Goldendale Observatory State Park is an educational facility on the northern side of Goldendale, Washington, notable for its unusually large public telescope. The state park occupies five acres (2.0 ha) atop a 2,100-foot (640 m) hill. Access is via a winding paved road through an oak forest. The site includes a small picnic area, interpretive center, amphitheater, and...

Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument (sometimes referred to as Parashant National Monument) is located on the northern edge of the Grand Canyon in northwest Arizona. The monument was established by Presidential Proclamation 7265 on January 11, 2000. A remote area of open, undeveloped spaces, the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument is an impressive and diverse...

Hortobágy is both the name of a village in Hajdú-Bihar county and an 800 km² national park in Eastern Hungary, rich with folklore and cultural history. The park, a part of the Alföld (Great Plain), was designated as a national park in 1973 (the first in Hungary), and elected among the World Heritage sites in 1999. The Hortobágy is Hungar...

Once home to over 2,500 people, Hovenweep includes six prehistoric villages built between A.D. 1200 and 1300. Explore a variety of structures, including multistory towers perched on canyon rims and balanced on boulders.Hovenweep National Monument is located on land in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah, between Cortez, Colorado and Blanding, Utah on the Cajon...

Iriomote-Ishigaki National Park is a national park in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. It is located on and around the Yaeyama Islands of the East China Sea. The park was established in 1972 as Iriomote National Park and included the islands of Iriomote, Kohama, Kuro, and Taketomi. In August 2007 the protected area was extended to include Ishigaki Island. The park is famous...

Joshua Tree National Park is located in southeastern California. Straddling the San Bernardino County/Riverside County border, the park includes parts of two deserts, each an ecosystem whose characteristics are determined primarily by elevation: the higher Mojave Desert and lower Colorado Desert. The Little San Bernardino Mountains run through the southwest edge of th...

Kartchner Caverns State Park is a state park of Arizona, USA, featuring a show cave with 2.4 miles (3.9 km) of passages. The park is located 9 miles (14 km) south of the town of Benson and west of the north-flowing San Pedro River. The park encompasses most of a down-dropped block of Palaeozoic rocks on the east flank of the Whetstone Mountains. The caverns are carved...

The Kerry International Dark-Sky Reserve (KIDSR; Irish:Tearmann Chiarraí na Spéire Dorcha) is a dark-sky preserve in County Kerry, Ireland. It was designated Ireland's first International Dark Sky Reserve by the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA). Kerry International Dark-Sky Reserve was awarded the Gold Tier Award on January 27, 2014, by the IDA. ...

Ketchum is a city in Blaine County, Idaho, United States, in the central part of the state. Located in the Wood River Valley, Ketchum is adjacent to Sun Valley and the communities share many resources; both sit in the same valley beneath Bald Mountain, with its world-famous skiing. The city also draws tourists from around the world to enjoy its fishing, hiking, trail ...

Mesa Verde National Park is a U.S. National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado, United States. It was created in 1906 to protect some of the best preserved cliff dwellings in the world. The park occupies 81.4 square miles (211 km2) (211 square kilometers) near the Four Corners and features numerous ruins of homes and villages bui...

University of Canterbury Mount John Observatory (UCMJO), previously known as Mt John University Observatory (MJUO), is New Zealand's premier astronomical research observatory. It is situated at 1,029 metres (3,376 ft) ASL atop Mount John at the northern end of the Mackenzie Basin in the South Island, and was established in 1965. There are many telescopes on site inclu...

Namibia’s vast NamibRand Nature Reserve is one of only a few gold-certified Dark Sky Reserves. Simply, it has some of the world’s best dark skies. There are no towns or settlements inside it, or even nearby – Namibia is one of the planet’s most sparsely populated countries. And the dry climate means cloudless skies are the norm.

Natural Bridges National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located about 50 miles (80 km) north west of the Four Corners boundary of southeast Utah, in the western United States, at the junction of White Canyon and Armstrong Canyon, part of the Colorado River drainage. It features the eighth largest natural bridge in the world, carved from the white Permian sandsto...

Northumberland National Park is the northernmost national park in England. It covers an area of more than 1,050 square kilometres (410 sq mi) between the Scottish border in the north to just south of Hadrian's Wall, and it is one of least visited of the National Parks. The park lies entirely within Northumberland, covering about a quarter of the county. The park cover...

Obed River is a stream draining a part of the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee. It, and particularly its tributaries, are important streams for whitewater enthusiasts. The Obed River rises in Cumberland County, Tennessee, just south of Crossville. It is bridged by U.S. Highway 70 between downtown Crossville and the municipal airport, and meets its confluence with the L...