observed and understood the night sky.
The trail also encourages travelers to venture beyond Colorado’s marquee attractions. The neighboring communities of Westcliffe and Silver Cliff became Colorado’s first certified International Dark Sky communities in 2015 after replacing streetlights and adopting lighting ordinances designed to preserve the night sky. There, visitors can join free public star parties hosted by Dark Skies of the Wet Mountain Valley, peer through one of Colorado’s most powerful telescopes at the Smokey Jack Observatory, or follow the Planet Walk—a true-to-scale model of the solar system stretching between the two towns.
Mesa Verde National Park offers evening ranger programs that explore Ancestral Puebloans’ relationship with the night sky.
Photo by Alec Krum/Unsplash
Some other certified cities, towns, and communities on the trail include Ridgway, Norwood, and Old Snowmass, each offering a quieter alternative to Colorado’s busier mountain resort towns.
The interactive map goes beyond showing celestial chasers where to look up at the sky. Travelers can search for annual events like star parties, astronomy festivals, and guided celestial sessions, such as AstroFest (which typically takes place at Black Canyon of the Gunnison each September) and tours on the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad Dark Sky Train (where guests board a historic steam-powered train and travel into the high-country wilderness for a night of star viewing).
The map also highlights places to stay, including Kosmos Stargazing Resort & Experiences, Colorado’s first DarkSky-approved lodging, where guests can join in nightly astronomer-led observing clinics.
The state’s vast constellation of dark-sky destinations is still expanding. Colorado ranks second only to Utah in the number of certified International Dark Sky places, and more than 30 parks, communities, and protected landscapes in the state are now working toward designation, including Grand Lake, Frisco, Berthoud, Rangely, and Lake County, which are also participating in a state mentorship program that helps communities reduce light pollution and meet DarkSky International’s certification standards—meaning the new trail is likely to gain more stops in the years ahead.
