Night Skies

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4 minutes, 57 seconds

Vignettes of the vast array of night sky scenes at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Rainbow Bridge National Monument. Rainbow Bridge has been named a Dark Sky Sanctuary by the International Dark-Sky Association, the first in the National Park Service and fourth in the world to receive this honor. This video has no audio beyond generic background music.

Starry Starry Night

 

A Dark Sky Sanctuary

In 2017 The National Park Service designated Rainbow Bridge a Traditional Cultural Property, recognizing the site's historic and ongoing cultural significance to at least six American Indian tribes, and establishing its listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Rainbow Bridge is the first site in Utah to gain a TCP designation.

As a Traditional Cultural Property, the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) was excited to designate Rainbow Bridge National Monument as an International Dark Sky Sanctuary. This designation was the first of its kind in the National Park Service and distinguishes Rainbow Bridge National Monument for the quality of its naturally dark night skies and the site’s cultural heritage.

“This designation is an important step to ensure we protect the entirety of the landscape at Rainbow Bridge National Monument, which is sacred to many of the Native American Tribes in the area,” said William Shott, Superintendent of Rainbow Bridge National Monument and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. “We’re thrilled to be the first National Park Service unit to receive this specific designation, as this will only fuel our night sky preservation efforts.”

“We are pleased to honor and respect the status of Rainbow Bridge as the first Traditional Cultural Property accredited through the IDA International Dark Sky Places Program,” said International Dark-Sky Association Executive Director J. Scott Feierabend. “In the span of this remarkable natural bridge, we see symbolically represented the arch of the Milky Way across the night sky, a reminder of the long-held value of both Rainbow Bridge and the natural night sky to native peoples of the area.”

 

Nightscapes

Celebrated for their wild rivers, sheer masses of intricately-carved sandstone, fragile desert ecosystems rich in diversity, and well preserved records of the region’s historic human inhabitants, the national parks and monuments of the Colorado Plateau are a sanctuary for the American Southwest’s cultural and natural heritage. Also home to some of the darkest skies in the country, these national parks and monuments provide a place where visitors can experience our shared, universal heritage; the Milky Way’s silvery rainbow glittering against inky black. The magnificence of the cosmos has inspired humans for hundreds of years, but it is something that may never be experienced by our youngest generations.

Did you know that as many as 80 percent of Americans can no longer see the Milky Way from where they live? In large urban areas, the brilliance of the night sky is completely concealed by the non-natural light emitted by the city. In contrast, as many as 15,000 stars may be seen throughout the night at Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and we have made a commitment to protect this precious, but rapidly disappearing, natural resource.

 

Why Do Dark Skies Matter?

Plants, animals, and human beings all depend on the cycles of light and dark to regulate the natural rhythms that govern life-sustaining processes. Most of the life on Earth adheres to a circadian rhythm, which can be disrupted by light at night. Light pollution–the inappropriate or excessive use of light at night – can affect an animal’s ability to reproduce, find nourishment, sleep and protect itself from predators. It also impacts a humans’ ability to produce melatonin, which keeps our circadian rhythms healthy.

Learn more about the importance of dark skies and what parks are doing nationwide on the NPS Night Skies page.