Great Basin National Park
Pristine sky, where the Milky Way casts shadows on the ground.
Great Basin National Park holds a Gold Tier certification from DarkSky International, the highest level awarded, and the numbers back it up. Baker, Nevada, the nearest town, has fewer than 100 residents. The surrounding Great Basin desert stretches for hundreds of miles with minimal development, producing Bortle 1 skies that make the park one of the darkest certified sites in the country. At 10,000 feet on Wheeler Peak the sky is extraordinary. The combination of ancient bristlecone pines, a marble cave system, and a Gold Tier dark sky makes Great Basin one of the most undervisited and most rewarding national parks in the West.
What's here
On the map
What to bring
Our picks for a good night under the stars.
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