{"id":14078,"date":"2026-01-06T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/chimney-rock-designated-an-international-dark-sky-park\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:42:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:42:46","slug":"chimney-rock-designated-an-international-dark-sky-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/chimney-rock-designated-an-international-dark-sky-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Chimney Rock designated an international dark sky park"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The major\u00a0lunar standstill\u00a0northern\u00a0moonrise is visible between Chimney and Companion rocks once per month for a period of about 24 months, every 18.6 years. This photo was taken Oct. 5, 2023, as the standstill observation period began at Chimney Rock. (Courtesy of Vanessa Alarcon, Griffith Observatory)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Chimney Rock National Park was recently designated an International Dark Sky Park, becoming Colorado\u2019s 19th national park to receive the certification.<\/p>\n

\u201cDark skies are an important part of this living, breathing, cultural landscape valued by wildlife, tribal communities, and visitors alike,\u201d Abe Proffitt, partnership coordinator for the San Juan National Forest Service Office said in a written statement to The Durango Herald<\/em>. \u201cArtificial light disrupts nocturnal animals and limits our ability to see and experience the wonders of the night sky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Located between the towns of Durango and Pagosa Springs, on the southern edge of the San Juan Mountains, Chimney Rock is an archaeological site that preserves a large cluster of homes and ceremonial buildings of the ancestral Puebloans of Chaco Canyon.<\/p>\n

Its remote location provides some of the darkest night skies in the San Juan Forest, which allows staff to host regular astronomy-dedicated programs and activities in the evening, according to a news release announcing the certification.<\/p>\n

The process to receive the certification began in 2023, Proffitt said, and in 2025 the park received the official designation from DarkSky International, a multi-country organization dedicated to the reduction of light pollution and the promotion of responsible outdoor lighting. Other recognized parks in Colorado include Mesa Verde National Park and Great Sand Dunes National Park.<\/p>\n

DarkSky International defines international dark sky parks as conservation areas that implement good outdoor lighting practices, and provide dark sky programs.<\/p>\n

Proffitt said studies show exposure to artificial light has adverse impacts on the behavior and health of wildlife. Mitigating harm to the ecosystems of all national forest areas is a broader goal of the USFS, and park design, activities and facilities are operated to reduce the negative impacts of artificial light as much as possible, he said.<\/p>\n

He added that Chimney Rock employs the thoughtful use of properly placed and properly shielded, low-level lighting to effectively do this.<\/p>\n

jbowman@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Located in the southern edge of the San Juan Forest, it offers some of the darkest skies in the region<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1571,28,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-14078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-chimney-rock-archeological-area","tag-headlines","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14078"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19315,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14078\/revisions\/19315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14078"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=14078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}