Geothermal wilderness at 7,500 ft — dark skies over Grand Prismatic and beyond.
Updated:
· Tonight: Friday, August 14, 2026
📍 WY/MT/ID🌑 Bortle 2🚗 Multiple entrances in Wyoming and Montana; West Yellowstone, Montana is the most common gateway, about 5–6 hours from Salt Lake City.
About Yellowstone
Parts of Yellowstone's Lamar Valley sit in Bortle Class 1 — as dark as skies get in the Lower 48 — and on a clear moonless July night visitors regularly gather at pullouts between Mammoth Hot Springs and Tower Junction just to look up. It's one of the largest expanses of genuinely dark sky left in the continental United States.
What you can see in the sky
Milky Way casting visible shadows on the ground in Lamar Valley on the darkest nights, plus regular wildlife activity after dusk.
Best time of year
Late summer through fall for clear, dry nights; Lamar Valley in the park's northeast is the most reliably dark section.
Why this site is worth the drive
Lamar Valley rated Bortle Class 1 — among the darkest measured sites in the Lower 48
Huge, road-accessible park interior far from any city glow
Combines wildlife watching with stargazing along the northern range
Practical tips for Yellowstone
Lamar Valley pullouts are popular and informal — arrive early for space
Wildlife (bears, wolves, bison) is active at dusk — stay alert and keep distance
Roads and services vary seasonally — check current conditions
Live 48-hour forecast
Tonight's verdict above is a build-time snapshot. For the full
hourly view — cloud cover, transparency, seeing, smoke, humidity,
moon altitude and a Bortle-aware tonight score by observing mode
(visual, deep-sky, planetary, astrophoto) — open the live forecast:
The live page combines Open-Meteo weather, US-AQI wildfire smoke,
moon math and Bortle-scale darkness into a single tonight score
(0–100), updated continuously.
Frequently asked questions
Is Yellowstone good for stargazing tonight?
Tonight's verdict is Poor (Medium confidence). No sustained clear window; brief gaps possible (min cloud 19%).
When is the best time of year to stargaze at Yellowstone?
Late summer through fall for clear, dry nights; Lamar Valley in the park's northeast is the most reliably dark section.
How long is the drive from Toronto?
Multiple entrances in Wyoming and Montana; West Yellowstone, Montana is the most common gateway, about 5–6 hours from Salt Lake City.
What can I see in the sky here?
Milky Way casting visible shadows on the ground in Lamar Valley on the darkest nights, plus regular wildlife activity after dusk.
How dark is the sky? (Bortle scale)
Yellowstone sits at Bortle class 2 on the 1–9 dark-sky scale, where 1 is a pristine wilderness sky and 9 is an inner-city sky.