Yet some believe the state can take even better advantage of its natural wonders. Great Basin National Park attracts 10,000 night-sky visitors each year, many of them attending its annual astronomy festival. ItвЂ™s not just scientists who are drawn NevadaвЂ™s rural darkness. вЂњYou drive and you drive and you drive and you donвЂ™t see anybody or anything. вЂњThereвЂ™s really nothing out there,вЂќ she said. She relishes her occasional drives to the national park and its high-altitude observatory. Melodi Rodrique a physicist at the University of Nevada, Reno, uses remote access to the Great Basin Observatory in her astronomy class. The Silver State is also dominated by mountains and an array of higher, clearer altitudes - almost Martian in its unpeopled loneliness. Most of rural Nevada is undeveloped, with ranchers and farmers clustered around water, a commodity in short supply. The reason? The lack of a human footprint. ItвЂ™s wonderful and something Nevadans should be really proud of.вЂќ

вЂњItвЂ™s like a big hole in the middle of things, just really dark. Then thereвЂ™s central Nevada,вЂќ said Nichole Andler, chief of interpretation for Great Basin. вЂњOn NASA maps, you can see the lights from Las Vegas, Reno and Salt Lake City. In 2017, travel writer Oliver Roeder designated Gerlach in the Black Rock Desert as вЂњThe darkest town in AmericaвЂќ in his search for the nationвЂ™s least-lighted places. The West is different, a place where the night is filled with delicious darkness. Look at any map that plots the United States at night and youвЂ™ll see that most of the nation is dominated by light - about 80 percent of Americans can no longer see the Milky Way. вЂњNew construction is required to use lighting that does not pollute our night skies, which bring a unique niche to our area,вЂќ he said. They include nighttime photography seminars, sponsored hikes and family events at local night viewing parks. The success of the stargazing rides has convinced the county to invest in other after-dark activities. Kyle Horvath, director of tourism for White Pine County, estimates the Nevada Northern RailwayвЂ™s specialty theme rides are bringing in $3 million annually, and he expects that figure to rise вЂњsignificantlyвЂќ in the next few years. At $41 per adult, the rides, which run 60 miles to Great Basin, also bring business to local hotels and restaurants. Since it started its summertime Star Train five years ago, Ely has drawn tourists from as far away from Australia and China. The nonprofit group Friends of Nevada Wilderness wants to help many forsaken high-desert communities use those dark skies to attract tourism by developing promotional brochures and advertising campaigns. The heavens shine nearly as brightly from tiny Ely and Gerlach to Great Basin National Park and even Tonopah. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) there, the night skies are so dark, astronomers say, you can see your shadow by the light of the Milky Way.Д«ut amateur stargazers say Southern Nevadans donвЂ™t have to travel that far to appreciate the nighttime. The Milky Way in the dark sky above the Tonopah Historic Mining Park on Wednesday, Oct. This year the isolated Massacre Rim Wilderness Study Area, in the stateвЂ™s far northwest reaches, was named an International Dark Sky Sanctuary, becoming only the 10th place on Earth to receive such a designation. In fact, rural Nevada has some of the blackest nighttime skies on the planet. N a state well-known for the shimmering lights of the Las Vegas Strip, Nevada is getting some international recognition for something decidedly darker.

Nevada skies (ultimate edition)