Want to see the stars? Idaho has a new area dedicated to preserving pristine night sky
Idaho has a new area dedicated to preserving views of the night sky, Idaho State Parks and Recreation officials announced Thursday.
The City of Rocks National Reserve, which Idaho Parks and Rec manages alongside the National Park Service, earned Dark Sky Park certification from the International Dark-Sky Association. The organization works to prevent light pollution and recognizes dark-sky areas around the world.
“Experiencing the dark skies in City of Rocks is truly magical,” said Tara McClure-Cannon, the park’s acting superintendent, in a news release. “It brings the past to life in ways that you just can’t experience during the daylight hours. To know that you are camping in the same spot that people camped for thousands of years and looking up at the sky without modern light pollution — basically seeing the same sky as our ancestors — is an awe-inspiring moment.”
Officials noted that there is no artificial light within the bounds of the 14,000-acre reserve, which is about an hour’s drive south of Burley near the Idaho-Utah state line.
City of Rocks is known for its unique granite rock formations, which are popular with rock climbers. It’s also home to Native American pictographs and a landmark called Camp Rock, where people on the California Trail signed their names in the mid-1800s.
Idaho Parks and Recreation officials said they updated outdoor light fixtures at neighboring Castle Rocks State Park to comply with the Dark Sky Park designation.
According to the International Dark-Sky Association’s website, Dark Sky Parks are areas “protected for natural conservation that implement good outdoor lighting and provide dark sky programs for visitors.” Craters of the Moon National Monument is Idaho’s only other Dark Sky Park, while the Sawtooths in Central Idaho are the center of a Dark Sky Reserve — an even more distinguished designation.
Idaho Parks and Recreation has spent several years in the application process to have Bruneau Dunes State Park near Mountain Home designated as a Dark Sky Park as well. The park has an observatory that is undergoing renovation and expected to be completed in May.
