Stargazing in Death Valley National Park

Visitors are drawn to Death Valley to view the sort of dark night sky visible from only a few places in the world. At night, you can not only see man-made satellites and various planets with the naked eye, but also gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the culture and ancient astronomy of this wild and rugged area.

Look skyward as the Native Americans did thousands of years ago. Imagine the Big Dipper as wayward rabbit hunters with their net or the smoky luminance of the Milky Way as a pathway to the afterlife as the Shoshone and other Great Basin tribes did. These stars signaled both the arrival of the season to plant crops and the moment to hold sacred ceremonies, in a vast cyclic measurement of time that seems a little strange in our modern anxious times.

Death Valley National Park was classified as a Dark Sky Park in 2013 by the International Dark-Sky Association.

To help preserve these dark night skies, we have taken great steps to ensure that Stovepipe Wells is lit very low so you can enjoy the darkness while still navigating around the village safely.