We recently have taken the time to supplement the 2024 solar eclipse state parks and cities maps with some new state park maps for dark sky sites. During this endevour, we took the time to map each and every state park to their respective dark sky parks. We are not saying that these sites are available for astronomy and that one should go to these places expecting to allow one do astronomy, but rather this can be used as an aide to help determine areas to go visit in these states. The rules vary on what times these parks are open and whether they allow visitors to use the site at night. Some of these sites may be open at night, but most sites will not be.

A great example is Cottonwood Canyon State Park, where there are camping sites in the park, so one can use the camping area and some of the related areas to support some astronomy.

The overall state park light pollution map articles for Oregon, Washington, and Idaho have been linked.

But we thought it would be really nice and useful to isolate specific Bortle 1 and 2 scale sites. These tables show this information, followed by the map below.

State	Number of Parks
Idaho	0
Washington	0
Oregon	7

It is interesting to see that there are only Bortle 1 State Park managed sites, in the state of Oregon. Moreover, as Table 2 shows below, the number of Bortle 2 sites is greatest in Oregon.

State	Number of Parks
Idaho	7
Washington	9
Oregon	24

Although Oregon might have the greatest number of total Bortle 1 and Bortle 2 site at 31, there are significantly more Oregon State Parks than Idaho and Washington have by themselves. Plus, Oregon has more State Parks than Washington and Idaho combined. Nevertheless, we see that

State	Total State Parks	Bortle 1 State Parks	Bortle 2 State Parks	Percent Of Parks Bortle 1 & 2
Idaho	27	0	7	25.925%
Washington	140	0	9	6.428%
Oregon	200	7	24	15.5%

Looking at the map, Bortle 1 scale sites are the black markers, while the Bortle 2 scale sites are in dark purple markers. We will show more information below about specific parks and URLs to each park.

Here are a list of these sites sorted by the Bortle site and state.

State	Bortle 1 Sites	Bortle 2 Sites
Oregon	Bates State Park Pete French Round Barn State Heritage Site Frenchglen Hotel State Heritage Site Fort Rock State Natural Area Chandler State Wayside Goose Lake State Recreation Area Golden and Silver Falls State Natural Area	Wallowa Lake State Recreation Area Catherine Creek State Park Minam State Recreation Area Emigrant Springs State Heritage Area Cottonwood Canyon State Park Clay Myers State Natural Area at Whalen Island White River Falls State Park Cascadia State Park Prineville Reservoir State Park Unity Lake State Recreation Area Collier Memorial State Park Jackson F. Kimball State Recreation Site Joseph H. Stewart State Recreation Area Saddle Mountain State Natural Area Hug Point State Recreation Site Cape Lookout State Park Sitka Sedge State Natural Area Carl G. Washburne Memorial State Park Stonefield Beach State Recreation Site Tokatee Klootchman State Natural Site Cape Blanco State Park Humbug Mountain State Park Arizona Beach State Recreation Site Cape Sebastian State Scenic Corridor
Idaho	N/A	Henrys Lake State Park Harriman State Park Ashton-Tetonia Trail Bear Lake State Park City of Rocks National Reserve Castle Rocks State Park Priest Lake State Park
Washington	N/A	Brooks Memorial State Park Fields Spring State Park Camp William T. Wooten State Park Lyons Ferry State Park Palouse Falls State Park Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park Pearrygin Lake State Park Crawford State Park Leadbetter Point State Park

To learn more about the Bortle Scale, check out this article. Make sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram, and make sure to come back to check for interesting articles like this, which are posted every week!