The skies are dark in Nevada. Combine low population density (low light pollution) and higher elevation, and you get clear, unimpeded views of the night skies. Nevada takes its dark sky viewing so seriously that they've created a road trip, called Park to Park in the Dark, that begins at one Dark Sky certified park, Death Valley, crosses the state, stopping at multiple stellar locations for both daytime fun and night sky viewing, and ends at another world class Dark Sky certified park, Great Basin National Park.
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Mobilus In Mobili CC BY-SA 2.0
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NPS Public Domain
Death Valley National Park
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Twindeknecht - Dreamstime
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Juliengrondin - Dreamstime
Our road trip begins in Death Valley, located three and a half hours from Los Angeles and two hours from Las Vegas. With terrain so otherworldly that NASA tests the Mars Rovers there, Death Valley is both the lowest and hottest place in North America. Because of the extreme summer heat, the best times to visit are late winter or late fall when daytime temperatures are in the reasonable range of 60s to 80s.
If you plan your trip for February, you can attend the Death Valley Dark Sky Festival, which includes four days of presentations and talks led by NASA scientists and professional photographers. You'll hear lectures on astrobiology and mastering night photography, attend skywatching parties with giant telescopes set up on the airport runway, and watch demonstrations of NASA exploration robots. The Furnace Creek Visitor Center is the festival's home base. It hosts lectures and expos and has easy access to a number of the park's attractions.
Just 18 miles from the visitor center, Badwater Basin is a large, surreal salt flat 282 feet below sea level--North America's lowest point—and a great place for night sky viewing. Zabriskie Point, 5 miles from the visitor center, has an easily accessible cement viewing platform overlooking convoluted, water-sculpted, multi-hued hills. The platform at Zabriskie Point is an ideal spot to set up a telescope or watch the sunset. A half-hour north, you'll find the cruise ship-sized hills of the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, yet another dramatic location to take an award-winning photo of the stars.
The park has limited accommodation options. Conveniently located near the Visitor Center, The Oasis at Death Valley features two hotels, three restaurants, a general store, an ice cream parlor, a golf course, a small mining museum and a private campground. Across the street from the Oasis, the 230-site Sunset Campground works best for RVs, and a mile away, the Texas Springs Campground has 26 tent-only sites. Both campgrounds are first-come, first-served and have bathrooms and running water, but little else.
Sydney Martinez
Goldwell Open Air Museum
Heading north, 40 miles from Death Valley, you'll come upon the small former mining town of Beatty. Surrounding the town are miles of dirt roads and trails that are great for hiking and riding OHVs. Nearby, visit the Goldwell Open Air Museum, a sculpture park featuring his "The Last Supper," a striking work of art with twelve haunting, life-size, white plaster figures that glow incongruously in the desert.
Another hour of driving with several thousand feet of slow elevation gain will take you to the historic Old West town of Goldfield, where Wyatt and Virgil Earp once lived. Virgil, who was deputy sheriff at the time, died here of pneumonia. Goldfield was named for the gold mining in the area, but is now known for the International Car Forest, a large outdoor art installation just on the outskirts of town.
Sam May - CC BY 2.0
International Car Forest
Only 30 minutes from Goldfield, our next stop, Tonopah, is a perfect place to stay the night before braving the long drive to Ely. The town has a remarkable mining history and a range of hotels from the historic to the haunted. Stay at the recently remodeled Belvada Hotel for a high-end experience or, if you're so inclined, the eerie and allegedly haunted Clown Motel. Tonopah was one of the larger silver-producing regions in the Old West, and immediately adjacent to downtown, you can explore this history with a visit to the Historic Mining Park. And right on the outskirts of town, the Clair Blackburn Memorial Stargazing Park is equipped with a picnic area and concrete pads for telescopes. During the summer months, telescopes, binoculars, and iPads are provided at weekly stargazing parties.
The 169-mile drive from Tonopah to Ely is our longest stretch between stops, and there is virtually nothing along this road but wide-open spaces, high desert vistas, and yes, dark skies. Before you make this beautiful but sparsely populated trek, be sure to stock up on gas, snacks and water, and check that spare tire. If you have a high-clearance off-road vehicle, you may want to stop at the Lunar Crater volcanic field, a National Natural Landmark where NASA has trained astronauts.
Jason Bath
Great Basin Star Train
Ely was founded as a stagecoach station, then came mining and trains, and then both mines and trains left, but a wonderful railroad museum remains. The East Ely Railroad Depot Museum and Nevada Northern Railway Museum feature extensive exhibits, along with a working train that offers a star-themed train ride to the Steptoe Valley, where visitors can view the heavens through provided telescopes. Other daytime options in Ely include the White Pine Public Museum, the McGill Drugstore Museum, or searching for gemstones at Garnet Hill. Twenty minutes outside of Ely, you'll find the Ward Charcoal Ovens. These giant, beehive-shaped ovens are part of a historical mining site and provide a stunning location for night sky photography with ovens in the foreground and the Milky Way soaring overhead.
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NPS - Public Domain
Bristlecone Pines Night Sky
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NPS Paul Atkinson - Public Domain
Comet Over Wheeler Peak
Sydney Martinez
Lehman Caves
Great Basin National Park is an hour from Ely and was designated in 2016 as a Dark Sky Park by Dark Sky International. Far from any major metropolitan sources of light and at over 6,000 feet in elevation, Great Basin has some of the darkest and clearest skies in the nation. During the day, summit Wheeler Peak, the second-highest peak in Nevada, or stroll through some of the oldest living trees on earth in a bristlecone pine forest. Or if spelunking is your jam, take a tour through the Lehman Caves, which at 2 miles long is the longest cave system in Nevada, and see hundreds of stalactites, stalagmites and the much rarer shield formations.
NPS Tom Auchter - Public Domain
Milky Way over Astronomy Amphitheater
The park is open year-round, though winters can be cold and snowy. The Great Basin Astronomy Festival is held in late September when the weather is mild. Like the Death Valley Festival, it has talks by NASA scientists, classes on astrophotography, ranger-led star viewing parties, and even a group nighttime art project. The Great Basin Observatory is the only research-grade observatory in the national park system. It contains a 27-inch telescope and can be visited on one of the daily tours. During the summer months, visitors can watch ranger-led astronomy events in an amphitheater that was specifically designed for starwatching.
Unlike Death Valley, there are no hotels within the park, but there are numerous campgrounds for both tents and RVs. The only one open year-round, Lower Lehman Creek Campground, has 11 pull-through sites for RVs. Wheeler Peak Campground has 37 sites and, at 9,886 ft above sea level, the highest elevation of any national park campground, is an exceptional location for starwatching.
Our final stop is Baker, with the nearest hotels to the park, just 5 miles from Great Basin. During the day, learn about Indigenous history at the Baker Archaeological Site, and since we're here for stargazing, you can't go wrong staying at the Stargazer Inn and Bristlecone General Store.
When you go
- Travel Nevada: travelnevada.com
- Death Valley National Park: nps.gov/deva
- Death Valley Dark Sky Festival: nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/darkskyfestival.htm
- Great Basin National Park: nps.gov/grba