Big Bend's Dark Sky Program: Stars Worth Seeing
Big Bend National Park and the surrounding areas are one of the DARKEST skies in any national park in the continental US. The rangers here put on an amazing evening program that allows visitors to view the night sky and learn about the stars and constellations.
The program starts after dark and requires use of red light (which doesn’t impair your night vision). Rangers tell about Dark Sky International’s standards and how the park and surrounding communities have worked over the last 13 years to become compliant with these standards during the event. They have worked hard over these years to increase their compliance from 38% to a whopping 76.5% as of January 2025.
While there’s still room for improvement, I think everyone can agree that the work they have done is incredible! I was amazed that my cell phone’s camera could actually capture (at least a hint) of the Milky Way.
