A New Dark Sky Park in Colorado Offers a Front-Row Seat to the Cosmos

Outdoor adventurers flock to Browns Canyon National Monument to paddle the whitewater rapids of the Arkansas River, hike among the pinyon pine and juniper trees, fish for brown and rainbow trout and admire wildlife like golden eagles and bighorn sheep.

Now, the 21,586-acre protected wilderness area in central Colorado is also hoping to attract another kind of visitor: stargazers. This week, Browns Canyon National Monument became a certified International Dark Sky Park, a designation that recognizes its clear, inky-black skies and lack of light pollution.

Browns Canyon is now the 18th certified International Dark Sky Place and the 12th International Dark Sky Park in Colorado. The designation comes from DarkSky International, a nonprofit that promotes dark-sky conservation and education efforts around the world. Since 2001, the organization has certified more than 200 Dark Sky Places in 22 countries on six continents, for a total area of more than 62,000 square miles of recognized dark areas.

Browns Canyon National Monument sits between 7,300 to 10,000 feet above sea level, and it’s located roughly 100 miles from the nearest large city, Colorado Springs. These factors, coupled with the state’s dry climate, made Browns Canyon “naturally suited” for night sky viewing.

Still, the national monument had to make an effort to ensure it met DarkSky International’s rigorous certification standards. For example, some of the light fixtures that illuminate the park’s campsites were contributing too much light pollution. Through a period of trial and error that lasted many months, staff designed a shield to retrofit each light and prevent its glow from emanating upward onto the sky.

“The staff’s ingenuity in bringing the monument’s lighting into full compliance is something worthy of praise and promotion,” says Michael Rymer, a program associate with DarkSky International, in a statement.

Friends of Browns Canyon, a local organization that spearheaded the certification initiative, also took light meter readings and hosted concerts, fundraisers, night sky events and photography excursions to help strengthen the site’s case. The group even hired a contractor to help with the application. Moving forward, Browns Canyon employees will offer more night sky programming to visitors.

President Barack Obama established Browns Canyon National Monument in 2015, citing its unique geology, diverse plants, abundant animals and long human history.

Evidence suggests humans have inhabited the region for at least 11,000 years, including the ancestors of the Eastern Shoshone, Ute, Apache and Comanche peoples. Researchers have identified at least 18 archaeological sites and 5 prehistoric open lithic sites within its bounds, including the remains of seasonal camps, stone structures, rock shelters and open campsites. During the mid-19th century, Browns Canyon attracted fortune-seekers hoping to strike it rich by mining gold.

Today, its inhabitants are animals, including mountain lions, black bears, bobcats, peregrine falcons and western rattlesnakes.

Also this week, Oregon got its newest certified dark sky park. Cottonwood Canyon State Park, a 16,000-acre natural area in the north-central part of the state, was officially recognized after four years of work.

Located along the John Day River, the remote park is nestled within deep canyon walls, which means visitors have nearly unobstructed views of stars, planets, meteors and the Milky Way. And, to educate guests about the importance of protecting dark skies, the park also installed interpretive signs and began hosting “star parties” during each new moon in the summer.

Experts say light pollution is a growing issue around the globe. A 2023 study found that, thanks to the proliferation of artificial lighting, the night sky got 9.6 percent brighter, on average, each year between 2011 and 2022. That extra brightness not only makes it more difficult to see stars and planets, but is also affecting animal behavior and human health.

Looking up at the sky, as Kim Arcand, a visualization scientist with the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian, told Smithsonian magazine’s Brian Handwerk last year, means we are looking at stars that produce the same elements found in our bodies, like iron and calcium.

“There are very good reasons to protect dark skies for astronomy’s sake,” Arcand said, “but it all comes back to those same questions humans have been asking across the millennia: Where do we come from? Why are we here? And where are we going?”

Sarah Kuta | READ MORE

Sarah Kuta is a writer and editor based in Longmont, Colorado. She covers history, science, travel, food and beverage, sustainability, economics and other topics.