If you have never seen the stars at 8000 feet on a cloudless, moonless night, you have never seen the stars.

Gunnison County has a down-lights ordinance and there is no light pollution. South of town, there is an astronomy observatory that you can visit on weekends in the summer. But you won’t need that to see the Milky Way, shooting stars, and the most spectacular sky of your lifetime.

In the winter, the moon on the snow is so bright it may wake you up.