This Is the Darkest Place in South Dakota – and It’s Perfect for Stargazing

Living in town my whole life in it's easy to forget how dark it can get at night. The streetlights, buildings, cars, and other aspects of city life can really drown out the night sky.

I've always heard about light pollution, but until I drove across South Dakota on I-90 a few years ago, I didn't really get what that means. Light pollution is all the man-made lights shining at night drowning out the light from the stars.

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Driving Across South Dakota Showed Me What the Night Sky Really Looks Like

When I drove across the 605 in the early morning hours, I was reminded of what the sky actually looked like. There were so many stars! It was beautiful.

Thinking about how I marveled at the night sky on that trip got me wondering, where is the darkest place in South Dakota? Even with our largely rural culture here on the upper plains, we still have a fair amount of light pollution.

Where in South Dakota is it the darkest? Where can the natural lights of the universe shine the brightest?

The first step is narrowing down our search. East River South Dakota is the most urban-ish part of the state. From Vermillion to Watertown, this is where the majority of the people are, which means it is where the majority of the lights are shining all night.

So we shift our focus out west. I'd guess the darkest spots would be in the most undeveloped places. So, in west river South Dakota, that would probably be in a National or Steta park. Someplace where we've chosen to persevere in as natural a state as possible. That's where we start our search.

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Understanding the Bortle Scale: How We Measure Darkness

According to the folks at Go-astronomy.com, my guess was right. The stargazing nerds there say that the best place in South Dakota to look up and take in the majesty of the night sky is in the Black Hills.

The Bortle Scale is used to measure the brightness of the sky. It's a nine-point scale with '1' being the darkest. A rating of '9' would be like standing in Times Square at 10:00 PM. So bright on the ground that the sky is just black, with maybe some specs of starlight.

If you're in town in South Dakota, you're probably seeing a '5' or '6' on the Bortle Scale. You can see lots of stars, probably even Mars and Venus, depending on the time of year.

If you can get to a place that is '1' on the scale, well then my friend, you are seeing the sky the way our ancient ancestors saw it. Stars, planets, galaxies, and all the magic that surrounds our blue marble.

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The darkest places in South Dakota are mostly National and State Parks

Buryanek State Recreation Area south of Chamberland on the Missouri River in central SD is rated a class 2 spot. That's pretty dark. You'd get some stargazing done there.

Fort Sisseton State Park in the glacial lakes region of north east South Dakota is a 2 on the scale as well.

Badlands National Park, just east of the Black Hills in western South Dakota, is also a 2. Very dark, but it's not the darkest.

Where is the Darkest Place in South Dakota?

The darkest spot in South Dakota, according the Bortle Scale, is Black Hills National Forest.

Black Hills National Forest is the Black Hills. It's just over a million acres of pondrosa pine, aspen, bur oak, and birch trees where you'll find Mount Rushmore.

It is high, rugged country that includes Black Elk Peak, the highest peak east of the Rocky Mountains. It makes sense that is preserved, untamed part of North America would be the darkest spot in South Dakota, with a rating of 1 on the Bortal Scale.

So, maybe I'll see you out there this summer. Black Hills National Forest is now my number one place to visit this summer. I want to see the Milky Way in all its glory with my own eyes.