Dark sky places in Washington

Washington has four stargazing places on this site and none of them is certified yet, which is a gap rather than a verdict: three of the four are national parks, and all three record Bortle 2 skies. Mount Rainier National Park puts the Milky Way over the mountain from Sunrise, with Night Skies programmes at Paradise in summer. North Cascades National Park puts it over Diablo Lake, and Olympic National Park puts it over Hurricane Ridge, with astronomy programmes in summer. The fourth place, Deception Pass State Park, has no Bortle class recorded here.July to September, around the new moon, is the window for Rainier and the North Cascades, when the high roads are open and the weather is driest, and June to September is the Olympic window. Summer is Washington’s season, and the mountain parks are the ones to aim for, since the lowlands stay lit.