This map gives every federal campground and park unit under a certified dark sky a score for tonight. The score comes from the Weather Service cloud forecast, how much light the ground gives off in NASA's night imagery, the phase of the moon, and the air quality at the nearest EPA monitor, with a cut for any large fire nearby. Hover a pin for the details. Type a zip code to see the places closest to you.
Half of it is cloud: the forecast cover between 9 pm and 3 am local time, averaged. Thirty percent is darkness, which starts from how much light the ground gives off in NASA's Black Marble night imagery at that spot, then drops with the moon's phase. Twenty percent is the air: the current air quality index from the nearest EPA monitor, cut further for every large wildfire within fifty miles.
Seventy and up is a good night. Forty-five to seventy is fair, worth a look at the clouds again before you leave. Below forty-five, stay home or pick another pin. The moon does the same thing to everyone, so on a full moon the whole board turns orange, and that is the honest answer.
Fire names link to the news about them. Every campground links to its page on Campsite Atlas, where the booking link and the site guide live.
Sources: DarkSky International (certified places); Recreation.gov and the Forest Service via Campsite Atlas; the National Park Service via Park Atlas; the National Weather Service gridded forecast (cloud cover, pulled hourly for each place); US EPA AirNow (air quality); NASA Black Marble (night lights; we acknowledge the use of imagery from NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services, part of the Earth Science Data and Information System); NIFC WFIGS (fires); US Census ZCTA centroids (zip codes). Basemap USGS The National Map, darkened. Place list refreshed .