Westcliffe and Silver Cliff
The place: In all, the association has deemed 15 communities worthy of the Dark Sky Community designation. Of those, 10 are in the United States, and of those, one is in Colorado. Technically, Westcliffe and Silver Cliff are two cities that neighbor each other and pooled their resources to get the designation. Combined, “the Cliffs” have a population of about 1,155 as of the last census. Nestled between thewetmountain and Sangre de Cristo mountain ranges, they’re already shielded from the Front Range’s skyglow. But the cities took additional steps to limit outdoor lighting in order to preserve their night sky. Visitors tend to be amazed at just how well they can see the Milky Way when they come here.
How to stargaze:
party” at the Smokey Jack Observatory. Volunteer guides host these parties at their humble observatory, which is 12 feet by 12 feet, has a retractable roof and houses a 14-inch Schmidt-cassegrain telescope with computerguided pointing and tracking. Reserve at sites.google.com/site/ smokeyjackobs/.
What to do while you’re waiting for it to get dark:
Stop at Bishop Castle (12705 Colorado 65, between Rye and Beulah, 719-5644366, bishopcastle.org), arguably one of Colorado’s coolest roadside attractions. Both an engineering marvel and folk-art masterpiece, Jim Bishop used more than 47,000 tons of rocks, concrete, wood and metal to build this castle all by himself.
If you’re looking to flesh out your itinerary, you can take some nearby daytrips, like sandboarding in the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (nps.gov/grsa/index.htm).
Bonus: Colorado has two other Dark Skies designations, both parks. They are Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and Hovenweep National Monument, which is split between Colorado and Utah.