Celebrating a Dark Sky County

I got very excited when I read that Teton County in Wyoming became the first county in the world to be recognized officially as an International Dark Sky Community. Wow, an entire county! This includes all of Grand Teton National Park, part of Yellowstone National Park, and the town of Jackson (aka Jackson Hole). That’s a lot of beautiful country and some impressive tourist attractions that now have protection against light pollution.

Why did I get so excited that I chose to feature this on a blog about dark skies in Pennsylvania? Because one of my favorite dark sky experiences occurred in Wyoming. Freshly out of college, I joined my sister on an epic road drip from Boulder, CO up to Yellowstone. We were young and broke and planned to stay with friends of hers in Jackson. Only we didn’t time the drive right and ended up crashing for one night at a ranch owned by more friends of hers outside of Dubois, WY.

I remember walking out of the main lodge of the ranch that night to a sky alive with stars. I was a nerdy kid and knew how to pick out the constellations. Only now there were so many stars, I couldn’t find my bearings. The sheer number of stars overwhelmed the familiar constellations I knew from light polluted skies back east.

It was May, but winter lingers in Wyoming. The night was cold, which added to the clear skies, free of humidity. Stars crowded out stars, every inch of the sky filled with little pinpricks of night. I stopped dead despite the cold and stared, breathless with the beauty of it.  I will never forget that night, and I applaud the folks of Teton County who worked hard to get International Dark Sky Community status. May it allow many more people in the future to enjoy the star-filled skies of Wyoming.