The Headlands, an International Dark Sky Park

The view was lovely, though not the darkest sky-viewing area I've seen. I'm sure part of that was due to being at the edge of a lake, a big reflective surface. The staff on site was wonderful though, and were available to answer all kinds of night sky questions. They had set up a high powered telescope near to the beach, and allowed the public to take a look. We got to see the rings of Saturn, thanks to their help. *Very* cool.

Note: the drive in was fabulously creepy, as the only car on a narrow winding road through a pitch black forest. We will go again next time we visit.

We drove all night and got to the headlands at around 2AM. It was the most amazing view of the sky we’d ever seen—the Milky Way was incredibly clear and you could hear the waves from the lake as you stargazed on the grass. Not sketchy at all and we even slept in our car in the parking lot with no problems. There was some guy out in a sleeping bag down by the water so you can totally spend the night here in anything but a tent. 👍

I'm going to be optimistic that you can see stars here when the moon isn't as bright as the sun, LOL, as it had been when we visitors, full and lighting the sky we only saw a few stars on the lake shore, but it was still a fun experience; you park your car and walk a mile through the forest, on a part paved and part gravel road, to the lake shore for star gazing. it was pretty terrifying tbh, the bright moon came in handy to help light the way but it was still very dark and we could hear snapping twigs and movement around us; to make it worse, they have life size cut outs of people along the path that scared us to death until we realized they were just some kind of historic markers with plaques, though it was too dark to know what they were there for. there are employees that are super helpful and friendly to help guide you along the way, will def try again next time we are in the area

Love that this is here. Never been to something like this before and it was an awesome experience!

No RVs allowed which is info I didn’t see before I added it to my trip. I’m really bummed that we planned to visit on our cross-country travel and then missed the signs (because it’s sooooo dark) and were awkwardly forced to turn around.

I don’t understand how people who are traveling are supposed to get to the viewing area. It’s a looong ,winding, dark, narrow, woods-lined dirt road. It wouldn’t be safe to walk all that way in the dark. Is that what is expected?

Also, the cutouts are disorienting. We kept thinking we were seeing people.

Ultimately a missed experience but honestly we got an amazing view of the constellations a few miles away anyway.

Don’t sleep on this one. There was an astronomer on hand with a huge telescope and helped us locate different constellation. Another review said it wasn’t worth the creepy 20 minute walk, but you can practically drive right up to it. I did sleep in my car and felt safe and comfy.

The views were amazing, though getting there was relatively creep because of the life size cut outs. Since you cant have man-made light, the cut outs only got creepier. Totally worth it to watch the sunset and see the stars though! Going back soon!

Honestly I expected so much more. Frankly the 20 minute walk to the lake wasn't worth the beach with a terrible view.