The Dark Sky Over Westcliffe: Why People Drive Here to Look Up

Most towns fight to add light. Westcliffe and its neighbor Silver Cliff did the opposite. Working through a local group called Dark Skies of the Wet Mountain Valley, residents and the towns swapped glaring fixtures for shielded ones that point their light down where it is needed, not up into the sky. The payoff came in 2015, when the two towns together became Colorado’s first International Dark Sky Community, certified by DarkSky International. At the time they were only the second such community in the United States and the ninth in the world, and one of the highest in elevation anywhere.

That is the real reason people make the drive into the Wet Mountain Valley after dark. With the Sangre de Cristo range walling off stray light, the Milky Way shows up as a bright band you can trace with your eye.

You do not need your own gear. Right in town at Bluff Park sits the Smokey Jack Observatory, a small building with a roof that rolls back to uncover a 14-inch telescope on a computer-guided mount. From May through October, volunteer star guides host free public star parties there. Dates and hours follow the season and the moon, so check the schedule before you go. Start at the observatory’s official page: https://www.darkskiescolorado.org/smokey-jack-observatory