West Virginia Offers Some Of The Best Dark Skies In The Nation Says Forbes

Forbes Magazine recently featured West Virginia in an article detailing the seven best dark skies in the nation, and we couldn’t agree more with their choice of the wild, wonderful Mountain State. It’s about time more people recognize what we already know: West Virginia has some incredible views of the night sky.

While all of the other states on Forbes’s list are in the far north or west, eastern West Virginia was praised as “a welcome escape from the nearby lights of Washington DC.” Why, yes we are, and we’ll take dark West Virginia skies over city lights any day, thank you very much! Perhaps now the writers at Forbes better understand our state nickname, Almost Heaven. 

krblokhin/iStock Collection via Getty Images Plus This dark sky capture, complete with a glimpse of the milky way, from Spruce Knob Lake.

The Forbes article rightly mentions Canaan Valley Resort State Park as an excellent choice for star-gazers. But that’s not the only amazing dark sky in the mountain state! We’ve also got several official Dark Sky locations, including Calhoun County Park and Spruce Knob.

WV Tourism Pictured here is a view from Spruce Knob Lake, near the highest point in West Virginia.

And there are plenty more large, lightless tracts of land that are also, albeit unofficially, some of the darkest skies in the east: Dolly Sods, Cranberry Glades, and any of our other wilderness areas.

WV Tourism Pictured here is a camper at Dolly Sods gearing up to take a shot at capturing the sky.

And of course, we can’t forget any of the observatories, including Green Bank Observatory, or any of the old fire towers that offer excellent vantage points for stargazing.

MDieterich/iStock Collection via Getty Images Plus This panorama shows the Milky Way over a telescope observatory somewhere in West Virginia.

And here’s Lindy Point, bidding goodbye to another day.

Michael Ver Sprill/iStock Collection via Getty Images Plus

Have you ever pulled an all-nighter to stargaze in West Virginia? What’s your favorite spot to head for the best views?

Louise Lopes/EyeEm Collection via Getty Images

Star-gazers, if we’ve talked you into tracking down a West Virginia dark sky of your own, make sure to stick around for the sunrise…we do those pretty well here in West Virginia, too.

krblokhin/iStock Collection via Getty Images Plus

This dark sky capture, complete with a glimpse of the milky way, from Spruce Knob Lake.

WV Tourism

Pictured here is a view from Spruce Knob Lake, near the highest point in West Virginia.

Pictured here is a camper at Dolly Sods gearing up to take a shot at capturing the sky.

MDieterich/iStock Collection via Getty Images Plus

This panorama shows the Milky Way over a telescope observatory somewhere in West Virginia.

Michael Ver Sprill/iStock Collection via Getty Images Plus

Louise Lopes/EyeEm Collection via Getty Images

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