Stargazing on the River

The Colorado Plateau holds some of the last truly dark skies in the contiguous United States. Deep in Desolation or Cataract Canyon, hundreds of river miles from the nearest city glow, the Milky Way isn’t a faint smudge. It casts shadows.

It’s why Holiday runs a Dark Sky trip series with astronomers and telescopes on the beach, timed to new moons. But every multi-day trip gets the show: no motors means no generator hum, and no light pollution means the night sky is part of the itinerary whether it’s on the brochure or not.

Dark skies are a conservation issue like clean water is. The same stewardship that keeps these canyons wild (Leave No Trace camps, protected river corridors) is what keeps their nights dark.