As the Earth’s axis tips Wyoming toward the shortest day of the year, residents may find themselves ruminating on darkness. Some tolerate the absence of sunlight, and others abhor it. Sinks Canyon State Park, meanwhile, celebrates it.
The park recently earned Wyoming’s first official dark-sky designation when it became an International Dark Sky Park. To gain the title, Sinks Canyon had to meet criteria around preventing light pollution and demonstrate its commitment to keeping the park dark.
Park employees began pursuing the designation in 2019. The application to DarkSky International also entailed holding educational events and securing a nomination — a Wyoming stargazing association director vouched for the park.
The designation signals that Sinks Canyon is an ideal place to see the Milky Way, constellations and other astronomical marvels, Superintendent Jessica Moore said. Though Sinks Canyon is only 10 miles from the city of Lander, steep canyon walls provide natural shielding from the town’s urban glow, while the Shoshone National Forest, and miles upon miles of wilderness, buffer it from light on the other end.
The park itself only has 22 lights, Moore said, but the application entailed inventorying and retrofitting them to be dark-sky compliant — or fitted with shielding so the lumens point downward.
The designation also helps highlight the importance of darkness, Moore said. It can be easy for humans, who have long overruled natural light cycles with fire, incandescent light bulbs and illuminated screens, to forget the value of darkness or the awesome smear of the Milky Way.
But darkness plays an important part in the health of critters and people alike, Moore said. “It’s good for our wildlife. It’s good for the people here.”
Wyoming is rich in dark resources, Moore said.
“I know we’re not the darkest place in Wyoming,” Moore said. “I know we’re not the only dark place in Wyoming. But by getting this designation, what this does is it brings awareness to it. And I would hope that we will be the first of many dark-sky designations. So that collectively, we work together to keep Wyoming dark.”
Great article. I was happy to help Sinks Canyon in their initial stages of acquiring this dark sky certificate. They invited me up in 2019 to measure how dark their skies were and then to have public star parties and constellation walks over the last couple of summers. If any of your other readers or reporters want to discuss light pollution a bit more in detail then what was in this article, I am a advocate for the International Dark Sky Association and always happy to discuss.
I recently read “ The End of Night”. Great read. Darkness is very important for our well being, indeed for our environment and ecosystems! I’m all for this and many more!