Camp where the sky is still dark.

Every located campground in this atlas carries a night-sky rating: the 2024 VIIRS night-lights composite, read through the National Park Service’s own sky-glow model. 3,194 of the 7,456 rated campgrounds sit under a Bortle 1 or 2 sky, the two darkest classes on the scale, and 58 sit under a Bortle 6 or worse. Here’s the whole ladder, what the number is, and what it isn’t.

3,194Bortle 1 or 2

332Bortle 1, the darkest class

5,106Bortle 3 or darker

42.8%Of every rated campground

58Bortle 6 or worse

7,456Campgrounds rated

Ratings: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate · Oct 12, 2026

Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model

Why the dark is on public land

measured Oct 12, 2026

42.8%Four campgrounds in ten are under a Bortle 1 or 2 sky

3,194 of 7,456 rated campgrounds, and 5,106 are Bortle 3 or darker. The reason isn’t policy, it’s geography the agencies inherited: the federal estate is concentrated where almost nobody lives, and the light-pollution model can only see what’s lit.

58are Bortle 6 or worse, out of 7,456

4 reach Bortle 8, all of them inside a city, and not one campground in this inventory is Bortle 9. The bright end of a federal campground map is a short list, and it’s worth knowing which end of it you’re booking.

8/10of the darkest drivable campgrounds aren’t national park ground

The darkest is South Steens Campground in Steens Mountain Cooperative Management And Protection Area, Oregon. BLM ground, wildlife refuges and river campgrounds hold most of the top of this list. The famous parks are on it, further down, with a lodge and a parking lot lit beside them.

The Bortle scale, end to end

and what this atlas holds in each class

1332 campgrounds0.00025–0.01 mcd/m²

22,862 campgrounds0.01–0.088 mcd/m²

31,912 campgrounds0.088–0.25 mcd/m²

42,059 campgrounds0.25–1.9 mcd/m²

5233 campgrounds1.9–5.3 mcd/m²

639 campgrounds5.5–8.3 mcd/m²

715 campgrounds9–15 mcd/m²

84 campgrounds16–17 mcd/m²

9none hereno range to give

1. Excellent dark-sky siteThe Milky Way casts shadows. Zodiacal light and airglow are plain. Nothing on the horizon is lit.

2. Typical truly dark siteThe Milky Way is highly structured. The zodiacal light is bright enough to cast a glow of its own.

3. Rural skySome light pollution shows at the horizon. The Milky Way still has structure overhead.

4. Rural / suburban transitionLight domes stand over towns in several directions. The Milky Way is there but flat near the horizon.

5. Suburban skyLight pollution is visible in most directions. The Milky Way is washed out at the horizon and faint overhead.

6. Bright suburban skyThe sky within about 35 degrees of the horizon glows greyish white. The Milky Way is only overhead.

7. Suburban / urban transitionThe whole sky has a greyish-white cast. The Milky Way is invisible.

8. City skyThe sky glows white or orange. You can read a newspaper by it.

9. Inner-city skyThe whole sky is lit. Only the moon, the planets and a few bright clusters are visible.

A class isn’t a forecast. It’s the modelled artificial glow over that coordinate in 2024, on a 500 m grid, and on any given night the moon, the cloud and the season will each move what you can see more than the difference between two classes. It also knows nothing about the ridge west of camp. What it’s good for is choosing between places before you go.

Glow per class: VIIRS Day/Night Band annual cloud-free composite, VNL V2 2024 (Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines), read at the published coordinate · Oct 12, 2026

Sky-glow model: Duriscoe, Anderson, Luginbuhl and Baugh (2018), a simplified model of all-sky artificial sky glow derived from VIIRS Day/Night band data, the National Park Service sky-glow model

Source: John E. Bortle, “Introducing the Bortle Dark-Sky Scale”, Sky & Telescope, February 2001

The darkest in New Hampshire

0 of 28 under a Bortle 1-2 sky

New Hampshire has 28 rated federal campgrounds. 0 of them (0%) are Bortle 1 or 2 and 22 are Bortle 3 or darker. The darkest is Wild River Campground, at 0.15 mcd/m².

Wild River Campground