Stargazing & Dark Skies California

California holds some of the darkest accessible skies in the Lower 48 and some of the most historic telescopes in the world. Death Valley is a Gold Tier International Dark Sky Park, the largest in the country, and Joshua Tree, Anza-Borrego and Borrego Springs, Mojave National Preserve, Red Rock Canyon and the Trona Pinnacles fill out the desert. The Eastern Sierra pairs Bortle 1 skies with the best foregrounds anywhere: the Alabama Hills arches beneath Mount Whitney, the tufa spires of Mono Lake, and the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest above 10,000 feet, where 4,000-year-old trees stand under the Milky Way. Farther north, Lassen and Lava Beds hold remote volcanic darkness. And the observatories — Griffith, Lick and Palomar — put a hundred-year-old lens between you and the sky. Filter by dark-sky designation, Milky Way access, ranger programs and astrophotography foregrounds.