Timpanogos Cave National Monument Urban Night Sky Place

Timpanogos Cave National Monument is a 250 acre site in the Wasatch Mountains of northern Utah, in American Fork Canyon. The monument is built around a cave system with colorful formations that you tour by day. In September 2020 it was certified as an Urban Night Sky Place, the first National Park Service unit to receive that certification. The category honors places close to large urban areas that still offer an authentic night experience, and the monument sits on the edge of the Wasatch Front.

Our light pollution map estimates Bortle 8 at our coordinates, and no official sky brightness reading is published for the site. Night viewing here centers on the summer programs that the park runs with the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest and local astronomy groups in American Fork Canyon. Check the park's event listings for dates.

The Milky Way core peaks only around 21 degrees above the southern horizon at 40.4 degrees north, and our data gives May, June and July the most core hours. Under a Bortle 8 sky the core will look washed out, so treat the programs here as a way to learn the sky.