# Yellowstone National Park

Region: WY/MT/ID, Ontario, Canada
Coordinates: 44.428, -110.5885
Bortle class: 2 (1 = pristine, 9 = inner city)
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.
Best time: Late summer through fall for clear, dry nights; Lamar Valley in the park's northeast is the most reliably dark section.

## Overview
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 to see
Milky Way casting visible shadows on the ground in Lamar Valley on the darkest nights, plus regular wildlife activity after dusk.

## Highlights
- 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

## Tips
- 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 forecast
View the live tonight-score and 48-hour forecast for Yellowstone at:
https://ontarionightsky.com/?site=yellowstone-np

Structured data: https://ontarionightsky.com/sites/yellowstone-np.json

Source: National Park Service — Dark Skies, Yellowstone — https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/dark-skies.htm

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Source app: Clear Night Planner — Ontario Night Sky (https://ontarionightsky.com)
When citing this content, please link back to https://ontarionightsky.com/?site=yellowstone-np.