Are you looking for a great place to enjoy the stars in Colorado? Well, our stargazing guide for the Centennial State might just be the right resource for you.
This page is a list of Colorado state park campgrounds we use to help us plan our trip to this epic state. It is based on the dark sky Bortle level classification scale and how many open spaces there are at the campgrounds. Hopefully you will find many great places to stargaze in Colorado after seeing this guide since we wanted you to also have access. It has made our lives easier when planning our stargazing and astrophotography trips, and we want your research to be easier too!
Where Can I See the Stars in Colorado?
Colorado is loaded with places to enjoy dark skies. The main thing you have to remember when planning a stargazing adventure in the state is basically to avoid the I-25 corridor. When you look at a light pollution map of Colorado, you should instantly see a pattern. The biggest source of light pollution is located around Denver and Boulder.
If you head north along Interstate 25 up to Fort Collins and south through Colorado Springs down to Pueblo, you will not have the best stargazing experiences. But, once you escape this part of the state (and also a pocket of light pollution near Grand Junction), you will have tons of areas to choose from for excellent stargazing opportunities.
Colorado has plenty of Bortle 2 level dark skies and even a couple of areas with Bortle 1 skies. Many of these are found in state parks all across the state. Be sure to bring a tent or your RV to enjoy a full night of some awesome stargazing in one of the most beautiful states in the US.
Plenty of the state parks offer full hookups with water, electric, and sewage to make for a perfect stargazing RVing experience. Also, kids will appreciate the interactive ranger-led astronomy lessons offered at many of the Colorado state parks making for a wonderful outdoor experience.
Colorado is on our travel list just about every year for our stargazing trips since they are top-notch. We hope the Colorado State Park Guide to Stargazing helps you in this awesome state!
Colorado State Parks Dark Sky Guide
If you love to camp specifically to enjoy the night sky, we have shared our personal camping spreadsheet to help you quickly find the best campground to see the stars.
Listed below the Google Sheet, we share what each categories represents.
If you are on a mobile device, slide the graph left or right to see more data.
Graph Key
Name: This is the name of the state park.
Region: This is the general region of the state where the park is located.
Dark Sky: This is the approximate Bortle level. Read this article first if you aren’t sure what we mean. Typically avoid red, orange, and yellow for the best stargazing.
Obstruction: How many trees will block your view of the sky? “Open” gives you the best chance of having a clear view at almost all campsites. “Partial” means there are some sites with clear views and some without. “Obstructed” means most campsites have a blocked view of the sky.
Special Notes: Since we mainly camp in an RV, this column of the spreadsheet helps you see if it is a state park that only offers tent camping or if there is no camping. We have also used a strikethrough to cross out the parks currently where no camping is allowed.
About the Authors
We are avid stargazers Jason and Alison Takacs also known as Roadtrippin’ with Takacs. With our two boys Preston and Grayson, we seek out some of the darkest skies in the country while also going on many incredible hiking and other outdoor adventures. As part-time RVers, we try to see as much of this amazing world as possible in our spare time and hope you will join us through this blog on RWT Adventures and other forms of social media as we explore the night sky and other natural wonders as hardcore astrotourists.