Looking to stargaze in a California national park? These new rankings reveal best spot

If you’re looking to stargaze, one of the best national parks for it is in California.

Under Lucky Stars, a group that creates star maps of the constellations, made a stargazing guide for every U.S. national park.

“America is home to some of the most stunning national parks, filled with incredible scenery, roaming wildlife and different terrain to explore, and if you’re a lover of the night sky, these are some of the best spots in the world to witness the constellations,” Under Lucky Stars said about the project.

California has more national parks than any other state, according to Visit California. The state’s nine national parks are well-known and all unique.

For stargazing, however, Redwood National Park was ranked the best in California by Under Lucky Stars. It ranked third for best national parks for stargazing in the whole country — behind Nevada’s Great Basin National Park and Texas’ Big Bend National Park.

“Redwood National Park, just like the parks which came in first and second, scored highly across each of our ranking factors with easy accessibility, very low light pollution and a yearly footfall of 504,722 visitors,” Under Lucky Stars said.

The park is known as the home of the tallest trees on Earth, but there have been efforts to reduce light pollution within the park, according to the National Park Foundation.

“Efforts to reduce such light pollution within the parks included retrofitting existing lights and innovative activities to teach youth about best lighting practices,” the foundation said. “Visit the park for yourself to see the stunning skies.”

Other California parks also ranked high among the country’s 62 national parks. Lassen Volcanic National Park ranked No. 6 on Under Lucky Star’s list, and Pinnacles National Park ranked 19th.

Joshua Tree, Sequoia, Yosemite, Channel Islands and Death Valley National Parks were ranked lower, with Death Valley ranked No. 24, Sequoia No. 34, Yosemite No. 41, Channel Islands No. 48 and Joshua Tree at No. 51.

This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 11:13 AM with the headline "Looking to stargaze in a California national park? These new rankings reveal best spot."