Welcome to the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve

Here in the heart of central Idaho, we celebrate our pristine night sky as an essential part of our heritage and a treasure to be preserved into the future both for our own children and for subsequent generations. Across the country, more than 80% of the population resides in cities and urban areas where light pollution obscures their view of the stars.  Research shows the Milky Way is not visible to more than one-third of the world’s population.

The Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve is a treasured resource for local residents and for all Idahoans and visitors from across the world that come to experience the wonder of the starry night sky. The Reserve is the result of a collective commitment by communities, public land managers, and private landowners to support the dark sky experience

Whether you use your eyes, binoculars, or a telescope, you will find it is truly humbling to view the Milky Way, planets, meteors, comets, and even deep sky objects.

Central Idaho and the Reserve

Central Idaho constitutes one of the last large ‘pools’ of natural nighttime darkness left in the United States. The Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve encompasses 906,000 acres (1,416 square miles) most of which is public lands within the Sawtooth National Forest. The Reserve includes portions of Blaine, Boise, Custer, and Elmore counties, the communities of Stanley, Lower Stanley, Smiley Creek, Ketchum, and Sun Valley.

At its core, the Reserve has parts of three separate designated Wilderness areas and is situated in the spectacular scenery of the Sawtooth National Recreation Area (NRA). In 1972, Congress established the 756,000-acre Sawtooth NRA with the passage of Public Law 92-400 which sought to preserve and protect the Area’s “natural, scenic, historic, pastoral, and fish and wildlife values and to provide for the enhancement of the recreation values associated therewith.” Preserving the natural night sky complements all of these values and contributes to the solitude and primitive quality of the associated Wilderness areas. The designation of the Reserve is a particularly good fit within the recreation area, as it supports the area’s enabling legislation.